Estate Planning for Arlington Families and the Homes They Have Held for Decades
A lot of Arlington wealth is sitting in one place: a house bought a long time ago for a fraction of what it is worth now. Passing that on well takes more than a will.
Arlington Estates Are Probated in Woburn — Minutes From Our Office
An Arlington estate that goes through probate is handled in Woburn, not in Arlington — at the Middlesex Probate and Family Court on Commerce Way, a short distance from our office at TradeCenter 128. Arlington is one of the eighteen communities assigned to that courthouse.
Where a house is the main asset, probate is not an inconvenience — it is a lock. Until the court appoints a personal representative and the process runs its course, the property cannot be sold and it cannot be refinanced. Families who need to act on a property quickly, because there is a mortgage running or a buyer waiting or siblings who cannot carry the costs, discover that the timetable is not theirs to set.
A house held in a funded trust is not locked. The trustee can sell, refinance or transfer it without waiting for an appointment or a hearing date, which is often the single most valuable thing the planning does. See how Massachusetts probate works.
When the House Alone Crosses $2 Million
Massachusetts applies an estate tax filing threshold of $2,000,000. In Arlington, where property bought decades ago has appreciated enormously, that threshold is frequently crossed by a single asset — the family home — before anything else is counted.
It is worth being precise about what gets counted, because most people guess low. The house goes in at full market value — not what you paid, not what you owe on it. Retirement accounts go in. So does any life insurance policy you own outright, which is the one almost nobody expects.
The mistake that costs the most is the one that feels safest. Leaving everything to the surviving spouse feels like the obvious answer, and it quietly throws away the first spouse’s $2 million exemption. The whole combined estate is then measured at the second death.
Done properly, both exemptions are preserved and up to $4 million is sheltered. But it only works if the structure is in place beforehand.
Our Massachusetts Estate Tax Calculator will tell you in a couple of minutes whether this applies to you.
What Arlington Families Come to Us For
Arlington families often come to us with appreciated real estate at the center of the plan, sometimes a two-family with a relative upstairs, and children who will inherit property rather than cash. Those situations reward planning and punish improvisation.
Property, and passing it on well
- Keeping an appreciated home out of probate through a properly funded trust
- Real estate transfers, including two-family and rental property
- What happens to the step-up in basis, and why gifting a house outright often backfires
- Protecting an inherited home if a child later divorces
- Estate tax planning that uses both spouses’ exemptions
Planning for what comes later
- Long-term care planning, and protecting a home from nursing home costs
- MassHealth eligibility and the five-year lookback
- Health care proxies and durable powers of attorney that hold up when needed
- Guardianship and conservatorship when a family member can no longer decide alone
- Special needs planning that preserves benefits
Asset protection and wealth preservation • What long-term care actually costs in Massachusetts
How We Work With Arlington Families
Free Consult Call
A call with Nicole Ott, our Lead Intake Coordinator, to understand your situation and whether we are the right fit.
Strategic Planning Session
A working meeting with an attorney where the plan is designed around your family and your assets.
We Build Your Plan
We draft the documents and, critically, we fund the trust. A trust that is not funded does not work.
Protected for Life
Your plan is reviewed and updated as your life, your assets and the law change.
Arlington Residents Ask Us…
Can I just add my children to the deed?
It is the most common do-it-yourself move we see, and it usually costs the family money. Adding a child to a deed is a gift, it exposes the house to that child’s creditors and divorce, it can start the MassHealth five-year clock, and it can forfeit the step-up in basis that would otherwise wipe out decades of capital gains. There are better ways to reach the same goal.
Where would an Arlington estate be probated?
At the Middlesex Probate and Family Court, 10-U Commerce Way in Woburn, which serves Arlington and seventeen other Middlesex communities. Assets held in a properly funded trust bypass probate entirely.
We own a two-family. Does that change the planning?
It usually does, particularly where a family member lives in one unit. There are questions about how the property is titled, who has the right to stay, how the income is treated, and what happens if one child wants to sell and another does not. Those are worth settling in the plan rather than leaving to the family to work out later.
Our house is worth more than we ever imagined. Is there an estate tax problem?
There may be. Massachusetts applies a $2,000,000 filing threshold and counts the home at full market value along with retirement accounts and life insurance you own. Our estate tax calculator will tell you where you stand in a couple of minutes.
Do you meet in Arlington or do we come to you?
Our office is at TradeCenter 128 in Woburn, with parking at the door, and we also meet by video. Most Arlington clients find Woburn a simpler drive than going into Boston or Cambridge.
Your Arlington Estate Planning Attorney Is Ready
Start with a free consult call. No cost, no obligation — a straight conversation about what you have and what it would take to protect it.