Join Attorney Abigail Poole as she presents a webinar on Reverse Mortgages, for our Smart Counsel Webniar Series. Please watch and if you have any questions or want to learn more please call us at 781 461-1020.
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Powers of Attorney Trends
Attorney Abigail Poole discusses Powers of Attorney Trends, for this edition of our Smart Counsel for Lunch Series. Please watch and if you have any questions or want to learn more please call us at 781 461-1020.
5 Topics To Discuss Around the Thanksgiving Table
Family gatherings for the holidays are traditionally a time of celebration, fun, and family time. However, if you have a family member who is sick, incapacitated, or who has passed away, those gatherings can feel a lot less festive.
Below are five important topics to discuss with parents, grandparents or any person for whom you may be the responsible decision-maker in the future.
- Digital assets: An often-overlooked aspect of today’s estate planning is making sure that a trusted individual knows where to find your online information, such as your usernames, passwords, and your online accounts. If you are concerned about the security of your computer, store this information the old-fashion way by writing it on a piece of paper. In our office, we provide clients with a Digital Assets Memorandum, which is a handy tool for organizing and memorializing this type of information. It can be stored with your estate plan documents for easy access or maintained electronically. Your family will be grateful to have this information if you become incapacitated or when you pass away.
- Beneficiaries for Retirement Accounts: While you are sitting around the Thanksgiving table with your family, consider the topic of naming beneficiaries on assets such as retirement accounts. Naming beneficiaries on IRAs and employer retirement plans is easy to do and doing so will not only ensure that these assets pass to your intended beneficiaries but will avoid the need to probate these assets. If no one is named, you should name a beneficiary immediately. Make sure to re-evaluate your beneficiary designations on your retirement accounts and ensure those are still the people you wish to benefit. Seeing everyone at the table can be a great reminder of who you currently have as beneficiaries and if you want to make any changes.
- Health Care Documents: While everyone loves a good game of backyard football after the Thanksgiving meal, injuries can occur and this can lead to chaos and confusion if someone needs treatment. All adults should have a HIPAA Authorization and Health Care Proxy. Sharing copies of these documents with your appointed agents and storing them on your phone so they are readily available in an emergency situation (such as needing to rush someone to the hospital if they injure themselves on the football field for the post-Thanksgiving game), will ensure decisions can be made in an emergency.
- Tangible personal property: Believe it or not, the personal property items are often a source of conflict during estate settlement. Personal property includes items such as jewelry, antiques, art, and other ’stuff”. If you have something special, such as a carving knife for the turkey or a gravy boat that has been passed through your family for generations, you should designate the person to receive that item so there is no fighting over that family heirloom later on.
- Updating Your Estate Plan: The past couple of years have been pretty crazy and a lot of families have not had the opportunity to gather around the table and see one another for the holidays. This year, if you are able to spend Thanksgiving with your family, you should talk about whether your family members have estate plans in place and if so, how long it is since they have been updated. Now that the world is opening back up and we are able to come together, it is a great time to remind family members if they are your appointed fiduciaries and make sure they are still able to fill that role for you (and that they are still the right people for you).
Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful and to celebrate with loved ones. It is also the perfect time to talk to one another in-person about these topics not only because these are important but because they also might be easier to talk about over a pumpkin pie. If we can help you with your estate planning, please do not hesitate to contact our office and set up a time to speak with one of our attorneys.
November, 2022
© 2022 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC
What’s New at Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC – Don’t Miss Our October 2022 Newsletter
Don’t Miss Our October 2022 Newsletter
Attorney Suzanne Sayward discusses our most recent newsletter, for our Smart Counsel for Lunch Series. Please watch and if you have any questions or want to learn more then call us at 781 461-1020. Please find our newsletter below.
(Halloween) Trick of the Trade: Accessing a Decedent’s Bank Account Without Probate
(Halloween) Trick of the Trade: Accessing a Decedent’s Bank Account Without Probate
An acquaintance of mine recently reached out because his mother passed away with a bank account held in her individual name. Typically, probate is necessary to give a Personal Representative (Executor) the legal authority via the court to access, manage and distribute the assets titled in the individual name of a decedent at the time of death. However, there is a little-known statute in Massachusetts that permits a surviving spouse or next of kin to withdraw the funds from a decedent’s individual bank account without going through probate.
