Practice Focus
Charlie Platt works with individuals and families on their personal planning needs, including estate and charitable planning, as well as probate and trust administration. With an eye toward the efficient transfer and preservation of wealth, he focuses on estate, gift, generation-skipping, and income taxes.
Before joining Hemenway & Barnes, Charlie spent seven years working at a large New York law firm, and he continues to serve both Massachusetts and New York clients.
Representative Experience
- Creating and administering estate plans with an emphasis on practical solutions tailored to the individual family’s needs
- Advising families on wealth transfer and tax planning strategies, including generation skipping transfer (GST), gift, and estate taxes, and charitable giving
- Developing strategies for insurance planning, private equity and hedge fund interests, and transfers of real estate
- Advising privately held businesses on succession planning
- Serving as a trustee of individual and family trusts
- Assisting with all facets of probate and estate administration
Accolades
Named to the Massachusetts Super Lawyers Rising Star List, 2013-2018
Selected Activities and Publications
- Charlie has presented to the Boston Bar Associations and Planned Giving Group of New England on topics including: estate and income tax planning for small estates; ethical issues in trusts & estates; and generation skipping tax.
- Former Co-chair, Tax Law Updates Committee, Trusts and Estates Section, Boston Bar Association
- Secretary of New York City Bar Trusts, Estates, and Surrogate’s Courts Committee, 2011-2013
- Co-authored the Trusts & Estates Magazine article, “Depression-Era Trusts Come Home to Roost,” December 2016
- Co-authored “Mitigating New York Trust Income, Tax Return Preparers Pay Attention!” in Steve Leimberg’s Income Tax Planning Newsletter, March 2013
- Co-authored “New York State and City Income Taxation of Nongrantor Trusts: Rules and Opportunities,” 37 Tax Mgmt. Est., Gifts & Tr. J., July 2012
- Authored “Planned Giving and the Model Rules of Professional Conduct,” The Family Foundation Advisor, November 2010
Community Involvement
Charlie and his family volunteer regularly with a number of different organizations in the Jewish community. Charlie is also actively involved in Newton youth sports, where he coaches soccer, basketball, and baseball.
Charlie’s Comment on Estate Planning
“The role of an estate planning lawyer entails developing customized, creative solutions to real-life issues. I love getting to know clients, learning about what is important to them and their families, and assisting them with their planning needs, whether it be a simple will and health care proxy or a complex multi-generational estate plan. I feel privileged to be a part of the Hemenway & Barnes private client group, where the commitment to understanding and serving clients is at the heart of every action.”