Trust and Estate Planning

Estate Planning for Every Stage of Life

Estate Planning Isn’t Just for Seniors. It’s never too early to start estate planning. The sooner you start, the more prepared you will be for life’s unexpected twists and turns. 

A comprehensive estate plan does more than just pave the way for a smooth transition of wealth to your heirs. It also helps you avoid problems that keep your loved ones from receiving the benefits and protection they deserve, and it keeps Uncle Sam from getting more than his share. 

Law Office of Yi Ke offers a comprehensive suite of estate planning services including:

• Preparation of wills, trusts, advance medical directives, living wills and durable powers of attorney

• Preparation of HIPAA medical information releases

• Preparation for the smooth transition of wealth after your death, minimize the impact of estate taxes and protect your estate from creditors and the creditors of your children

• Strategies to avoid expenses that deplete the value of the estate you pass on to your heirs

• Planning to ensure that the property you designate will go to the people you designate after your death and protect inheritances in the event that your heirs get divorced

• Charitable gifting strategies including charitable remainder trusts, charitable remainder annuity trusts, charitable remainder income trusts, charitable annuities, charitable lead trusts, charitable planning with retirement benefits and the establishment of private foundations

• Traditional gifting strategies including traditional gift trusts, generation gifting trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, grantor retained unit trusts, grantor retained income trusts, family limited partnerships, and family limited liability companies

• Planning for life insurance payments, including irrevocable life insurance trusts

• Planning for marital deductions and exclusions, including marital deduction trust planning, disclaimer trusts, qualified terminable interest property trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, and credit shelter trusts

Probate

What is Probate?

Probate is the court-supervised process of closing out a loved one’s estate after their passing. This is often done by gathering assets and distributing them to creditors and beneficiaries according to their Will or Massachusetts state law.

Compassionate and Comprehensive Legal Support

At Law office of Yi Ke, we understand the unique set of challenges that your family faces. Working through estate administration can be a stressful, time consuming and costly burden on top of your grief.

That is why we offer a full-service approach to Probate and trust administration for clients throughout Massachusetts. Our approach is designed to minimize headaches, quickly transfer assets, and ensure all legal requirements are satisfied within the appropriate deadlines. All of this is done with care and compassion during a difficult time.

Estate Tax Preparation

Probate can be costly, time-consuming and complex.  You may be appointed to administer a loved one’s estate. You may be responsible for filing an Estate Tax Return for a loved one’s estate. There may be questions about the validity of the will. You may need to step in to protect the interests of an elderly parent.

Our office can prepare all types of tax returns related to estates and trusts, including Massachusetts and Federal Estate Tax returns, and fiduciary income tax returns. Proper estate planning aims to avoid the probate process and family conflicts and to reduce or minimize estate taxes but under many circumstances, individuals and families still need legal counsel. 

In addition, our office provides services for your estate administration, including but not limiting, liquidating property, managing property or managing a trust.

Business and Corporate Law

At the time of a business startup, owners must make important decisions such as entity selection. Established businesses may face unexpected legal challenges in the form of contract disputes, ownership disputes, employee conflicts, corporate tax burdens and other matters that require thoughtful, knowledgeable legal advice. Law Office of Yi Ke provides service of:

• Corporate formation. Counseling entrepreneurs and investors on the most advantageous business entity and addressing the tax and liability implications of forming as a limited liability company, S corporation, C corporation, family limited partnership, or business trust.

• Business agreements. Protecting our clients’ rights and interests by drafting, reviewing and negotiating business agreements such as Shareholder agreements, Partnership and LLC operating agreements, contracts, licensing agreements and distribution agreements. 

• Corporate Maintenance. Providing counsel on annual meetings, reporting, regulatory compliance and other governance issues.

• Mergers & Acquisitions. Providing counsel to clients and business owners looking to sell their business as well as clients looking to acquire additional businesses, from the early stages of due diligence all the way through the execution of stock or asset purchase agreement and beyond.

• Buy-sell agreements. Developing and implementing buy-sell agreements to dictate the disposition of an owner’s interest upon death or disability, or voluntary or involuntary withdrawal.

• Commercial leases. Providing services and representation to landlords and commercial tenants. 

• Business Succession Planning. Providing tailored succession planning for business owners to ensure the smooth transition of the business upon the death, retirement, or disability of the owner. Our succession planning integrates seamlessly with our estate planning in order to maximize client’s overall planning.

Probate and Trust Litigation

We are also one of the few firms in Massachusetts that handles contested probates and trust litigation. We use our experience to realistically evaluate the best course of action to be taken in complex probate litigation. Probate and Trust litigation can be divided into four primary areas:

• Contesting documents based upon incapacity, undue influence, duress and/or fraud of the individual signing the trust or will.

• Contesting actions of fiduciaries (trustees and executors) for breach of fiduciary duty or forcing fiduciaries to account for their actions.

• Bringing actions to recover property that belongs to a decedent or an incapacitated individual. 

• Removal and Replacement of a Trustee, Demands for Accountings, violations of the Uniform Trust Code and violations of the Uniform Probate Code.