Massachusetts General Law Chapter 167D, Section 12 (M.G.L.c.167D, §12) states that a bank, at its discretion, may pay to the decedent’s surviving spouse or next of kin, the funds in the decedent’s bank account if the amount is under $10,000 and it has been thirty (30) days or more since the decedent’s date of death. A death certificate must be provided to the bank. Practically, the bank may choose to decline to pay out the funds in the account, and require a person to be appointed as Personal Representative. If the bank chooses to proceed with paying the funds to the surviving spouse or next of kin according to the statute, it is released from liability. It is important to note that the statute is only an option where there is a surviving spouse or clear next of kin, such as children who are all from the marriage of the decedent and surviving spouse.
Unfortunately, the funds in the mother’s account of my acquaintance were a few thousand dollars more than the statutory amount and a voluntary probate will be necessary to access the bank account. If his mother had spoken with an estate planning attorney prior to her passing, the attorney could have advised her on ways to avoid the need for probate by creating a Trust or designating beneficiaries on the account, to name a couple.
At Samuel, Sayward and Baler LLC, we comprehensively educate and advise you about your assets and your options to make it as easy as possible for your family to take action with your assets at your death. And if no planning is done, or an unknown asset is discovered, we guide your family through the best choices available to access, manage and distribute your assets after your death.
Attorney Abigail V. Poole is a senior associate attorney with the Dedham firm of Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC which focuses on advising its clients in the areas of trust and estate planning, estate settlement and elder law matters. She is an active member and current President Elect of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA). This article is not intended to provide legal advice or create or imply an attorney-client relationship. No information contained herein is a substitute for a personal consultation with an attorney. For more information visit ssbllc.com or call 781/461-1020.
October, 2022
© 2022 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC
Five Family Situations that Merit Special Planning
By Attorney Maria C. Baler
Although it is important for every person over the age of 18 to create estate plan documents, there are some family situations that make it especially important to plan. In these situations, proper planning is crucial to protect your family, achieve your goals and prevent unintended consequences. Here are five family situations where planning is crucial.
1. Disabled or Special Needs Beneficiary
If you have a child, grandchild or other beneficiary of your estate who is disabled or has special needs, that person may now or in the future be eligible to receive public benefits due to their disability. If that person receives an inheritance directly, receipt of those assets will likely make them ineligible to receive those public benefits, which may provide a monthly income, affordable health care, prescription drugs, medical equipment, and needed care. Many public benefit programs have an asset limit of $2,000 for eligibility. If someone who receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI), for example, were to receive an inheritance of more than $2,000, they would lose the SSI benefit until the amount in excess of $2,000 is spent down in an allowable manner. This problem is easily avoided by thoughtful planning – usually by creating a so-called Supplemental Needs Trust for the benefit of the beneficiary, commonly used to preserve needs-based governmental benefits for a person with disabilities. For example, parents of a child with disabilities, can create a third-party trust for the benefit of their child into which the child’s inheritance would be paid at the parents’ deaths. This type of Trust does not need to include a payback provision for benefits the child may have received during life, and assets in the Trust will not cause the beneficiary to lose needs-based governmental benefits. Instead, those assets can be used during the lifetime of the beneficiary to provide the beneficiary with services or experiences that enhance their quality of life and that are not otherwise covered by the benefits they receive. Assets remaining in the trust at the death of the disabled beneficiary may be distributed to other family members
2. Beneficiary with Substance Abuse Disorder or Spendthrift Tendencies
If you would like to benefit a particular person at your death, but are concerned about that person’s ability to manage any assets they receive, you may benefit that person while controlling their access to the inherited assets by directing their inheritance into a discretionary Trust for their benefit, managed by a third-party Trustee. The Trustee you choose will receive the inherited assets after your death and manage those assets for the benefit of the beneficiary. It will be up to the Trustee if and when money is distributed from the Trust to or for the benefit of the beneficiary, based on parameters you create. For example, if a beneficiary has substance abuse disorder, the Trustee could be directed to pay the beneficiary’s rent, health insurance premiums and uninsured medical expenses directly, keeping assets out of the hands of the beneficiary where it may be spent inappropriately. For a beneficiary who is on a path to recovery, the Trust terms could require that the beneficiary undergo drug testing before receiving a distribution to incentivize them to stay clean.
