Rachel Ziegler

Rachel Ziegler is the founder of Ziegler Legal Services. Rachel’s practice focuses on estate planning, estate administration, trust administration, and health care advocacy. Rachel has worked with individual clients, couples and families to design tailored estate plans to meet their goals. She counsels clients on a variety of estate planning matters, including estate, gift, and generation-skipping tax planning, income tax planning, charitable planning, and wealth preservation techniques. Rachel represents Personal Representatives in the administration of estates, including filing probate petitions, preparing estate tax returns, funding trusts, and distributing assets. She also represents Trustees in administering trusts.

Relying on her background in health care, Rachel works with clients to obtain and secure health insurance and access government benefits, including Medicare and Social Security. She advocates for clients to resolve legal issues arising from health insurance coverage disputes and denials. She also advises clients about the legal issues related to end-of-life care planning.

Experience +

Since 2004, Rachel has practiced at two other Boston area law firms, both large and small. Throughout that time, she has spoken at numerous conferences on estate planning, estate and gift tax planning, and estate and gift tax return preparation.

In 2003 and 2004, Rachel served as a law clerk to The Honorable T.S. Ellis III in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division. Prior to attending law school, Rachel worked as an analyst in the health services practice group at Abt Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Education +

  • The University of Michigan Law School – J.D., magna cum laude, 2003
  • The University of Michigan School of Public Health – M.P.H., 2003
  • Harvard College – A.B., magna cum laude with honors, 1998

While in law school, Rachel was inducted into the Order of the Coif, an honor society for law school students who graduate in the top 10% of their class. She was an editor of the Michigan Law Review, and published a student note entitled “Safe, but Not Sound: Limiting Safe Harbor Immunity for Health and Disability Insurers and Self-Insured Employers under the Americans with Disabilities Act” in which she argued for increased rights for disabled persons under the ADA.

Affiliations +

Rachel is currently the vice chair of the marketing and communications committee of the Boston Estate Planning Council, and was formerly the chair of the Annual Gala planning committee. She spent two years as chair of the lunchtime educational committee of the Trusts and Estates Consortium.

Outside Work +

Rachel was raised in Needham, Massachusetts. She has lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Arlington, Virginia. She currently resides with her husband and two children — a girl and a boy — in Westwood, Massachusetts. She spends her weekends on the sidelines of soccer fields and basketball courts. During her spare time, Rachel is an avid reader and history buff, and always loves a good book recommendation to add to her list.

Services