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Estate Planning
Estate planning is best defined as a comprehensive “set of instructions” that allows clients to maintain control during their lifetimes; provide for their care during disability; and to protect their beneficiaries after passing. Knudsen Burbridge, P.C. offers a full range of trust and estate planning services that enable our clients to pass assets in the most appropriate and tax-effective manner.
Our services include:
Working closely with clients to develop Revocable or Living Trust-based Estate Plans
Developing and implementing these plans in order avoid the time and expense of the probate system
Assisting clients in asset allocation and other techniques in order to minimize both federal estate and Massachusetts estate taxes
Understanding the needs of each individual beneficiary and creating sub-trusts that allow a client to specifically craft how each beneficiary will be cared for after passing
Providing the means to ensure that the client’s named representatives, and not the Probate Court, will direct how the client is cared for during periods of incapacity
Providing for individuals with special needs without jeopardizing government benefits through the use of Third Party and Self-Settled Supplemental Needs Trusts
Helping clients preserve wealth and provide for others through the use of charitable planning devices and various other wealth preservation strategies
In circumstances where the Probate Court must become involved, working with families to obtain Guardianships and Conservatorships
Below is a list of some of the most common instruments utilized on behalf of our clients:
Revocable or Living Trusts
Pour-Over Wills
Durable Powers of Attorney
Health Care Proxies and HIPAA Authorizations
Living Wills and Advanced Directives
Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts
Medicaid Trusts
Other Trusts for Advanced Planning such as GRATs, QPRTs, etc.
Please see our Planning Guides under About for more information on these tools and techniques. We also offer a maintenance plan for clients with a revocable living trust.