Estate planning
Your wishes are on paper. We make sure your money follows them.
An estate plan is two things: the legal documents and the financial arrangements behind them. Your attorney drafts the first. We work alongside your attorney on the second, so what you own passes to the people you intend with as little erosion as possible, and so you keep control and enjoyment of it while you are here.
What does estate planning cover here?
- An estate tax analysis using your actual balance sheet, so you know whether federal or Massachusetts estate tax is a concern and what it might cost.
- Strategies to reduce estate tax and to fund it where it cannot be avoided, including insurance where that makes sense.
- Wealth transfer and gifting plans that protect your own cash flow first.
- A review of beneficiary designations, account titling, and ownership so they match the plan your attorney drafted.
- Coordination with your attorney and CPA at each step, with your permission, so the legal, tax, and financial pieces agree.
A conversation about who you want to provide for and what you want to avoid.
We gather your documents, statements, and policies and build your current picture.
We model the estate under current law and show you, in plain terms, where the erosion would happen.
You get written recommendations with the reasoning, reviewed with your attorney and CPA.
We carry out the financial changes you approve, then review the plan when the law, your family, or your assets change.
Yes, for the documents. We are not a law firm and do not draft wills or trusts. We work with your attorney on the financial arrangements those documents rely on, and we help the two sides stay in step.
Retirement accounts, life insurance, and jointly held property pass by beneficiary designation or title, not by the will. If those were set years ago, they can quietly contradict the plan your attorney drafted. Reviewing them is one of the first things we do, and it is often where the surprises are.
Yes. Massachusetts has its own estate tax, separate from the federal one, with a lower threshold. Whether it applies to you depends on the size of your estate. Your plan estimates the exposure from your actual numbers, and we work with your CPA and attorney on ways to reduce it.
