Probate Attorney Blog

Estate planning: how many backups should you name? <a href=”https://cmslawfirm.com/strategysession”>Click here to schedule a FREE strategy session with an estate planning attorney.</a></strong>

Many people believe a will automatically makes you the Executor of an estate. Unfortunately that is not the case. In order to officially be named the executor of the estate you need to go through the formal probate process and have a judge appoint you to that position. I talked about how to be named the executor of the estate in a different post you can access by clicking the link. Hope this helps! Cheers, Christopher Small Probate Attorney PS…

We often get calls for a probate attorney for people that are not sure if they even need a probate. Often they don’t because the “probate estate” is small enough that they can use a small estate affidavit to get access to the account they are trying to distribute. The first thing one needs to know when determining if the estate is small enough that no probate is needed is the probate estate. The probate estate is defined as those…

A common probate question or concern is inheritance tax. Today I’m going to alleviate those concerns. To begin, in Washington State, there is no inheritance tax, either state or federal. BUT, the reason for that is because we’re not defining the obligation properly. Inheritance tax, technically, is a tax paid by the person inheriting the property. So, for example, a probate is opened and $100,000 is distributed to three people. If the inheritance tax started at $90,000, each person who…

We often get probate attorney calls for people wondering if they need to open a probate after their spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend dies. Today I thought I’d let you know where to start to figure that out. First things first, there’s a pretty big difference between spouse and significant other. One gets almost everything, one basically gets nothing (hint – if you are not married you REALLY need estate planning). If you are married, most of your property is likely to…

“Do I have to follow the will?” is a common probate attorney question, so I thought now would be a good time to address it. Before you think to yourself “of course you do!”, here’s a factual example. Let’s say Fred dies with a will. The will splits everything equally amongst his three kids. However, Fred already gave one of the kids a significant amount of money, and all of the kids are in agreement that that money already given…

A simple (but not easy) way to avoid WA State estate taxes. <a href=”https://cmslawfirm.com/strategysession”>Click here to schedule a FREE strategy session with an estate planning attorney.</a></strong>https://estatemeeting.com