Probate Attorney Blog

Revocable Living Trust Reason #1 – You Love Your Kids I was doing a will signing with a client yesterday and they asked me why other people get revocable living trusts. I spouted off about 10 different reasons and while I was doing so I thought to myself “this would be a great series to run on Estate Planning TV.” So here we are. Here is the first, of many reasons, you may want to include a revocable living trust…

Will My Revocable Living Trust Protect My Assets for My Kids if I Die First? This is a question I get often and was specifically asked this week by a “faithful listener” of the Estate Planning TV Podcast (thank you for that!). The question is this, essentially: “I have a revocable living trust set up with my spouse. I want to make sure that our assets are protected from being completely exhausted from the surviving spouse after the first of…

Three Types of Death Taxes When someone dies they aren’t just facing the possibility of paying estate taxes. There are two other additional taxes to consider. Here is a rundown of the taxes, and when you will want to consider planning to have to pay them. 1. ESTATE TAXES The first type of death tax to be considered is the estate tax. The estate tax is the tax owed upon the assets of the deceased person. Washington State is unique…

Estate Planning: I Don’t Care What You Want Whenever people come into my office to talk about their estate plan I always tell them something up front: I don’t care what you want. Yep, I actually say that. But not in the context that you might be thinking. There are a lot of estate planning attorneys out there that want to show everyone how smart they are or get you to create the newest, coolest estate plan vehicle, or just…

 What is a Beneficiary Waiver When someone dies in the family and there are assets to be distributed amongst family members, there is almost always at least a minor amount of tension created. First, most people don’t know the rules surrounding probate so they aren’t sure what is going on or exactly how much authority the named Personal Representative actually has. Second, one starts to get legal documents in the mail to sign that seem a little sketchy at…

Business Succession 1/2: Power of Attorney for Your Business This is the second installment of the HOB series “Succession” summary and takeaway. The theme of this episode was the Power of Attorney for business succession planning. This episode was all about who would step in and run the company while the patriarch was out of commission with a stroke. It was also about who would be making decision regarding his medical care (this was quickly resolved with the wife -…

I think we’re just going to start this message by getting real honest… I’m not sure how to start these messages off.  I thought about saying “Hello friends” or something like that, but that’s not really my style. And “What’s up?!” seems a little too informal. So for now I think I’m just going to dive right into everything. If you have any suggestions let me know. Okay, on to my thoughts of the week – investment vs. cost. Last…