Estate Planning

For most Massachusetts families, leaving your rental property to your heirs at death beats gifting it during your lifetime, because your heirs receive a “stepped-up” cost basis that can erase decades of capital gains. If you gift the property now, your heirs take your original basis and inherit the built-in tax bill along with the

You reduce estate taxes with life insurance planning in Massachusetts by keeping the death benefit out of your taxable estate, and the standard tool for doing that is an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT). If you personally own a policy when you die, the entire death benefit is added to your estate. In Massachusetts, that

The most reliable way to avoid disputes between your children when dividing real estate in Massachusetts is to decide the property’s future yourself, in writing, before you die. That usually means one of three things: direct that the property be sold and the cash split, give the home to one child and balance the others

An age-based trust distribution releases inheritance to a beneficiary in stages tied to specific birthdays — most commonly one-third at age 25, one-third at age 30, and the remainder at age 35. The structure exists because handing a young adult the full balance of a trust on their 18th or 21st birthday rarely produces good outcomes,

An irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) owns a life insurance policy on your life so that the death benefit is not included in your taxable estate. For Massachusetts families, where the state estate tax kicks in at $2 million — including the full face value of life insurance you own — an ILIT can save hundreds

Marriage gives you a stronger position in a Massachusetts hospital than no marriage — but it does not guarantee that your spouse will be allowed to make medical decisions for you. The single most important document for LGBTQ couples (and frankly, for everyone) is the Massachusetts health care proxy, paired with a HIPAA authorization and

The Vacation Home Question Almost Every Massachusetts Family Eventually Asks If you own a place on Lake Winnipesaukee, a cottage on Cape Cod, a ski condo in the Berkshires, or a seasonal home in Maine or Florida — at some point, the question comes up. Should the vacation home go into a trust? Sometimes the