Estate administration

Estate administration is the legal process that settles all of a decedent’s ongoing legal affairs, and implements the plan they had created to pass on assets upon their death.

Our primary focus in estate planning is to listen, assist clients in identifying their goals, and develop strategies to accomplish those goals. The process of developing an estate plan varies, as no two circumstances are the same and every plan we draft is tailored to the needs of the situation.

We help clients plan for the risk of incapacity during lifetime by creating powers of attorney and health care directives. We prepare wills and, when necessary, trusts (revocable and, where appropriate, irrevocable) that arrange the disposition of our clients’ assets to accomplish their goals and appoint fiduciaries (that is, the Personal Representatives, guardians of minor children, and trustees of trusts) who will be responsible for implementing the plan in conjunction with other professional advisors. We often will review beneficiary designations for life insurance, annuities, and retirement plans to confirm that they dovetail with the plans.

Some of the documents we prepare are very simple and achieve straightforward goals, and others are much more complex and are often part of a comprehensive plan to achieve long-term tax and estate planning goals. These more complex documents might achieve generation skipping planning, charitable goals, complicated gift plans that rely on leveraged techniques, or planning for the disposition of special assets.

Estate planning usually starts with an estate-planning questionnaire that we ask new clients to complete and send to us prior to our meeting so we will have the information we need to discuss the appropriate kind of plan to achieve the client’s goals. In many situations we need only a single meeting before we draft documents. The process can be more involved for families with substantial assets or special needs to address, and may require more meetings and additional documents. We will provide necessary tax planning advice for those who require it, as an overlay to the basic goals for an estate plan. It is useful to think of estate planning as a process that might evolve as a family’s circumstances (and the pertinent tax rules) develop and change.

Trust administration

We provide a variety of services related to trust administration. We represent both trustees and beneficiaries (although to avoid conflicts of interest, we cannot represent trustees and beneficiaries within the context of the same trust).

We can help establish the trust and transfer assets to it upon the death of a decedent whose estate plan includes a continuing trust. We can also assist in the routine annual administration of a trust, which might include maintaining the fiduciary accounting and preparing fiduciary income tax returns. We provide advice regarding the interpretation of the governing trust instrument and the tax consequences to the trust and beneficiaries of various trust administration decisions.

We also provide advice to trustees and beneficiaries regarding the administration of unusual trust assets, including business interests, real estate, works of art, and other unique assets that may present valuation, management, disposition and distribution issues.

In some circumstances it may be appropriate to consider modifying or terminating an existing trust, and we can help analyze these options. The modification or termination of a trust may be achieved using various strategies, including a Probate Court proceeding or a nonjudicial settlement agreement or other innovative techniques now available to Trustees.