Nancy Catalini Chew, Esq.
admitted to practice in MA and NH
270 Ayer Road, Post Office Box 0667
Harvard, Massachusetts 01451
(978) 772-2442 telephone
Alternative meeting location:
10 Common Road
Ashby, Massachusetts 01431
Law Offices of Nancy Catalini Chew
Dear Clients, Friends, and Colleagues:
We send this annual calendar/newsletter mailing to all of our new clients from 2025, as well as to all of the clients who have requested this annual mailing on an ongoing basis. We are also happy to include our referral parters and professional colleagues. In that spirit, if you are a new 2025 client who enjoys this mailing and wishes to be included for subsequent physical mailings in future years, please call or email us (admin@attychew.com) to stay on the distribution list. Otherwise, we post the annual letter to our website each December so you can stay up-to-date on the legal news, even if you do not elect to receive a calendar in the mail.
We hope you can reflect on 2025 and put it to rest with some measure of peace and thanksgiving. We look forward to another year assisting you with your estate planning, elder law, and probate needs, so please don’t hesitate to contact us at any time. Our wish for each of you is for a favorable and healthy 2026!
Nancy, Gina, Erica, Jen, Abby, and Angela
HOLIDAY OFFICE CLOSURE
PLEASE BE ADVISED that the office will be officially closed Wednesday, December 24, 2025, through Sunday, January 4, 2026. Mail, voice mails, and emails will be monitored daily during this closure time, and there will be minimal staffing some of the weekdays in between, but we will not reopen with full regular staffing until Monday, January 5, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. During this closure time, ONLY EMERGENCY MESSAGES will be returned. All non-emergency messages will be returned on January 5 and 6, 2026, in order of priority. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation as our staff enjoys a “winter nap” with their friends and families over the holidays, and please be reminded that we have a drop box by our front door if you wish to drop anything off for us during days we are not staffed.
CONTACT INFORMATION UPDATES
Please be reminded to call or email us (admin@attychew.com) with any address, telephone or email changes, and to notify us of any marriages, divorces, births, and deaths we should note in our files. It does not necessarily mean that any of your documents need to be amended solely to update this information, but it is very helpful to have current information in your file.
2026 ESTATE AND GIFT TAX NUMBERS
The federal estate tax threshold is slated to increase from $13.99m per person in 2025 to $15m per person in 2026. Congress acted this year to keep the anticipated $15m permanent, instead of allowing the law to “sunset’ to earlier much-lower thresholds, which is consistent with their historic actions on this topic. There had been expectation/talk it would increase to $25m, but the feds appear to have settled on $15m—at least for now! Be sure to dialogue with our office, your financial planner, and/or your CPA if you have any concerns in this regard.
Our Massachusetts estate tax increased significantly in late 2023, so we are now enjoying an exemption threshold of $2m. Only estates in excess of that amount are taxed, at roughly 8%, on the amount that exceeds $2m only. As a reminder, do not abandon your tax- minimizing trusts and strategies simply because the federal threshold is so high and because the State threshold was increased—you still gain from using your trusts to avoid probate and keep things simple for your families, so stick with the plan unless we discuss together and determine otherwise.
Another thing to note if you are a Massachusetts resident with a second property in another State—that second out-of-state home is NOT part of your Massachusetts taxable estate and is not subject to our roughly 8% estate tax calculation. This can be an important factor for many clients. Unfortunately, every other asset is part of that calculation, however— including the gross value of retirement assets and life insurance proceeds—which many people do not realize will be part of their estate tax, despite income tax implications/exclusions.
In addition, the annual gift tax exclusion will remain $19,000/person/year—the same as it was in 2025. This is the amount each person may gift to any other person annually without gift or estate tax consequences, BUT there are still long-term care consequences for any such gifts—even though they are tax-exempt—so be reminded to consult us prior to making any gifts at all if future long-term care costs are a concern and/or on your horizon.
HOMESTEAD PROTECTION INCREASE AND WHEN A REFILING IS APPROPRIATE
If you’ve refinanced or renewed a line-of-credit since your Declaration of Homestead was last updated, the most conservative approach is to re-file. It’s a quick and inexpensive process, but the benefits of protecting the equity in your home from creditor attachment are well worth the effort. In addition, if one of the homeowners has attained the age of 62, an “elderly” homestead filing should be made to take advantage of the additional protection. Specifically, the protection a Homestead filing affords increased to $1m last year, and that doubles to $2m if at least one owner is 62 or older. If you do not keep this protection up- to-date, the automatic coverage is only $125,000, so this is worthwhile for all homeowners’ to be sure to address.
A reminder that we do provide certain niche services within our expertise areas of “estate planning and elder law” that many firms do not provide, should you be in need of such services. Specifically, both Massachusetts and federal estate tax return preparation and filing, mediation to assist families to find peaceful and informal resolution to seemingly unresolvable issues, and planning for loved ones with special needs to protect their inheritances.