A beneficiary who has spendthrift issues may spend money in ways you do not find reasonable. Sometimes, this is a minor issue (like spending too much money on expensive shoes), or the person may have serious spending issues and have creditors chasing them or a bankruptcy in their past (or future!). If you would like to leave money to such a person in your estate plan, but would like to make sure the inheritance you leave them is not blown on fast cars, fancy handbags or $500 shoes, and/or is protected from current or future creditors, a Trust is the answer. The Trustee will have discretion to use the money for the beneficiary’s benefit, but the beneficiary will not have control over how the money is spent. You may grant the beneficiary the right to request money from the Trust, but the Trustee will judge whether the purpose for which the money is requested is reasonable. Alternatively, the beneficiary’s access could be limited by giving the beneficiary the income from the Trust for life, but no or limited access to principal. This type of Trust can also work well if a beneficiary you wish to benefit is married to a spendthrift, and you are concerned that the spouse of the beneficiary may influence them to spend money inappropriately, or will end up in the spouse’s hands in the event of a divorce or the beneficiary’s death. This type of Trust will also protect the money from a beneficiary’s creditors to the extent it is not distributed to the beneficiary. In this way, the spendthrift beneficiary (or their spendthrift spouse) may spend their own money on expensive shoes, but be assured of having other needs met, if necessary, from the assets you leave in trust for their benefit.
3. Parents in Need of Support
We often see clients who are providing support to aging parents. As parents live longer, some can no longer afford to cover all of their own living expenses, or cover costly care expenses. If they are lucky, their children may be in a position to help them with these expenses. However, a child in this situation needs to consider what would happen if the child predeceased the parent. Without a thoughtful plan, the monetary support the child is providing to the parent could end abruptly, creating unintended consequences. In this situation you would hope that the deceased child’s siblings would step up to the plate and provide needed assistance, however this is often not possible and may be why the deceased child was providing so much assistance in the first place. You would also hope the deceased child’s spouse or children would continue to provide that assistance, however that may also not be possible depending on the extent of the inheritance or how it is left to them, especially if the child was providing support due to a sizeable employment income that ended with the child’s death. Careful planning can ensure that parents who rely on a child’s support will be protected in the event of a child’s death. Using a trust to benefit the parents is an important part of that plan, to ensure assets left directly to parents will not disqualify them from receiving public benefits for which they may otherwise be eligible.
4. Troublesome In-Laws
We all hope the people our children choose to marry are mature, responsible and treat our children well. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. We have all heard statistics about the large percentage of marriages that end in divorce. If you are leaving assets to a child or other beneficiary at death and you have concerns about the stability of the beneficiary’s marriage, or are just not very fond of the person they chose to marry, a Trust can be used to benefit the beneficiary while keeping the inherited assets out of the hands of their spouse, and protecting those assets to a greater extent in the event of a divorce. If assets are not inherited directly by a beneficiary, they cannot give those assets to a spouse, or deposit them into a joint bank account where their spouse has access and ownership. In many cases, assets that are not inherited directly will not be subject to division in a divorce proceeding. To avoid leaving assets directly to a beneficiary with a troublesome spouse, leave those assets in trust for the beneficiary. Establish parameters in the Trust as to how the assets may be applied for the beneficiary. Prevent the Trustee from distributing assets directly to the beneficiary, and instead allow the Trustee to use those assets for the benefit of the beneficiary. Perhaps include the beneficiary’s children or siblings as beneficiaries of the Trust in addition to the beneficiary. Name a Trustee who is not a family member to provide greater protection in the event the beneficiary finds herself in the midst of a divorce proceeding. Although the extent to which a trust offers protection in the divorce context varies depending on the circumstances and the state in which the beneficiary resides at the time of the divorce, trusts offer significantly more protection for inherited assets than an outright distribution to the beneficiary.
