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Practice Areas
- Advanced Estate and Tax Planning
- Asset Protection Planning: Domestic and International
- International Estate Planning
- Trust, Estate, and Probate Administration
- Family Business and Succession Planning
- Special Trusts for the Disabled and for Personal Injury
Settlements
- Trusts for the Beneficiary with Special Consideration
- Charitable Giving
- Estate and Gift Tax Return Preparation
- Planning For Pets
Professional Experience
Melissa Langa has built a dynamic
practice guiding individuals, families, businesses, and charitable
organizations in designing and implementing customized tax-efficient structures
to meet their particular estate planning, business, and charitable needs. As
part of her practice, Melissa has assisted families who wish to pass a business
to certain children while treating their other children fairly, has helped
clients navigate the legal and tax implications of a death in the family, and
has designed complex gifting structures to meet specific philanthropic goals. Melissa's practice encompasses not only that of a trusts and estates advisor,
but also as a family advisor and sounding board for all matters legal which a
family faces in the 21st century.
Prior to Bove & Langa,
Melissa’s legal experience included advocating for civil rights on behalf of
the United States in the U.S. Courts of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court --
specifically protecting the employment rights of minorities, women, the
disabled, and the aged. While taking time off from the law to raise her
children, Melissa’s civic activities included leading a civil rights political
action committee, spearheading the funding and building of a new elementary
school playground, and serving as a town meeting member. Upon re-entry to the
law, Melissa chose the field of Trusts and Estates as the ideal vehicle to
allow her to continue her advocacy for clients’ personal rights and to help
them build a better legal blueprint for themselves and their families.
Sample Matters
- Organization of family limited
liability company (FLLC) to consolidate wealth management and subsequent creation of multiple grantor
retained annuity trusts (GRATs) to receive discounted gifts of FLLC
interests to minimize estate tax and pass wealth to younger generation
- Creation of charitable private
foundation for multiple generations within a family to consolidate
philanthropic endeavors
- Design and implement multi-tiered
foreign asset protection structure for a client joining the board of
directors of a publically traded company.
- Design and implement complex dynastic
generation-skipping transfer tax trust which will avoid the estate tax for
multiple generations, with the trust assets to serve as the “family bank”
throughout the generations
- Use of “sale to grantor trust” device
to transfer wealth to next generation where client has fully utilized gift
tax exclusion
Faculty Appointments
- Adjunct Professor, Boston University School of Law, Graduate Tax Program, 2000-Present (Has taught courses in Estate and Gift Taxation and is currently teaching Estate Planning)
- Annual member of the Graduate Tax Program's "Ethics in the Practice of Tax Law" Seminar
Books and Texts
- Chapter Five: Special
Drafting Considerations for Asset Protection Trusts: The Offspring of
Offshore Trusts. Asset Protection Strategies: Wealth Preservation
Planning with Domestic and Offshore Entitles (American Bar Association
2005)
- Chapter Eight: Planning Bequests or Gifts to Grandchildren. Drafting Estate Plans (Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education 2006 - 2012) (co-author)
Articles and Presentations
Memberships
- American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC): Fellow (2013)
- STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners): Founding Co-Chair of the STEP USA Boston Chapter (2011-2013)
- Boston Estate Planning Council: President (2009-2010); Executive
Committee (2006-2008); Board Member (2004 - 2006); Co-Chair,
Programs Committee (2004-2006)
- American Bar Association: Co-Vice Chair, Asset Protection Planning Committee (2011-2013). Chair, Generation Skipping Tax Committee 2007-2009 (Real Property and Probate Section - Income and Transfer Tax Planning): In 2006 and 2004 Melissa participated in committees that submitted comments to the IRS on proposed regulations.
- Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE): Member; Estate Planning Curriculum Advisory Committee (2011- Forward)
- Boston Bar Association Trusts & Estates
Section: Member, Multi-Disciplinary Practice (MDP) of Law Task Force
(1999-2000)
- International Tax Planning Association
- Massachusetts Bar Association
- Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts
- National Association of Female Executives
Honors and Awards
- Recognized by Law & Politics and Boston Magazine as a New
England Super Lawyer in the field of Trusts and Estates (2009)
- Best Lawyers in America (Trusts & Estates): 2012
- The Top Women Attorneys in Massachusetts: 2012
Community Involvement
- Speakeasy Stage Company: Board of Directors (2010- 2013); Chair of the Board's Governance Committee (2011-2013); Member, Board of Visitors (2009)
- Brookline Community Foundation: Chair (2012-2013); Co-Chair (2011-2012); Professional Advisors Committee
- President's Alumnae Advisory Council, Colby-Sawyer
College (N.H.) (2008 - Forward)
- The Boston Foundation, Member, Professional Advisors Committee (2006-2009)
- The Animal Rescue League of Boston: Member,
Planned Giving Board (2006-2007)
- Friends of the Edward Devotion
School: Member, Board of Directors (2004-2009)
Education
- Boston University School
of Law - LL.M., Graduate Tax Program, May 1996. Class Rank: 5th
- Washington College of Law, The American
University, Washington, DC - J.D. 1979 Labor Law High
Achievement Award
- Douglass College (Rutgers
University), New Brunswick, NJ - A.B. with honors,
1976. Eagleton Institute Honors Scholar
- Colby-Sawyer College, New London, N.H.
- Associate of Arts, 1974. Social and Behavior Science Award
Admissions
- Massachusetts, 1982
- United States Tax Court, 2000
- District of Columbia, 1979
- United States Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fourth,
Fifth, Sixth and Ninth Circuits, 1980
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