Yam successfully opposes turnover proceeding
June 15, 2016 |Richard Yam successfully defended respondent client in a proceeding commenced by a bank seeking the turnover of decedent’s annuity valued at approximately $380,000. The firm’s client was decedent’s surviving spouse who was the payable on death beneficiary of the annuity, which the bank was trying to collect in partial satisfaction of a $1.3M judgment it had obtained against decedent in a prior action while decedent was still alive (the firm did not represent decedent in this prior action).
Richard opposed the bank’s petition, arguing that under the terms of the annuity contract, the decedent did not have the right to anticipate or commute any of the monthly payments she was entitled to during her lifetime, and as a result, the annuity was an asset covered under New York Estates, Powers and Trusts Law 13-3.2 and exempt from creditors’ claims after her death. The Surrogate’s Court agreed, ruling in favor of our client and dismissing the creditor bank’s petition in its entirety. As a result of the court’s decision, Richard was able to preserve the $380,000 annuity for decedent’s surviving spouse.
