If your estate plan was prepared by another attorney, we begin with a detailed review before recommending any changes. This allows us to fully understand your existing documents, identify potential issues, and evaluate whether the plan still meets your goals. Estate plans often become outdated due to changes in family circumstances, asset values, or estate tax laws. As a result, many clients find that a comprehensive update better serves their needs than attempting to modify older documents. Following our review, we can recommend the most appropriate next steps for your situation.
Certain assets, such as investment real estate or family-owned businesses, may benefit from additional liability protection and centralized management. A Limited Liability Company (LLC) provides a flexible ownership structure that can help shield personal assets from liabilities associated with the LLC. It can also simplify management, facilitate family ownership, and work alongside your estate plan to make the transfer of assets to future generations more efficient.
Business interests often require planning beyond a will or trust. Ownership changes resulting from retirement, disability, divorce, death, or the sale of a business can create legal and tax issues that affect both the business and the owner’s estate. We review operating agreements, shareholder agreements, and other governing documents for our clients to help ensure they work alongside your estate plan. Whether you are transferring ownership to family members, key employees, or a third party, we can help create a strategy that supports your long-term goals.
Life insurance proceeds are often included in your taxable estate. For some families, the combined value of their assets and life insurance may exceed the Massachusetts estate tax exemption. An irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) owns a life insurance policy outside of your taxable estate, removing the death benefit from estate tax calculations. This can help reduce estate taxes while providing your beneficiaries with liquidity to pay taxes, expenses, or other financial needs when it matters most.
Retirement accounts such as IRAs often represent a significant portion of an estate. Naming individuals directly as beneficiaries may expose inherited retirement assets to creditors, divorce, or distributions that are inconsistent with your wishes. A standalone retirement trust (SRT) is named as the beneficiary of an IRA or other retirement account, allowing those assets to be managed within a trust structure. This can provide greater protection, preserve wealth for future generations, and help ensure distributions are made according to your estate plan.
As your assets grow, future appreciation may increase your estate tax exposure. While lifetime gifts can reduce the size of your taxable estate, many people are reluctant to give away assets they may still need. A spousal limited access trust (SLAT) allows you to transfer assets out of your taxable estate while providing indirect access through your spouse if needed. This strategy can reduce future estate taxes while preserving flexibility and creating long-term benefits for your family and future generations.
As your wealth grows, making lifetime gifts can reduce the size of your taxable estate while transferring future appreciation to the next generation. An irrevocable gifting trust, often structured as an intentionally defective grantor trust (IDGT), allows you to transfer assets for the benefit of children, grandchildren, or other beneficiaries. Because future growth occurs outside of your taxable estate, this strategy can reduce estate taxes while protecting assets and preserving more wealth for future generations.
When you expect an asset to appreciate significantly, a grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT) can help transfer that future growth to your beneficiaries with little or no gift tax. You transfer assets into the trust while retaining the right to receive annuity payments for a specified term. At the end of the trust term, any remaining appreciation passes to your beneficiaries, making this an effective strategy for transferring rapidly growing assets in a tax-efficient manner.
For many families, a home is one of their most valuable assets. A qualified personal residence trust (QPRT) allows you to transfer your residence out of your taxable estate while continuing to live in the home for a specified term of years. Because the transfer is made using the home’s discounted value, it can reduce gift and estate taxes while allowing future appreciation to pass to your beneficiaries. At the end of the trust term, ownership transfers according to the terms of the trust.
A charitable remainder trust (CRT) allows you to support charitable causes while retaining an income stream during your lifetime. Assets transferred to the trust may generate a charitable income tax deduction and can be sold by the trust without immediate capital gains tax. You or another beneficiary receive income for life or for a specified term, and the remaining assets pass to designated charities at the end of the trust. This strategy can reduce taxes while supporting both personal and charitable goals.
A charitable lead trust (CLT) provides income to one or more charities for a specified period of time, after which the remaining trust assets pass to your chosen beneficiaries. This strategy can reduce gift and estate taxes while allowing future appreciation to benefit your family. A CLT is often used by individuals who want to make significant charitable gifts during their lifetime while preserving wealth for future generations in a tax-efficient manner.
