What Happens When Your New York Will Conflicts with Your Trust?

Deciding who will inherit your home is often one of the most important decisions you will make as part of your estate planning. Some New Yorkers decide to dispose of their home through language in their will, while others may transfer their house into a revocable trust that includes instructions for what to do upon their death. But what happens when a person’s will and trust contain conflicting instructions?

Ambiguous Will Led to 15 Years of Litigation

A recent New York appellate decision, Matter of Hanlon, presented just a scenario. This dispute actually began about 15 years ago when the owner of some property in Brooklyn (the decedent) passed away. In 1998, the decedent executed a revocable living trust, together with a deed transferring her property into said trust. The trust provided that upon the decedent’s death, the successor trustee would distribute the trust assets to a number of individuals and charities, including the Roman Catholic Church.

Just before her death in 2011, however, the decedent executed a will that purported to leave her Brooklyn property to a named individual, who was the petitioner in this case. Following the decedent’s passing, the petitioner sought a court order transferring the Brooklyn property to her on the grounds the 2011 will had “revoked” the 1998 trust.

Not surprisingly, the Church and the other successor trustee objected. They maintained the trust lawfully owned the property at the time of the decedent’s death, and therefore the will did not apply In 2016, the Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed a Surrogate Court’s ruling in favor of the trust’s ownership. The Second Department would go on to hear two more appeals from the petitioner, the most recent one in January 2026, essentially trying to re-litigate this same issue without success.

Avoiding Estate Planning Conflicts

A trust is a separate legal document from a will. As a general rule, assets that you place in a revocable trust are not considered part of your probate estate subject to distribution under your will. So in most cases, when there is a conflict between a will and a trust over the distribution of a trust asset, the trust will prevail.

That said, it is possible to revoke a trust through a will. The difficulty, as the Hanlon case illustrated, was that you need to make it clear that is what you want. In Hanlon, the Second Department determined the will was “ambiguous” as to the decedent’s intentions on this issue, so absent any additional evidence supporting the petitioner’s proposed interpretation, the court would not second-guess the trust’s lawful ownership.

Contact a Brooklyn Estate Planning Lawyer

When making an estate plan it is crucial to review all of your existing wills, trusts, and other documents that affect the disposition of your property at death. Our Brooklyn estate planning attorney will be happy to assist you in this process. Contact Yeung & Associates, PLLC, today at 718-889-7568 to schedule a consultation.

Source:

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1905317085440421012