Jager Smith's Business, Tax, and Estate Planning group works closely with clients to develop estate plans tailored to their specific needs. For business owners, a comprehensive estate plan not only preserves the value of their estate, but also serves as the primary vehicle for ensuring a smooth transfer of the company's assets to the next generation, or their efficient, profitable sale to a third party.

To craft an estate plan that accomplishes all your goals, we’ll invest significant time in getting to know you on a personal level. In addition to compiling financial data at our first meeting, we’ll talk at length about your family relationships and the nature of your assets. We’ll also discuss various strategies for maximizing the portion of your assets, including your business holdings, that will pass to your beneficiaries.

Protecting Your Assets and Your Beneficiaries

One of the central objectives of estate planning is to prevent the depletion of your hard-earned assets by avoidable taxes. To reduce the burden of transfer, income, and other taxes on your estate, our attorneys will help you choose from a variety of techniques, including:

Marital deduction and credit shelter trust planning
Irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs)
Lifetime gifting
Qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTS) and grantor retained annuity trusts (GRAT) - sales to intentionally defective grantor trusts which will "freeze" the value of assets in an estate
Family limited partnerships (FLPs) and limited liability companies (LLCs) structured to take advantage of fractional discounts for lack of control and lack of marketability
Private foundations and charitable trusts

The cost and complexity of various estate administration tasks can also impose a heavy burden on your survivors. You can rely on our experienced team to shoulder a full range of administrative responsibilities, including:

Probate administration
Calculation and funding of marital and credit shelter trusts
Preparation of federal and Massachusetts estate tax returns
Filing of fiduciary income tax returns

Ensuring Total Peace of Mind

In addition to minimizing estate taxes, every Jager Smith estate plan is designed to address the client’s broader financial and personal objectives, including:

Providing income for a surviving spouse
Preserving the value of a client’s assets to ensure the beneficiaries’ long-term financial security
Ensuring the orderly and efficient distribution of assets to the estate’s beneficiaries

Our estate planning attorneys can also advise you on every aspect of Medicaid, Mass Health, and long-term care planning, including:

Irrevocable income-only trusts
Life estates and other gifting techniques
Mass Health and Medicaid applications
Asset transfers to, and estate planning for, the healthy spouse
Annuities