Alison is an estate planning attorney who works with individuals, couples and families to craft estate plans that protect their assets and meet their personal objectives. She also assists families (both as beneficiaries and fiduciaries) in navigating the probate and estate administration process and the ongoing administration of trusts.
Alison counsels clients on how to manage and transfer personal assets in a tax-efficient manner, considering estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes. With her assistance, clients can reduce their taxable estates and plan for future generations. She leverages lifetime gifts by using various methods such as funding dynasty trusts, insurance trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts and other grantor trusts and family investment vehicles.
Alison also assists clients in achieving their charitable goals through funding or establishing charitable trusts during their lifetimes and/or planning charitable bequests at death. Further, she advises tax-exempt organizations regarding the initial process of obtaining tax-exempt status and navigating the complex IRS regulations governing charities.
Alison’s friendly and approachable demeanor helps clients feel at ease when discussing their long-term goals. Clients depend on her proactive, thorough and responsive style.
Always on top of developments in her field, Alison co-authors a monthly column in Trusts & Estates Magazine, a national print and online publication. She has also frequently contributed to the Boston Bar Association’s bi-annual presentations on estate tax law developments. Alison has been named a Massachusetts Super Lawyer “Rising Star” and “Top Women Lawyer.” She is also a member of the Boston Foundation’s Professional Advisers Network.
Prior to joining Gilmore Rees & Carlson, Alison was associated with the estate planning departments of the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and the Boston office of Sullivan & Worcester LLP.
Alison is based in the firm’s Wellesley office but also meets with clients in our Franklin office.
In her free time, Alison looks forward to spending time with her three young children in addition to skiing, running and playing tennis.
Representative Experience
- Helps individuals, couples and families address important tax-related matters in the estate planning process, with deep experience in reducing tax exposure in connection with planning for the long-term.
- Creates specialized trust structures to meet specific goals both during life and for future generations.
- Assists families in the estate administration process, from the probate of wills to the administration of trusts.
- Guides tax-exempt organizations through the process of obtaining tax-exempt status. Counsels individuals and families on ways to achieve long-term charitable goals using charitable trusts.
Alison E. Lothes
PartnerRelated Practices
- Estate Planning
- Estate Administration
Admissions
- Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2007
Education
- University of Pennsylvania Law School, Order of the Coif, J.D., 2006
- Dartmouth College, B.A., cum laude, 2001
- Boston Bar Association, Member
- Boston Estate Planning Council, Member
- Greater Boston Fiduciary Law American Inn of Court, Member
- Trusts and Estates Consortium, Member
- Tax Law Update
Trusts and Estates Magazine, Co-author of Monthly Column, 2009-present - The Case for Incentive Trusts
Trusts & Estates Magazine, Co-author, Vol. 147, No. 10, October, 2008 - RPM Trusts: Reduction of Valuation Risk, 33 Estates
Gifts and Trusts Journal 191, Co-author, September, 2008 - Quality Not Quantity: The Costs and Benefits of Confidentiality
154 U. Pa. L. Rev. 433, 2005
- Estate Gift & Generation-skipping Transfer Taxes
Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Chair, February 2015 - Estate Planning: Crunching the Numbers
Boston Bar Association Panel Presentation, March 2015 - Trusts & Estates Year in Review
Boston Bar Association, June 2013 - Trusts & Estates Year in Review
Boston Bar Association, June 2012 - Trusts & Estates Mid-Year Review
Boston Bar Association, December 2011 - Trusts & Estates Mid-Year Review
Boston Bar Association, December 2010
- Massachusetts Super Lawyers “Rising Star”
- Massachusetts Super Lawyers “Top Women Lawyer”
- Boston Magazine Five Star Investment Professional