Massachusetts Asset Protection
& Wealth Preservation Attorney

What a Massachusetts Asset Protection Attorney Actually Does

Most people who call us about asset protection are not worried about being sued. They are worried about a nursing home bill, an estate tax bill, or a son-in-law.

Asset protection means different things in different practices. In business law it usually means shielding a company owner from creditors and lawsuits. That is real work and it is not the work on this page. For most Massachusetts families the assets at risk are the house, the retirement accounts and the life insurance, and the things that threaten them are the cost of long-term care, the Massachusetts estate tax, probate, and what happens to an inheritance once it lands in a child’s name.

Protecting those assets is a different job from writing a will. A will decides who gets what after you die. It does nothing about what the nursing home takes first, nothing about the tax bill, and nothing about a divorce ten years from now.

What We Protect, and What From

• Your home, long-term care costs, a MassHealth lien, probate.
• Retirement accounts, income tax on withdrawal, and a beneficiary’s divorce or creditors.
• Life insurance, the Massachusetts estate tax. Most people forget it counts.
• A business, no succession plan, a forced sale, an estate that is taxable but not liquid.
• A vacation or rental property, probate in a second state, and siblings who do not agree.

That list is the work. Everything below is how we do it.

Then, and Only Then: What We Call It

We do this under a method we built and named Wealth Preservation Planning, or WPP. Traditional estate planning is focused on death. WPP looks at what happens while you are alive as well: keeping your wealth where you want it, protecting it from long-term care costs, planning a business succession, and minimizing estate taxes. We will even handle the MassHealth long-term care application, which most firms will not touch.

Every client goes through the Monteforte Law Wealth Preservation System™, the process Attorney Michael Monteforte built to work out which tools a particular family actually needs.

Our firm focuses on moderate to high-net-worth families because they are the ones who benefit most from this kind of planning. That level of assets brings challenges a simple will does not address, estate tax exposure, gifting to the next generation, and keeping a business or a second property in the family. Those challenges are what this firm is built around.

How does wealth preservation planning work?

Every client is put through Monteforte Law’s very own Monteforte Law Wealth Preservation System™. It’s our own trademarked system that Attorney Michael Monteforte created, which we use to evaluate our clients’ needs and help decide what would be the best plan for them. While every client is different, most of our clients have similar goals, those being to pass down wealth to their children and families with as little being eaten up by estate taxes as possible and to protect their assets from long-term care costs. Our Monteforte Law Wealth Preservation System™ helps us to evaluate and recommend the best possible plan to help achieve their goals.

We’ve seen many clients who have done some estate planning, but their documents don’t cover all the important bases. Often, no consideration has been given to planning for estate taxes, dementia or Alzheimer’s, business succession, or long-term care. Wealth preservation planning includes everything that estate planning does, but we also fill in those missing pieces.

Our approach to wealth preservation planning is holistic, meaning that we take a comprehensive look at your assets, family situation, and long-term goals. This allows us to create a plan that protects your assets, minimizes taxes, and ensures that your wealth is passed on to your intended beneficiaries with as little disruption as possible. We also offer a wide range of legal services, including asset protection, wealth preservation, and business succession planning, to address all aspects of your estate.

Why a Will Alone Does Not Protect Your Assets

Sadly, it fails for several reasons. Most of the time, it is too narrowly focused and misses crucial aspects of your life, your family, and your finances. How so? Here’s a short list:

• Traditional Estate Planning is focused on death and often neglects the more likely scenario of living into retirement and old age.
• Traditional Estate Planning often neglects to account for estate taxes.
• Traditional Estate Planning often neglects to plan for long-term care or protect assets from nursing homes and Medicaid liens.
• Traditional Estate Planning is often a one-shot deal, where it is completed based on the client’s current situation and is never looked at again after the client has changes in their life or there are changes in the law that would negatively impact the plan.
• Traditional Estate Planning often neglects to account for avoiding probate, retirement plans, or life insurance.

What Asset Protection Planning Solves

• Securely pass on your assets to your children or other beneficiaries, either all at once or over a period.
• Keep Uncle Sam’s hands out of your pocket and minimize estate taxes.
• Name guardians for your underage children.
• Provide for the children of a previous marriage or relationship to make sure they get their share and can’t be disinherited by a current spouse.
• Keep a vacation home or rental property in the family for future generations.
• Provide for a loved one with special needs, to make sure they are cared for while maximizing government benefits.
• Keep your child’s spouse from taking your child’s inheritance in a divorce.
• Pass on your business.
• Maximize your veteran’s benefits to get the most out of what you have earned with your service.
• Protect your home and other assets from long-term care costs and nursing homes.
• Pass on your wealth while avoiding the long and expensive probate process.
• Position your assets now so that you can qualify for long-term care benefits in the future, instead of spending your life’s savings on nursing home care.
• Apply for MassHealth long-term care benefits in a nursing home or in-home care.
• Protect assets for family members, ensuring their financial security for generations to come.

