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THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRiDAy, DECEmbER 22, 2023 Page 19 OBITUARY Testamentary special powers of Appointment T estamentary special powers of appointment provisions contained in an irrevocable trust allow the Settlor of the trust to exercise the power via his or her Last Will and Testament. The Last Will and Testament will have to be submitted to a probate court and allowed. It is through the Last Will and Testament of the Settlor of the Trust that the exercise of the testamentary special power of appointment contained within the terms of the irrevocable trust is achieved. If the Settlor of an irrevocable Medicaid trust includes such a provision in the Trust to appoint (i.e.redirect) the Trust principal to a class of individuals such as the descendants of the Settlor, the Settlor thereby reserves the right to change the ultimate beneficiaries of the Trust that were originally going to receive the balance of the Trust estate upon the Settlor’s death. If the Settlor simply wants to change who would actually receive the Trust estate, the Settlor, by reserving this testamentary special power of appointment, can include a provision in his or her Will that exercises the power by having the Will allowed in probate court. Therefore, such a change can still be made even though the trust is otherwise irrevocable. This special power of appointment, also referred to as a limited power of appointment, cannot include the power to appoint to the Settlor, the Settlor’s estate or the creditors of the Settlor’s estate. If such a power was included within the terms of the Trust, it would simply not be a special power of appointment, and would cause the assets in the Trust to be countable for MassHealth eligibility purposes. One other benefit of such a provision in an irrevocable trust is the obtainment of the stepBeacon Hill Roll Call By Bob Katzen up in cost basis under Internal Revenue Code Section 2038. This is because when the assets are transferred to the irrevocable trust an incomplete gift results due to the special power of appointment provision thereby causing the Trust assets to be included in the gross taxable estate of the Settlor upon his or her death. Treasury Regulation 25.2511-2(b). If your home is transferred to such a Trust that you may have purchased 40 years ago for $150,000, but that is now worth $800,000, upon your death, the cost basis of the home will then become $800,000 in the hands of your beneficiaries due to the step-up in cost basis provisions of IRC Section 1014. A subsequent sale of the home by your children shortly after your death for $800,000 will result in no capital gain. If your total estate is below $2million, there also will be no Massachusetts estate tax to be paid. In a typical Medicaid irrevocable Trust, this is but one provision that will result in a much-desirable step-up in cost basis in order to avoid a substantial future capital gain and a corresponding substantial capital gains tax. Joseph D. Cataldo is an estate planning/elder law attorney, Certified Public Accountant, Certified Financial Planner, AICPA Personal Financial Specialist and holds a masters degree in taxation. GET A FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO MASSTERLIST – Join more than 22,000 people, from movers and shakers to political junkies and interested citizens, who start their weekday morning with MASSterList—the popular newsletter that chronicles news and informed analysis about what’s going on up on Beacon Hill, in Massachusetts politics, policy, media and influence. The stories are drawn from major news organizations as well as specialized publications. MASSterlist will be e-mailed to you FREE every Monday through Friday morning and will give you a leg up on what’s happening in the blood sport of Bay State politics. For more information and to get your free subscription, go to: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/aPTLucK THE HOUSE AND SENATE: There were no roll calls in the House or Senate last week. This week, Beacon Hill Roll Call reports on the percentage of times local senators voted with their party’s leadership in the 2023 session through December 15. Beacon Hill Roll Call uses 97 votes from the 2023 Senate session as the basis for this report. This includes all roll calls that were not on local issues. The votes of 34 Democrats were compared to Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Creem (D-Newton), second-in-command in the Senate. We could not compare the Democrats’ votes to those of Senate President Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) because, by tradition, the Senate president rarely votes. Nineteen (55.8 percent) of the Democrats voted with Creem 100 percent of the time. The other fifteen (44.2 percent) Democrats voted with Creem at least 90 percent of the time. The senator who voted with Creem the least percentage of times is Sen. Walter Timilty (D-Milton) who voted with her only 88 times (90.7 percent). Rounding out the top four who voted with Creem the least number of times are Sens. John Keenan (D-Quincy) who voted with her 91 times (94.7 percent); and Barry Finegold (D-Andover) and Becca Rausch (D-Needham) who each voted with her 93 times (95.8 percent). Beacon Hill Roll Call contacted these four senators three times each and asked them to comment on the percentage of times, lower than the other senators, each one voted with the Creem. None of the four responded. The votes of two of the Republican senators were compared with those of GOP Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester). Sen. Ryan Fattman (R-Sutton) voted with Tarr 85 times (87.6 percent). Sen. Patrick O’Connor (R-Weymouth) voted with Tarr 100 percent of the time. The third Republican, former state representative and newly elected Sen. Peter Durant (R-Spencer) just joined the Senate on November 29 and was not yet a senator when the 97 roll calls in the Senate took place. Since Durant was a representative before moving onto the Senate, we based his numbers on how many times he voted with House Minority Leader Rep. Brad Jones (R-North Reading) in 2023. He voted 100 percent of the time with Jones. SENATORS’ SUPPORT OF THEIR PARTY’S LEADERSHIP IN 2023 THROUGH DECEMBER 15 The percentage next to the senator’s name represents the percentage of times the senator supported his or her party’s leadership so far in 2023 through December 15. The number in parentheses represents the number of times the senator opposed his or her party’s leadership. Some senators voted on all 97 roll call votes. Others missed one or more roll calls. The percentage for each senator is calculated based on the number of roll calls on which BEACON | SEE PAGE 20 Sharon D. (Bell) Quinn A longtime Everett resident for 20 years, passed away on December 16th, 2023, at 62 years old. She was the beloved wife of Dennis Quinn. Born in Medford, she was the loving daughter of the late Sumner Bell and Frances (Gorod) Bell. Loving sister of Barry Bell and his wife Joan Bell of Melrose, and the late Leonard Bell. Dear aunt of Samantha Powers of Lynnfield, Teagan Gummow of Salem, and Brooke LeVasseur of Danvers. Sharon graduated from Medford High School Class of 1979 and worked for Hudson news at Logan Airport as a supervisor for 30 years. Relatives and friends were invited to attend a graveside service at Holy Cross Cemetery, Malden on Thursday, December 21st . For Advertising with Results, call The Advocate Newspapers at 617-387-2200 or Info@advocatenews.net

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