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Natalie B. Choate

Of Counsel

Natalie B. Choate is an Of Counsel in the Trusts and Estates Department. Her practice is limited to estate planning for retirement benefits. Her two books, Life and Death Planning for Retirement Benefits and The QPRT Manual, are leading resources for estate planning professionals.

Natalie is the founder and former chair of the Boston Bar Estate Planning Committee; a former chair of the Boston Bar Employee Benefits Committee; and a member and former officer of the Boston Probate and Estate Planning Forum. She is a fellow and former Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and former chairman of its Employee Benefits Committee. Named “Estate Planner of the Year” by the Boston Estate Planning Council, Natalie is listed in The Best Lawyers in America. The National Association of Estate Planners and Councils has awarded Natalie the “Distinguished Accredited Estate Planner” designation.

Her articles on estate planning topics have been published in ACTEC Notes, Estate Planning, Trusts and Estates, Tax Practitioners Journal and Tax Management. She is an editorial advisor for Trusts and Estatesmagazine. She writes a web column and “podcast” for MorningstarAdvisor.com

Natalie has taught professional-level courses in estate planning in 49 states, and has spoken at the Heckerling, Notre Dame, Heart of America, New England, Southern California, Mississippi, Tennessee, Washington State and Southern Federal Tax Institutes. Her comments on estate and retirement planning have been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Money, Newsweek, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Forbes, Financial Planning, Financial World and The New York Times.

Nutter McClennen & Fish

Natalie’s Recent activity

Disclaimers vs. ERISA
Oct 01, 2009
In the recent case of Kennedy v. Plan Administrator for DuPont Savings and Investment Plan et al.,1 the U.S. Supreme Court again confirmed its longstanding policy that qualified retirement plans (QRPs) must be...
IRAs and the AVM
Jan 01, 2009
Although assets are typically valued for federal estate tax purposes as of the date of death, Internal Revenue Code Section 2032(a) provides that, generally, if an estate elects, [i]n the case of property distributed...
When the Stretch Snaps: Computing Damages
Sep 01, 2008
When a retirement plan participant dies, the Internal Revenue Code's minimum distribution rules generally require that the plan benefits be distributed in annual installments over the life expectancy of the...
Sticky Situations
Sep 01, 2007
Retirement benefits present unique challenges to the fiduciary of a decedent's estate. In fact, an executor may have to grapple with three scenarios in the context of a decedent's individual retirement account (IRA)...
IRS Rejects UPIA 10 Percent Rule
Jul 01, 2006
If an asset is to qualify for the federal estate tax marital deduction as qualified terminal interest property (QTIP), the decedent's surviving spouse must be entitled to all of the income for life from such asset.1...
Double Deaths
Sep 01, 2005
Retirement benefits are typically left to the participant's surviving spouse with the expectation that she1 will do something with them: either roll the benefits over to her own retirement plan to continue maximum...
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