About the talk: A significant portion of American wealth is now held in IRAs, 401(k) plans, or other retirement plans. The fact that retirement plans are “where the money is” attracts many offers of tax-saving schemes and investment proposals aimed at the owners of these plans. Professional advisors need a systematic approach to make sure they give the best advice to their clients who own these benefits, and need to be able to evaluate marketing proposals their clients receive offering the latest money-making idea.

Speaker bio:  

Natalie B. Choate practices law in Boston, Massachusetts, with the firm of Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP. Her practice is limited to consulting on estate planning and retirement benefits matters. Her books Life and Death Planning for Retirement Benefits and The QPRT Manual are leading resources for estate planning professionals.

Miss Choate is a former chairman of the Boston Bar Association Estate Planning Committee, which she founded in 1981. She is a former Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and former Chairman of its Employee Benefits Committee. She is a member and former officer of the Boston Probate and Estate Planning Forum. She was named "Estate Planner of the Year" by the Boston Estate Planning Council, and was one of the first 10 attorneys to receive the “Distinguished Accredited Estate Planner” award from the National Association of Estate Planners and Councils. She is listed in The Best Lawyers in America.

She is an editorial advisor for several professional periodicals: Trusts and Estates, Ed Slott's IRA Advisor, The Leimberg Information Service Employee Benefits Newsletter and Keeping Current. Her articles have been published in ACTEC Notes, Trusts and Estates and Estate Planning magazine. She is a contributing author and former coeditor of the book Drafting Wills and Trusts in Massachusetts. She authors a monthly column on retirement benefits for MorningstarAdvisor.com.

Miss Choate has taught professional-level courses in estate planning for ALI-ABA (the American Law Institute-American Bar Association), American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, International Association of Financial Planners, MCLE, the Boston and Massachusetts Bar Associations, and other organizations, and has spoken at the Heckerling, Notre Dame, Heart of America, New England, Southern California, Mississippi, Southern Federal, and many other Tax Institutes. She has lectured in 49 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Her comments on estate and retirement planning have been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, Forbes, Financial Planning, USA Today, and Financial World magazines.

From 1990 to 1992, Miss Choate served as Chairman of the Boston Bar Association's ERISA and Employee Benefits Law Committee. A Boston native, she is a graduate of Radcliffe College and Harvard Law School.