BEPC Names Christopher T. Carlson, Esquire, its 2011 Estate Planner of the Year
Christopher T. Carlson, Esquire, has been selected by the Boston Estate Planning Council (BEPC) as its 2011 Estate Planner of the Year, in recognition of his contributions to the estate planning profession. This award represents the highest honor that BEPC can bestow upon its members. It will be presented to Mr. Carlson at the association’s annual Estate Planner of the Year dinner, to be held in Boston on May 26, 2011, at the Intercontinental Hotel.
Mr. Carlson is a co-founding partner of Gilmore, Rees & Carlson, P.C., with offices in Wellesley and Franklin, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island. The firm was established in 1988 with the objective of delivering high-quality estate planning services to clients at reasonable cost and in convenient suburban locations, as an attractive alternative to the traditional large-firm downtown practice. Prior to the establishment of this firm, Mr. Carlson spent 16 years as an attorney in the Trusts and Estates Department of Hale and Dorr (now Wilmer Hale), becoming a Senior Partner in that firm in 1982.
During his entire 38-year practice, Mr. Carlson has focused on providing estate planning and administration advice to his individual clients, their families and businesses, to help them achieve their personal and financial objectives. Both Mr. Carlson and his firm carry the highest professional rating in the national Martindale- Hubbell Law Directory, and are listed in the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. Mr. Carlson has been listed in the Best Lawyers in America for the past 16 years, and has been named as a Massachusetts “Super Lawyer” for the past 8 years.
A member of the Boston Estate Planning Council since 1976, he served on the Board of Directors from 1987 to 1991, and currently serves as a member of the Program Committee and Nominating Committee.
Mr. Carlson has been a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) since 1990, and has served on ACTEC’s Massachusetts State Membership Committee from 1995 to 1997 and from 2000 to 2003. He has been a member of the Estate Planning Curriculum Advisory Committee for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education/New England Law Institute, Inc. (MCLE/NELI) from 1982 to 1993, and again from 2003 to the present.
Mr. Carlson has appeared six times as a panelist for the Federal Tax Institute of New England, and served as the Program Chairman in 1996. He has also served on the Planning Committee, and several times as a panelist, for the annual American Law Institute-American Bar Association “Sophisticated Estate Planning Techniques” seminar, and as a member of the Steering Committee of the Boston Estate Planning and Probate Forum. He has taught a course in the Graduate Tax Program at the Boston University School of Law, and has authored several publications, including “The Dynamic Disclaimer” in the New England Law Review, which remains the leading commentary on the Massachusetts disclaimer statute, which he helped to draft during his time at Hale and Dorr. He has spoken on scores of occasions for professional and continuing legal education organizations in the Boston area and throughout the country.
Mr. Carlson is a cum laude graduate of both Amherst College and the Harvard Law School. He has been very active in Amherst College affairs, serving for many years as a volunteer consultant to the Development Office, writing and editing publications on estate planning and planned giving, and presenting estate planning seminars to Amherst alumni and faculty.