5. Blended Families
Although marriages end in divorce, there are many instances of divorced or widowed individuals finding love with a new partner. When one or both partners have children, this can create a situation of competing planning goals – making sure that when they die their partner is taken care of, but also wanting to make sure their children are provided for, and that their money is not directed by their partner away from their children should their partner re-marry or leave assets to their own children. These goals can be achieved with careful planning by thoughtfully deciding which assets are best to leave to a partner vs. children at death. Alternatively, creating a Trust that will benefit the surviving partner during their lifetime, while ensuring that assets remaining in that Trust after the partner’s lifetime will be left to children is a common arrangement. This type of planning is important for people with young children, who may rely on their parent for support and education expenses, and also for those with adult children, who may be devastated when their deceased parent’s assets, particularly assets such as a beloved family home or vacation home, are left to a surviving partner and sold or pass to others at the partner’s death.
People with non-typical situations often delay planning because they fear that there is no good way to achieve their complicated or competing planning goals, or address concerns (sometimes unacknowledged) about the beneficiaries they hope to benefit. Taking the time to talk through your situation with an experienced estate planning attorney will provide you with options and strategies to achieve your goals, and will result in a plan that addresses your special family situation in the best way possible. If you have one of these situations in your family, don’t delay – speak with an experienced estate planning attorney today!
Maria Baler, Esq. is an estate planning and elder law attorney and partner at Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC, a law firm based in Dedham. She is also a former director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (MassNAELA), and the immediate past President of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Forum of Estate Planning Attorneys. For more information, visit www.ssbllc.com or call (781) 461-1020. This article is not intended to provide legal advice or create or imply an attorney-client relationship. No information contained herein is a substitute for a personal consultation with an attorney.
October 2022
© 2022 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC
Life Estates
Five Life Events That Merit a Review and Update of your Estate Plan
Creating an estate plan (Will, Trust, Power of Attorney, etc.) is a key step in making sure that your wishes are carried out and that your family is taken care of in the way you wish when you pass away. But an estate plan is not a ‘one-and-done’ proposition. Life happens and when it does…well, it may be time to adjust your plan.
Read on for five situations that call for a review and update of your estate plan.
- Your marital status changes. In Massachusetts, a change in your marital status impacts your current estate plan (even if you haven’t created an estate plan!). Marriage confers certain rights, including the right of spouses to inherit from each other. How much of your estate your spouse is entitled to inherit depends on whether you have children together, whether either of you has children from a prior relationship, or whether neither of you has any children. Regardless of your situation, most people prefer to decide for themselves what their new spouse will inherit rather than have the government make that decision. Similarly, divorce impacts your estate plan in that your former spouse is effectively ‘deleted’ as a beneficiary under your Will and removed from fiduciary positions. While this is usually the desired outcome as to a former spouse, the law also removes any of your former spouse’s relatives as beneficiaries and from fiduciary positions which may not necessarily be the intention. For example, a former spouse’s sibling may still be the person you would name as the guardian for your minor children. Further, although the law may “remove” these individuals from your plan, you should update your plan to include appropriate people in their place as beneficiaries and fiduciaries.
- You have a child. The law in Massachusetts provides that if a person dies with a child surviving (or more remote descendants in cases where a child has predeceased the parent) the child will inherit from the parent before assets would pass to anyone else (other than a surviving spouse who is first in line to inherit). However, the law also deems that adult-hood is reached at age 18. That means children who inherit from parents who have not created an estate plan that provides otherwise, will be entitled to receive the full amount of their inheritance at age 18. Prior to reaching age 18, a child’s inheritance will be managed for her by a court-appointed conservator if the parents have not created a Trust to manage their estate for their children. Most parents: 1) would prefer to decide who should be in charge of managing assets for their children rather than have the probate court make that decision; and, 2) do not want their children to have full, unfettered access to the inheritance they leave them at age 18. Creating a Trust that designates the people who will manage assets for their children at their deaths and specifies the ages, or events, at which a child will be entitled to full access to their inheritance allows the parents make these decisions rather than the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
- You or your spouse are diagnosed with a serious illness. While having a child and getting married (and for some, getting divorced) are joyous life events that merit a review and update of an estate plan, not all life events are good. If either you or your spouse is diagnosed with a terminal illness, or with a serious disease or condition such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or dementia, that could result in the need for long-term care, reviewing and updating your estate plan is not just important but often urgent. There may be actions needed to reduce taxes or to preserve assets from being consumed by expensive long-term care costs that should be implemented right away. In addition, it is important to make sure there is documentation in place such as a robust durable Power of Attorney and a comprehensive, up-to-date Health Care Proxy so that you are able to make decisions for a spouse who may lose the ability to do so as a result of the illness. These documents need to be created while the maker still has the capacity to do so.
