Practical Guide to Estate Planning (2025)

1. The Estate Planning Process
2. Basic Rules of Property Transfers Upon Death
3. Basic Estate Planning Documents
4. Trust Basics
5. Estate and Gift Tax Basics: Tax Tools of the Estate Planner
6. Planning for A Spouse or Nonmarital Partner
7. Issues in Planning for Children
8. Using Gifts in Estate Planning
9. Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Planning
10. Charitable Giving
11. Planning for a Closely Held Business Interest
12. Insurance
13. Estate Planning with Retirement Benefits
14. Post Mortem Estate Planning

• Form 1 LivingTrust
• Form 2 Living Trust Amendment
• Form 3 Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust
• Form 4 Annual Exclusion Trust
• Form 5 Additional Annual Exclusion Trust
• Form 6 Will with Pour-Over Provision
• Form 7 Will with Outright Dispositions
• Form 8 Codicil
• Form 9 Durable Power of Attorney
• Form 10 Health Care Proxy
• Form 11 Living Will
• Form 12 Charitable Remainder Unitrust
• Form 13 Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT)
• Form 14 Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT)

• Index

Ray Madoff, is a Professor at Boston College Law School where she has been specializing in the areas of trusts and estates and estate planning since 1993. Prior to entering teaching, she practiced law in New York and Boston, most recently with the firm of Hill & Barlow, P.C. She received her B.A. from Brown University with honors and her J.D. and LL.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law. Professor Madoff has been a frequent lecturer on issues of tax and estate planning and is the author of numerous publications including, Undue Influence, 81 Minnesota Law Review 571 (1997) and Taxing Personhood: Estate Taxes and the Compelled Commodification of Identity, 17 Virginia Tax Review 759 (1998). 

Professor Madoff is an Academic Fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel. ACTEC is a national association of approximately 2,700 lawyers "who have made outstanding contributions to the field of Trusts and Estates in their communities."

Cornelia R. Tenney is an attorney in the estate planning and nonprofit groups at Hemenway and Barnes in Boston, Massachusetts. She received a B.A. with honors and an M.L.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and an LL.M. in Taxation from Boston University. She served as a clerk to Justice Ruth Abrams at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Her practice is focused on sophisticated estate planning, planning for business interests, and charitable organizations, and she has written and lectured frequently on these topics.

Martin A. Hall has been with the law firm of Ropes & Gray, in Boston, Massachusetts, since 1986 and has been a partner since 1994. He is a member of the Private Client Group and Tax and Benefits Department. Martin graduated with an M.A. in law, first class honors (1981) from Cambridge University, England and earned a J.D., summa cum laude (1986) from Boston University School of Law. Martin is co-author with Carolyn M. Osteen, also of Ropes & Gray, of the Harvard Manual on Tax Aspects of Charitable Giving (8th ed. 1999). Martin is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, current Vice-Chair of the Estate and Gift Tax Committee of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association, and Chair of the Professional Advisors Committee to The Boston Foundation.

Lisa Nalchajian Mingolla is a partner in the Trusts and Estates and Tax Departments at Sullivan & Worcester LLP In Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Mingolla received her B.S.E., magna cum laude, from Princeton University, her J.D. from Boston College Law School, and her LL.M. in Taxation from Boston University School of Law. She is a member of the Trusts and Estates Section and Estate Planning Committee of the Boston Bar Association.