We can solve these problems and accomplish these goals! For families over the Massachusetts threshold, the difference between a plan that accounts for the estate tax and one that does not is frequently measured in six figures. Our Massachusetts Estate Tax Calculator will show you your own number. We know how to solve the problems that face upper-middle-class families (and up) in the world today. It’s a dangerous labyrinth of tax rules and limitations on the passing down of wealth.

What Makes WPP Different?

WPP is different from traditional estate planning in several ways. Look at our list to see the difference.

Don’t other firms do WPP?

Rarely. At Monteforte Law we have seen firsthand how traditional estate planning can fall short and leave families exposed. That is why we built our practice around WPP rather than the traditional approach, not because other attorneys are doing it wrong, but because we decided to go deep on one thing instead of doing a little of everything.

Our comprehensive approach and customized plans are built so that families have what they need to protect their assets and the people they care about for years to come. Other firms call us with questions from time to time, and we are always glad to share what we know.

As your life changes, your plan has to change with you.

We can make sure that the plan is updated as your life changes and as the law changes. Why is that important? Well, you can have the greatest plan in the world based on today’s rules, but tomorrow, all those rules can change. Estate planning, tax, and long-term care regulations are in a constant state of flux. Your estate plan needs to be able to adapt to those changes. Put it this way – a home built 100 years ago might have been top of the line at the time, but if no one ever went back and added indoor plumbing or a modern heating system, who would ever want to live there? Our firm makes sure your plan is always “up to code”. We take the responsibility of keeping in regular contact with you and advising you of changes in the laws. We will also stay on top of changes in your family, your job, and your assets. We want your plan to always be the right one for you. A plan that doesn’t change is the same as that 100-year-old house with no updates.

Asset protection for your home, retirement, business and life insurance

When structuring your plan, we use numerous tools to accomplish your goals. We protect your assets, your home, your retirement, your business, and even your life insurance. The idea is to preserve your generational wealth. We want to help you avoid probate and pass on as much money as you can while protecting it from Uncle Sam! Our asset protection strategies include using certain trusts and legal tools to shield your wealth from creditors and lawsuits, helping prevent loss from legal claims and ensuring your assets remain secure.

Our tools start with our “Big Three” documents. Learn more about them HERE. Wills are a critical part of these documents, as creating wills helps secure your family’s future and avoid disputes or confusion over your estate.

The Trusts We Use for Asset Protection

• Stand-alone Retirement Trust. The Stand-alone Retirement Trust helps your beneficiaries minimize the taxes on your retirement accounts and allows them to receive the money over time, rather than all at once. That way, an adult of your choosing controls the money. This is especially useful with second marriages and in cases of divorce, where a divorced spouse might be your children’s guardian, but you do not want them controlling the cash. Retirement planning protects your money for your family’s future.
• Family Trust allows your money to be given to your beneficiaries in installments while having another adult use the funds on their behalf until they are old enough. Installments over time help the beneficiaries deal with money management a little at a time so that they cannot spend it all at once, and so that they can get some insulation from a divorce if they were to get married or divorced young. The trust will also keep your assets out of probate.
• A Credit Shelter Trust. The Credit Shelter Trust helps protect your assets from Massachusetts Estate Taxes. The Massachusetts Estate tax can easily reach six figures in some cases, and the CST allows a married couple to each receive their maximum estate tax exemption under the law. Without the CST, many couples (or their children) will end up with a huge estate tax bill.
• To learn more about trusts, read our free report, 5 Trusts That Can Wreck Your Estate Plan.

Asset protection for your home — can a nursing home take my house?

One of the most common questions asked is “Can I protect my home from Medicaid and Nursing homes? Or, can they take my house?” On a free consult call, Nicole will listen to your situation and tell you honestly whether this is the kind of problem we handle. If it is, your questions about long-term care get answered by an attorney at your Strategic Planning Session. To learn the three ways to pay for Long-Term Care, read our free report, How To Pay For Long-Term Care.

