Trusts & Estates

We structure and draft estate plans that govern the disposition of assets at death in a tax-efficient manner. We also assist our clients in implementing complex estate and gift planning techniques for both family and charitable transfers. Our services include:

• Structuring and drafting core estate plans consisting of wills, revocable trusts, durable powers of attorney, and health care documents
• Implementing sophisticated estate and gift planning techniques including generation-skipping trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), life insurance trusts (ILITs), family partnerships and LLCs, transfers of private equity and venture capital interests, and intra-family sales and loans
• Planning for transfers of family-owned businesses
• Advising on outright or restricted charitable gifts, negotiation of charitable gift agreements, the establishment of donor-advised funds and/or private foundations, charitable remainder trusts and charitable lead trusts, and gifts of unique assets such as real estate and artwork
• Preparing estate tax projections and planning to minimize transfer taxes

We assist families in administering estates and trusts. We implement complex estate plans, handle probate court filings, and prepare estate tax returns, and when our clients request it we can also serve as executors and trustees. Our estate and trust administration services include:

• Settling estates on behalf of professional fiduciaries, attorneys, or individuals named as executors or personal representatives
• Serving as executors or personal representatives of estates and trustees of family and charitable trusts
• Calculating estate, gift, generation-skipping and fiduciary income taxes and preparing returns

We regularly advise professional fiduciaries, including bank trust departments and trust companies, and help them implement best practices, manage risk, and resolve conflicts involving trusts and estates. We also work with trust beneficiaries to ensure their rights are protected and we provide legal and tax advice on the administration of trusts and estates. Our services for professional fiduciaries include:

• Providing advice to trustees and beneficiaries on the administration of trusts and estates, including legal advice on the meaning of trust terms, the identification of beneficiaries, distribution decisions and accounting requirements
• Providing advice on tax issues, including analyzing the generation-skipping tax issues involving trusts exempt from the generation skipping-tax, the exercise of a power of appointment over an exempt trust, and tax considerations when modifying, combining or terminating trusts
• Advising on the opportunities and requirements presented by the Massachusetts Uniform Trust Code
• Advising on ways to correct ambiguous or problematic trust instruments, including modifying trusts via methods including non-judicial settlement agreements, decanting, and court proceedings
• On behalf of client-trustees, working directly with trust beneficiaries or their counsel to resolve issues, including negotiating and drafting settlement agreements to modify or terminate trusts or effectuate a change in trustees
• On behalf of beneficiaries, working directly with trustees or their counsel to ensure proper administration of the trust and compliance with reporting requirements to beneficiaries
• Conducting due diligence in transactions involving trust departments
• Advising clients on potential business opportunities, including reviewing trust instruments to identify potential concerns before clients accept the office of trustee
• Advising clients on exiting business relationships, including securing the appropriate releases and indemnifications when resigning as trustee
• Preparing trust accountings

We represent individual trustees, trust departments, trust companies and beneficiaries in many types of actions, including lawsuits in the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court, Superior Court, Appeals Court and Supreme Judicial Court. Although our primary goal is to avoid litigation, we sometimes recommend targeted use of the courts to resolve ambiguities and clarify trust terms to achieve the settlor’s goals and guide fiduciaries in administering estates and trusts. In addition, fiduciaries are on occasion required to respond to tax audits. Our court and audit services also include:

• Defending trustees in breach of fiduciary duty and trustee removal actions
• Representing beneficiaries in cases of trustee’s breach of fiduciary duty
• Filing petitions to reform or modify trusts
• Filing petitions for instructions when the terms of a trust are vague, the identification of a beneficiary is uncertain or it has become difficult to administer the trust
• Litigating estate, gift, generation-skipping transfer tax and fiduciary income tax disputes with the IRS, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue and other state taxing authorities
• Handling estate tax audits
• Appealing assessments issued by the IRS or state taxing authorities