- Your spouse passes away. Reviewing and updating your estate plan when a spouse passes away is a prudent action to take.
People usually name their spouse to the primary fiduciary roles of Personal Representative, Attorney-in-fact, Health Care Agent, and Trustee. While there is often a back-up named to those roles, reviewing your estate plan to re-visit whether that designated alternate is still the right person to serve and updating your plan to designate a successor to your new primary fiduciary is a smart thing to do. - One of your fiduciaries or beneficiaries dies or becomes ill. When someone you designated as a fiduciary in your estate plan passes away or becomes ill such that they would no longer be able to carry out those duties, it is time to update your estate plan. Similarly, when a beneficiary dies or becomes ill, a review of the provisions of your estate plan as they relate to that person is sensible. Your estate plan most likely includes a provision directing what should happen to the share of a beneficiary who predeceases you. However, it has been my experience that clients’ thinking often changes when one of their beneficiaries predeceases them and they want to update their plan to change their distribution provisions. Similarly, if a beneficiary of your plan is diagnosed with a disease or condition such as Alzheimer’s or dementia, meet with your estate planning attorney to consider whether leaving money to that person is still a good idea. Many individuals who need long-term care are eligible for needs-based governmental benefits to pay for that care. Receiving an inheritance can cause them to lose that eligibility.
Above are just five of the life events that merit a review and update of an estate plan. Other changes such a significant increase in the value of your estate, relocation to another state, a disability affecting one of your beneficiaries, or even the passage of more than five or six years since your last estate plan review, are additional examples of life events that merit a review of your plan. If any of the above situations applies to you, don’t wait to contact your estate planning attorney to schedule a time to review and update your plan. If you have never created an estate plan, now’s a good time to do so. If we can help you create or update your estate plan, please contact our office to schedule a time to meet with one of our experienced estate planning attorneys.
Attorney Suzanne R. Sayward is a partner with the Dedham law firm of Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC which focuses on advising its clients in the areas of estate planning, elder law, estate and trust settlement and probate. She is certified as an Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation, a private organization whose standards for certification are not regulated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This article is not intended to provide legal advice or create or imply an attorney-client relationship. No information contained herein is a substitute for a personal consultation with an attorney. For more information visit our website at www.ssbllc.com or call 781/461-1020.
September, 2022
© 2022 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC
Establishing Residency in Other States
Attorney Suzanne Sayward discusses Establishing Residency in Other States, for this edition of our Smart Counsel for Lunch Series. Please watch and if you have any questions or want to learn more please call us at 781 461-1020.
As the Massachusetts Estate Tax Turns
The Massachusetts estate planning world watched with bated breath this summer as we came closer than ever to increasing the Massachusetts estate tax threshold from $1 million to $2 million. But alas, it was a false alarm.
As you may know, Massachusetts is one of only 11 states plus the District of Columbia to have a separate state estate tax. Among those states, Massachusetts and Oregon are the two states with the lowest estate value that is subject to estate tax – $1 million. If you die a resident of Massachusetts and own assets valued at $1 million or more, you will currently pay tax on the entire value of your estate.
Every year there are bills filed in the Massachusetts state legislature to increase the Massachusetts estate tax exemption. This year, both the Massachusetts House and Senate passed bills that would raise the estate tax threshold from $1 million to $2 million, and it looked like the bills would be reconciled and become law. However, at the last minute, the Governor raised the possibility that a 1986 law would trigger a requirement that the state return to taxpayers over $2 to $3 billion due to the state’s large budget surplus. Needless to say, that put the brakes on any other form of tax relief until things are sorted out.
In the meantime, what’s a middle-class Massachusetts family to do about saving estate taxes? As we all know, if you own a home in this state you are probably at least halfway to the $1 million estate tax threshold without even trying. Add to that the value of some life insurance, bank accounts, investments and/or an IRA or 401k and you are likely over $1 million without even trying.