While we can use a variety of different tools to protect your home, one of the best options is what we refer to as a Medicaid Trust. A Medicaid Trust is a highly specialized tool and should not be attempted without expert assistance. At Monteforte Law P.C., we specialize in this type of planning, and for the sake of your house, you need to make sure it is done correctly. Using the wrong type of Trust can cause you to lose Medicaid protection and render the Trust virtually useless. With the right Trust, we can help you protect your home so that it cannot be counted against you as an asset and keep it away from Medicaid MassHealth liens. At the same time, the Trust helps to minimize estate taxes, and it keeps your home out of probate. This means your home will go to your beneficiaries automatically upon your passing, without any court intervention. Medicaid planning is the practice of strategically arranging your assets to qualify for Medicaid while preserving your wealth for your family.

Life Insurance planning is another consideration.

Many people forget to count their life insurance death benefits as part of their estate, and therefore forget to consider the Massachusetts estate tax. Many folks stay under the Massachusetts limit until they add in their life insurance, and it puts them over the estate limit. This results in a large estate tax bill! In those situations, we look for ways to carve out your life insurance benefits from your taxable estate. In that instance, our attorneys might recommend a Life Insurance Trust or ILIT. The ILIT pulls the life insurance death benefit out of your taxable estate and can help keep you below the limit. For people with $500k or $1 million life insurance policies, the ILIT carries a HUGE benefit.

Life insurance planning can be especially useful for business owners and self-employed individuals. Beyond just death benefits, the right policies can help you save for retirement, pay for your children’s college, and even pay for long-term care. In situations where we cannot eliminate the estate tax, a life insurance policy can even be used to pay those taxes and minimize the tax hit to your beneficiaries.

The bottom line is that every client and every family is different, and so is every estate plan. There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. Do not let a lawyer convince you to accept a “simple” or “canned” solution. They do not work and can leave major problems for your loved ones. No one else is exactly like you, and no two families should have the same plan. We take the time to get to know you and your family. Our attorneys use your Strategic Planning Session to learn about you, your goals, your worries, and your individual finances. We recognize the unique needs of each client’s family members and tailor our plans to ensure their protection and well-being.

Do not settle for less than that.

If you want a number to work from, our Massachusetts Estate Tax Calculator estimates what your family would owe and how much a married couple can shelter with trust planning.

Not sure whether any of this applies to you? Start with a free 15-minute consult call with Nicole Ott, our Lead Intake Coordinator, book it online or call 978-657-7437. If it makes sense to go further, she will get you booked for a Strategic Planning Session with an attorney.

Asset Protection Is Not Hiding Assets

It is worth saying plainly, because the phrase attracts the wrong kind of question. Asset protection planning is not moving money somewhere a creditor cannot find it, and it is not concealing anything from MassHealth. Everything we do is disclosed, documented and done in the open.

What it actually is: owning things in a structure the law treats differently. A house owned by the right kind of irrevocable trust, held long enough, is not counted the same way as a house in your own name. That is not a loophole. It is the rule, and it works precisely because it is followed exactly. A trust built wrong, or funded late, protects nothing at all.

And it is not only about long-term care. Anyone can be sued. Claims come out of car accidents, credit card debt, a foreclosure, or an unhappy customer, and a plan built only around death does not see any of that coming.

When It Is Too Late for Some of It

Some of this has a clock on it. Transfers into a Medicaid trust start a look-back period, and the clock runs from the transfer, not from the day you signed the trust. Moving the house into a trust you created five years ago does not backdate anything.

That does not mean nothing can be done once someone is already sick or already in a facility. Crisis planning is real work and we do a great deal of it. But the tools available in a crisis are narrower and more expensive than the ones available to someone planning three years out, and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something.

Elder Law, MassHealth and Asset Protection

Elder law and Medicaid planning are vital components of a truly comprehensive estate plan, especially for families concerned about protecting assets and ensuring long-term security. At our law firm, we recognize that the challenges of aging and the rising costs of long-term care can put your hard-earned assets at risk. That’s why our team of experienced attorneys is dedicated to guiding clients through the complexities of elder law, Medicaid planning, and asset protection planning, so you can preserve your legacy and provide for future generations.

Medicaid planning is a cornerstone of elder law, designed to help individuals qualify for essential government benefits without sacrificing everything they’ve worked for. With proper planning, you can protect your assets from being depleted by long-term care costs, nursing home expenses, and unexpected medical bills. Our attorneys have in-depth knowledge of Massachusetts laws and regulations, and we use that expertise to create strategies tailored to your unique situation, whether that means establishing an irrevocable trust, restructuring assets, or exploring the use of limited liability companies for added protection.

We understand that every family’s needs are different. That’s why we offer a free consult call to discuss your concerns, review your current estate plan, and explain the Medicaid eligibility process. Our goal is to help you navigate the estate planning process with confidence, ensuring your assets are protected, your estate taxes are minimized, and your loved ones are cared for, no matter what the future holds.