Probate Attorney Blog

On today’s show we discuss what happens when a parent gives everything to one child and that child feels obligated to give to their siblings… I had an interesting conversation the other day with a client. She had been given everything from her mother, effectively cutting out her other siblings. She felt obligated to give them some of the assets but was hesitant because she thought they would be wasted. She wanted to know what she had to do, what…

On this episode of the show I talk about the effect of the Trump Presidency on estate planning… Here’s the short version of the show: if you are rich, you are going to love Trump and estate planning. He wants to completely repeal the federal estate planning tax. That means you pay no tax when you gift away your assets when you die. Whether or not this will be possible from a fiscal standpoint remains to be seen, but for…

On this episode of the show we talk about how to give specific assets away with your will… An important thing to remember here is that when you give your possessions away you need to think about what you want to happen if that person dies before you do. Does your will give the possession back to your estate? Does your will give the possession to the heirs of the person you gave it to? Does your will give the…

Today we talk about how long creditors can submit bills on an estate in probate… Imagine a scenario where you are personal representative of an estate. You do your best to accumulate all the bills, you talk to everyone who is entitled to get everything. You pay all the bills and distribute the assets and you think everything is good. A year goes by. Then, almost two years later you get a bill. It’s from the hospital, and it’s BIG….

Picking a trustee isn’t like choosing any other position within your estate plan. This person needs to have their stuff together. Here’s how to pick a good trustee… When people think about who will fill the roles within their estate plan they often immediately think of relatives. “My brother would definitely be a great power of attorney.” “My mother would be a perfect guardian.” But when it comes to being the trustee of your trust, you want to do a…

In this episode of the show we talk about how long probate takes… If you’ve had a loved one pass away and are facing the prospects of having to go through probate, it can seem pretty daunting. You probably googled around and saw answers ranging from 9 months to 10 years and you have no idea what the process is like, much less how long it actually takes to get through. Well, today I’m going to break down the timeline…

On this episode of the show we talk about the importance of identifying temporary guardians… Before we get started, an important note – technically temporary guardians don’t exist in Washington State. What I mean is, there is no statutory provision for appointing temporary guardians here. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it to set up temporary guardians. First, they can be immensely important in those instances where something happens and the babysitter is the person in charge of figuring…