Massachusetts Estate Planning, Wills and Trusts

Fundamentally, estate planning involves deciding "who" should receive "what" of your assets - both before your death and also after your death, and then figuring out how best to implement your decisions.

Among the "who" may be governments – in the form of Federal taxes, state taxes or even foreign taxes. The taxes may be what are sometimes called “transfer taxes” (estate, inheritance, gift or generation skipping transfer taxes); or they may be income taxes; and the different kinds of taxes may be required by the US government, state governments or even foreign governments. Usually people prefer that governments receive as little as possible, but accomplishing that goal may take considerable effort.

Sometimes the "who" includes individuals who are unable to look after their own financial affairs - like the very young, the very infirm or the incompetent. In that case it becomes necessary to work out plans for regulating the availability of assets to dependent individuals - choosing "someone" to look after such individuals and to turn the tap on and off, and deciding when, if at all, assets should be given outright to dependent individuals.

Sometimes the "who" include individuals who must receive income or assets - for example, creditors, or, under a divorce decree ex-spouses or minor children of a prior marriage.

Sometimes the "who" include charities.

Sometimes the "what" involves assets with unusual features - businesses, farms, art collections, patents or copyrights, contracts, out-of-state real estate - or unusual tax characteristics – like retirement plans, IRAs, stock options, deferred compensation, buy-sell agreements between business owners and life insurance.

Depending on the particular case, the process of deciding "who" gets "what" can either be relatively simple and straightforward or – based on what the client owns, the kinds of beneficiaries the client wants to benefit after his or her death, the nature of the client’s assets, and most importantly what the client wants to accomplish - it can become complicated.

One of the key aspects of implementing the client’s decisions is deciding another “who” question – who should control the client’s assets after death, and who should be placed in positions of authority over the client’s loved ones. This is where the client must choose executors, trustees and, in the case of minor children, guardians.

At KCL, a large part of estate planning involves our listening to what you, the client, want, making suggestions for you to consider based on our training and experience, listening to your reactions to the suggestions, and tailoring possible solutions to fit the your wishes, to fit your intended beneficiaries, and to fit your assets.

We try to give you the benefit of our training and experience, especially experience gained from having worked with many other clients - some or even many of whom may have had estate planning situations similar to yours - but we always pay attention to what you want and to your particular situation.