Jason W. Stern & Associates

Focus and practice areas

Estate law sits at the center of this Forest Hills firm in Queens, New York. The firm handles probate and estate administration, wills and trusts, and estate planning, including planning for high net worth estates. It also takes on will contests and estate litigation, along with kinship cases. That last area covers proving lineage for heirs when someone dies without a will or without close surviving relatives.

The firm was founded in 2002. Its work stays close to New York probate and estate rules. In my opinion, that focus is a useful signal for anyone whose matter turns on Surrogate's Court procedure.

How the team is built

Two attorneys make up the firm, and it states that they hold more than 70 years of combined legal experience. Jason W. Stern heads the Trusts and Estates Department. Matthew D. Hunter works as a partner.

A firm of two attorneys keeps clients in direct contact with the people doing the work. One attorney leads the trusts and estates side, and the other carries the kinship and real estate work. As a reviewer, I read that split as a clear division of labor inside one estate law office.

Jason W. Stern

Stern founded the firm in 2002. He earned his B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1998 and completed his J.D. at Hofstra University School of Law in 2001. He began his career at the Yankowitz Law Firm. He is admitted in New York and New Jersey, and he chairs the Judiciary Committee of the Queens County Bar Association.

His day-to-day work covers drafting and probating wills and handling will contests. He also takes paternity questions that arise inside estate proceedings. In my opinion, the will contest focus fits a firm that names estate litigation among its practice areas.

Matthew D. Hunter

Hunter earned a B.A. from the City University of New York in 1976, with majors in political science and economics. He completed his J.D. at Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California, in 1979. His bar admissions include California in 1980, New York in 1983, and the Supreme Court of the United States in 1996.

He handles kinship cases and has done so for more than 30 years. He also works on real estate matters, including co-op transactions in Forest Hills. That pairing gives the firm a real estate capability alongside its estate work.

How probate and administration proceed

Probate is the court process that confirms a will and gives the named executor authority to act. In New York, the petition goes to the Surrogate's Court in the county where the person lived. The court reviews the will, notifies interested parties, and issues letters testamentary once it accepts the document.

Estate administration covers the cases with no valid will. There the court appoints an administrator, usually a close relative, and sets the order in which heirs inherit under state law. Both paths involve collecting assets, paying debts and taxes, and distributing what remains. The firm lists both probate and estate administration among the services it handles.

What kinship and will contest matters involve

Kinship cases turn on proof of family relationship. When a person dies without a will, or without close relatives who can be found, the court needs evidence of who the lawful heirs are. That proof often comes from birth and marriage records, family trees, and sworn statements from people who knew the family.

In New York, these questions go before the Surrogate's Court. A kinship hearing can involve a court-appointed guardian ad litem who represents unknown heirs. The party claiming to inherit carries the burden of showing the family link through documents and testimony. Hunter's long run of kinship work matches that kind of proceeding.

Kinship proceedings can take time, since records may be decades old and witnesses may be hard to locate. Genealogical research and certified copies of vital records often form the backbone of the file. Experience with these steps is what a client in a no-will estate tends to need most.

Will contests follow a related track. A person with standing may object to a will during probate, on grounds such as lack of capacity or undue influence. Parties argue these disputes in the same Surrogate's Court that admits wills to probate. Stern's work on both drafting wills and contesting them covers both sides of that process.

Estate planning and reach across two states

The firm is licensed in New York and New Jersey. Its office is in Forest Hills, overlooking Forest Hills Gardens. The Queens setting places the firm near the Surrogate's Court system that handles much of its estate and probate work.

Estate planning through wills and trusts sets out who receives property and who manages it. A will directs distribution after death, while a trust can hold and pass assets under terms the person sets in advance. Planning for larger estates often adds steps for tax exposure and for property held in more than one state. Those steps line up with the New York and New Jersey admissions the firm holds.

High net worth estate planning appears among the listed practice areas. Estates of that size can involve trusts, tax planning, and coordination across more than one state. A license in both New York and New Jersey lets the firm work with clients who hold property or family ties in either state.

The site gives 2002 as the founding year and names two attorneys, Jason W. Stern and Matthew D. Hunter, as the people behind that record.

Consultations and fees

The firm offers free consultations, and the office number is (718) 261-2444. A first meeting at no charge lets someone lay out a probate question or a disputed will and hear how the firm would handle it before any money changes hands.

Contingency fees are also available. Under that arrangement, the fee comes out of a recovery rather than from hourly bills paid as the case moves. For a kinship claimant or a person contesting a will, that structure can put representation within reach for someone who cannot cover hourly rates up front. It also ties the firm's payment to the result of the matter. In my view, a free first meeting together with a contingency option fits the estate disputes this firm names among its work.

Residential real estate and co-op closings

Beyond its estate work, the firm lists real estate and residential real estate as practice areas. Co-op buildings are common in Forest Hills, so a real estate practice based there handles cooperative purchases and sales on a regular basis.

A co-op sale works on different rules than a standard house closing. The buyer acquires shares in a corporation and a proprietary lease rather than a deed to a parcel of land. Approval from the co-op board is the gate, and the board's look at the buyer's finances often decides whether the sale goes through. To my reading, board approval is the step where experienced counsel earns its value for a buyer. Residential real estate also meets the estate practice at a common point, since a house or an apartment often passes through an estate and needs a clean transfer to the heirs.

The founder's teaching and speaking

Jason W. Stern has lectured on estate planning and on medical malpractice. A lecture of that kind puts an attorney in front of peers and members of the public to lay out how a body of law works. For a practice built on estate planning, a founder who teaches the subject stays close to the rules the work depends on. The medical malpractice topic falls outside the firm's listed areas, though it marks a broader background behind the estate practice.