Estate planning connects your documents, asset ownership, taxes, and family decisions. For Massachusetts families, the state's $2 million estate tax threshold makes that coordination especially important.
Estate Planning Guide · Updated September 2026
A complete estate plan typically brings together your wishes for property, health care, decision-making authority, beneficiary designations, and the way assets are titled. It also needs to work with the financial plan and with the tax and legal guidance you receive from your own professionals.
The goal is not simply to create documents. It is to help make sure the documents, accounts, insurance, real estate, and family intentions are aligned. Individual circumstances, legal requirements, and tax consequences vary, so planning should be reviewed with qualified legal and tax professionals.
Massachusetts estate tax can apply when a taxable estate exceeds $2 million. The calculation is different from a simple tax on only the amount above that line, which is why a current estimate can be useful when evaluating the broader planning picture.
For families with substantial real estate, retirement accounts, concentrated business ownership, life insurance, or interests held through trusts and entities, the first task is often to establish a complete balance sheet. Account values alone may not tell the full story. Ownership, beneficiary designations, debt, liquidity needs, and the timing of a transfer can all create questions for the attorney and CPA to evaluate.
Start with a current inventory. Your estate may include more than an investment account: real estate, retirement accounts, life insurance you own, business interests, and other property can all matter.
Estimate your Massachusetts estate tax with the calculator →Under Massachusetts rules, an unused state estate tax exemption generally does not transfer automatically to a surviving spouse. For married couples, that makes the design and funding of the estate plan worth discussing with an estate planning attorney, CPA, and financial advisor as appropriate. A coordinated review may identify questions for those professionals, but it cannot determine the right legal or tax strategy for every family.
Massachusetts also has a 4% surtax on taxable income above $1 million. Although this is an income tax consideration rather than an estate tax, a CPA can help explain how income, liquidity events, charitable decisions, and other planning choices may interact with a family's broader tax picture. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and can change.
An estate planning attorney can advise on the documents that fit your situation. For a sophisticated household, the documents should be read as an operating system rather than a stack of forms: they establish who has authority, how assets are controlled, and how decisions are carried out if a person becomes incapacitated or dies. Many plans include some combination of the following:
A will can state how certain property should be distributed and name guardians for minor children. It generally works alongside, rather than replaces, beneficiary designations and trust planning. An attorney can also explain how it coordinates with property that passes by title, contract, or trust terms.
A revocable trust may be used to hold assets and provide instructions for management or distribution. It can also establish successor trustee responsibilities and a process for administering assets. Its usefulness depends in part on whether assets are properly titled or transferred to the trust.
This document can designate someone to handle specified financial matters if you are unable to act. The scope and validity of the authority are legal questions for your attorney.
A health care proxy can name a person to make health care decisions if you cannot. Discuss its preparation and use with your attorney and health care providers.
Estate planning often involves several professionals with different responsibilities. Your estate attorney prepares legal documents and provides legal advice. Your CPA advises on tax matters and prepares tax returns. Michael Cammarata, CFP®, helps coordinate the financial planning and investment information those professionals may need, while you remain in control of whom you engage and the decisions you make.
Coordination is particularly useful when a family has multiple account types, several generations of beneficiaries, closely held business interests, or a plan that has not been reviewed since a major change in assets, family circumstances, residency, or tax law. A structured review can organize the facts and identify decisions that merit legal or tax advice. It does not substitute for that advice.
Coordination can include organizing an asset and beneficiary inventory, identifying questions for your attorney or CPA, reviewing whether account ownership is consistent with signed documents, and helping keep the financial plan aligned as circumstances change. It does not replace legal or tax advice. If retirement-account distributions or Social Security timing are part of the conversation, review the related retirement income planning service.
A trust document alone may not carry out its intended role if assets are never retitled or beneficiary designations are left inconsistent with the plan. This is often called an unfunded trust. Reviewing account registration, beneficiaries, insurance ownership, and other asset details with the appropriate professionals can help surface follow-up items.
For married Massachusetts families exploring how both spouses' estate tax exemptions may be considered, read our educational A/B trust planning guide. Any trust structure should be evaluated and drafted by a qualified estate planning attorney for your specific circumstances.
Investment advisory services are offered through MSA Financial, LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser (CRD #107768). Michael Cammarata is not an attorney or CPA and does not provide legal or tax advice. He does not draft legal documents or prepare tax returns. He coordinates with clients' existing estate attorneys and CPAs. This guide is for educational purposes only.