For married couples in Massachusetts, credit shelter trusts are a go-to estate tax planning strategy which allows up to $1 million of assets to be “sheltered” in trust at the death of the first spouse to die such that those assets will not be subject to estate tax in the estate of the second spouse to die. The surviving spouse can serve as Trustee of the trust and use the sheltered assets, as needed, for the surviving spouse’s health care and living expenses after the first spouse’s death. If a credit shelter trust is created and funded appropriately, and depending on the size of the estate, the estate tax savings is significant. For example, a married couple with $2.5 million in assets would pay $139,000 in Massachusetts estate tax at the death of the second spouse without any tax planning. If a credit shelter trust is in place and funded with $1 million at the death of the first spouse to die, the estate tax payable at the death of the second spouse would be reduced to $64,000, saving $75,000 in estate tax.
For single individuals, estate tax savings involves giving up control of assets, usually in the form of giving assets away to family members, charities or other beneficiaries. Annual exclusion gifts of $16,000 per year per person can be given to as many individuals as desired each year without the need to file a gift tax return or pay any gift tax (unless these gifts exceed $12 million in total under current law). These annual exclusion gifts, especially if given consistently over time, can reduce the value of the assets that will be subject to estate tax at death, and the corresponding tax that will be paid. Gifts can also be given in unlimited amounts to pay tuition or medical expenses for another person. However, before making gifts during life, the gift giver must carefully consider whether they can afford to do so. Future living expenses and care costs are difficult to predict. It may be smarter to retain control of assets to be sure living expenses and care costs in the preferred care setting can be paid, rather than worry about saving estate tax for heirs. If the value of a person’s assets is diminished at the time of death due to spending on living and care expenses during life, the estate tax will be reduced naturally.
However, for single individuals with assets in excess of the estate tax threshold who are confronted with a terminal illness or a situation where death is imminent, deathbed gifts are a useful strategy to reduce estate taxes payable at death. Gifts made immediately before death will reduce the value of the assets on which Massachusetts estate tax will be paid after death. These gifts are possible only if the gift-giver is competent to make the gifts, or has a Durable Power of Attorney that specifically permits gifts to be made.
A few things to keep in mind when contemplating deathbed gifts:
- If checks are written for gifting purposes, those checks must clear the bank account before death in order for the gift to be effective for estate tax purposes, and therefore it is better to make such gifts using bank checks that will withdraw the funds from the account immediately when the check is issued.
- As with any lifetime gift, gifts of appreciated assets transfer the gift-giver’s basis to the gift recipient, which will result in a capital gain tax if the gift recipient sells the gifted asset at a later date. Holding appreciated assets until death under current law will provide a step-up in basis, eliminating any unrealized capital gain. Consideration of the estate tax savings as compared to any future capital gain tax that would be paid is an important consideration in determining whether gifts of appreciated assets make sense.
- A gift tax return may need to be filed post-death to report any gifts made in excess of $16,000 per person.
- Even if gifts are made that reduce the value of the gift-giver’s assets below $1 million, there may still need to be a Massachusetts estate tax return filed and estate tax paid, although the assets given away will not be subject to tax. This is because gifts over $16,000 per person are considered when determining whether the value of the deceased person’s assets was $1 million or more at the time of death and whether an estate tax return must be filed. However, the estate tax due is calculated only on the value of the assets not given away. Although an estate tax return may still need to be filed, the estate tax paid will be less than if the gifts were not given.
Deathbed gifts are a difficult subject, and something that a family may not wish to discuss at such a sensitive time. However, they are a useful strategy for a single person who may have held off on gifting during life for the reasons mentioned above, and whose estate will be subject to estate tax if gifts are not made. It is important to get advice from an estate planning attorney if such gifts are contemplated, to make sure they are made the right way and using the right assets to achieve the most tax savings.
Stay tuned as we remain hopeful that the Massachusetts legislature will move forward to increase the estate tax exemption sometime soon, and make estate tax planning unnecessary for many residents of the Commonwealth.
Maria Baler, Esq. is an estate planning and elder law attorney and partner at Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC, a law firm based in Dedham. She is also a former director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (MassNAELA), and the immediate past President of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Forum of Estate Planning Attorneys. For more information, visit www.ssbllc.com or call (781) 461-1020. This article is not intended to provide legal advice or create or imply an attorney-client relationship. No information contained herein is a substitute for a personal consultation with an attorney.
August 2022
© 2022 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC