Probate Attorney Blog

There are people who are afraid to talk to their kids about their money and their assets. It may be because they’re afraid because they’re afraid of where they are at or where they are going or they are afraid that their kids will take advantage of them. Traditionally in the United States, talking about money is something that you keep private. There are a few reasons why talking to your kids about money is important. The first reason is…

Estate tax avoidance number 2: How to save $259,350 on your estate taxes with a little estate planning solution. There is a couple of things that need to be in place for this to work. Number one: you should live in Washington State because this is where estate tax comes into play. Number two: you need to be married. Number three: you’ve got to have a network of nearly 4 million dollars, although, if you get over two this will…

In Washington State, there are two taxes that you are potentially facing. There’s a Washington State tax and the federal state tax. The Washington State tax starts at 2.129 million dollars and that includes the value of your home, the value of your bank accounts, the value of your investments and life insurance. So for a lot of people in the State of Washington, that’s relatively a small number particularly when you take account life insurance. At the federal level,…

In Washington State, there are two estate taxes that can potentially be imposed on you. It doesn’t mean you get taxed twice, it just means that there are two levels of taxation that exist. There is the state estate tax and the federal estate tax. The state estate tax has the lower threshold. It’s got the more hurtful rules and it’s the one that most people have to worry about here in Washington State. In Washington State, in 2017, the…

There is a way to eliminate probate from many or almost all of your assets. That is by creating non-probate sort of structures to take care of them. Non-probate assets are essentially defined as any asset that pass to people outside of probate. Probate assets are assets that have to be distributed and retitled via the probate process. Non-probate assets for the most part are anything that you can distribute to a beneficiary designation. So think about life insurance, retirement…

What is a revocable living trust? Imagine a trust just like a box. You can pull whatever you want in the box. You can take anything out of the box anytime and while you are alive you are the person who is in charge of the box. You are the person who benefits from the box. Once you die, the person who is in charge of the box changes, the person that gets the benefit of the box changes but…

The first limitation is ‘it does not eliminate probate’. In Washington State, eliminating probate is not a big deal. The fees are not based on the percentage of assets. It’s relatively flat and low. But it does take time, money and effort. If you’re interested in eliminating probate, a will does not do that for you. The other thing to consider is if you have a property in another estate, you have to open up a probate in each state…