In addition to serving as professional fiduciaries and providing investment management services, the Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge Office offers many of the services commonly associated with a family office.

           Estate Planning. The trustees help clients formulate their ideas about their estate plan. We help clients understand the transfer tax laws, explain the common techniques for minimizing taxes and discuss alternatives in dealing with family issues. This helps clients prepare for the discussions they will have with their attorney. We also will review the documents that are prepared by the attorney to insure that they carry out the client’s wishes.

           Financial Planning. The trustees are available to assist clients with questions they may have about income tax planning, financial decisions and budgeting issues. Most issues of this type can be resolved with relatively informal analysis. The trustee will also assist the client in interpreting the detailed information provided to them by a financial planner.

           Client Gifts. Many of our clients ask us to handle their larger charitable gifts. These can be made anonymously. We also assist clients in making personal gifts for estate planning purposes. We provide advice to clients on whether to give cash or appreciated securities. We keep records of gifts and typically provide clients with a list of the prior year’s gifts when we solicit instructions for making current year gifts. We provide administration for gifts from charitable trusts which we manage including the review of grant proposals.

           Bill Payments. In addition to regular disbursements, making gifts and paying taxes, we will pay miscellaneous bills at the client’s request. We can also provide comprehensive bill payment services and arrange for bookkeeping services.

           Income Tax Returns. We have an experienced tax department that prepares the fiduciary tax returns for our irrevocable trusts. They provide tax information for the beneficiaries of these trusts and prepare individual tax returns for many of our clients. The tax department also handles the payment of estimated taxes for most of our clients.

           Gift Tax Returns. We analyze whether our clients need to file gift tax returns. Clients have the option to have us prepare these returns for them or have us forward the necessary information to their regular tax preparer.

           Estate Settlement. We administer estates for which we serve as executor including the preparation of the estate tax return, fiduciary income tax return and the probate account.