Bridging the Gap
Stability, Integrity, Trust
Estate Planning Strategic & All Encompassing
To many people, estate planning means signing a will. In reality, estate planning is a comprehensive, strategic and all-encompassing undertaking that considers lifetime concerns – such as how to protect your assets from third parties, and who would make decisions in the event of illness or disability – as well as traditional estate and end-of-life matters – including who will inherit your assets, and in what manner.
Our Approach to Estate Planning
It begins with a complimentary consultation in which we conduct a thorough assessment of your unique situation. We discuss typical estate planning issues including estate tax and income tax minimization, wealth transfer planning, long-term care and nursing home planning, special needs and disability planning, and probate avoidance.
We also consider issues such as the potential risk exposures of future beneficiaries, financial aid concerns for clients and beneficiaries, planning for higher education costs, and the role of family dynamics in the planning process.
From that analysis, and with your personal and financial goals in mind, we design estate plans that ensure the financial security and success of you and your loved ones. From there, we work closely with you to create your unique estate plan documents, and complete the process by ensuring the plan is properly “funded”, which is a concept that involves analyzing and updating the ownership and beneficiary designations of all your assets.
Solutions
Challenges to Estate Planning
We understand how challenging it can be for many clients to undertake estate planning. The distractions and responsibilities of daily life, coupled with the weighty decisions to be made, can make the process seem daunting. That’s why we have developed and finely tuned our estate plan process.
Our team of dedicated and personable professionals will work with you throughout the entire process to keep things timely and manageable. We hear countless times from clients at the conclusion of the planning process how relieved they are to have done it, and how pleased they are with how much they accomplished.
Trusts
There are as many different types of trusts as there are reasons to use them. Trusts accomplish key objectives during your lifetime while also protecting your beneficiaries after you’re gone. Following a consultation with an EPLO attorney, you will understand the type(s) of trust(s) that might be right for you, and why/how they work. These include:
Revocable Trusts
For probate avoidance; marital estate tax planning; ongoing asset protection for beneficiaries; and more
Irrevocable Trusts
For nursing home/long-term care protection; asset protection from third parties/creditors during your life; estate and gift tax reduction/elimination; and more
Testamentary Trusts
For spousal nursing home/long-term care planning
Supplemental Needs Trusts/Special Needs Trusts
To hold the inheritance of disabled/special needs beneficiaries
Retirement Trusts
For protecting your pre-tax/qualified retirement accounts beyond your lifetime in the hands of your beneficiaries, while affording favorable income tax treatment
Charitable Trusts
For lifetime and testamentary charitable giving and estate tax/income tax planning
Nominee/Agency Trusts
For spousal planning, to hold assets jointly yet strategically positioned to fund trusts upon the first spouse’s death; to protect the privacy of you and your beneficiaries; and more
Estate Planning Services Include
Core Documents Every estate plan, no matter how simple or complicated, requires a basic set of foundation documents:
Wills
Durable Power of Attorney
Health Care Proxy
HIPAA Release
Living Will
BRIDGING THE GAP
Special Estate Planning Services
Clearly, the estate planning process is complex and the laws that regulate it are constantly changing. It takes attorneys who have developed in-depth expertise in this field and who remain up-to-date with regulations – to help clients properly plan their estates and to ensure that their assets are protected during their lifetimes and preserved for future generations.
More about Estate Planning from Our Blog
Plan to Preserve Your Legacy
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Legislative Update: MA Increases Estate Tax Exemption Impact on Estate Planning
After twenty years of planning around an absurdly low $1 million state estate tax threshold, Massachusetts residents...
Protecting your home: put it in the kids’ names, or use a trust?
For prior generations, keeping the house protected from a nursing home seemed as easy as deeding it to the kids and...
EPLO
Worcester Office
71 Elm Street
Suite 100
Worcester, MA 01609
Uxbridge Office
9 N Main Street
Uxbridge, MA 01569
Leominster Office
156 Hamilton Street
Leominster, MA 01453
Braintree Office
100 Grandview Road
Suite 405
Braintree, MA 02184
Cape Cod & Islands
776 Main Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
Estate Preservation Law Offices of Worcester, MA provides multi-leveled and integrated estate planning and asset protection planning services. Estate planning, wills, trusts, probate, tax planning, corporate & business planning, asset protection, wealth preservation, elder law, medicaid planning, special needs planning.
» Practice Areas
» Estate Planning
» Asset Protection Planning
» Elder Law & Medicaid Planning
» Business & Corporate Planning
» Special Needs & Disability Planning
» Estate & Trust Administration
» Guardianships & Conservatorships
» Tax Planning Corporate & Individual
» Charitable & Exempt Organizations
» Equine & Pet Trust Planning
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