These clients’ recent experiences with loved ones needing an estate plan put the importance of probate avoidance and having a plan for their grandchildren into focus. They wanted to keep multiple properties in the family while also carving out special amounts for their grandchildren to use as they got older and went to school.

Based on their needs they chose to do the tax trust package, which includes:

– Credit Shelter Trust;
– Revocable Living Trust;
– Wills;
– Powers of Attorney;
– Medical Powers of Attorney;
– Health Care Directive;
– Disposition Instructions; and
– Quit Claim Deeds moving real estate into the trust

The Credit Shelter Trust is a special type of Revocable Living Trust married couples can use to double their WA state estate tax exemption amount from $2.2m to $4.4m.

The Revocable Living Trust enables the clients to avoid probate, directs their assets in the trust to go where they would like them to go, and appoints a trustee to oversee management and distribution of these assets. When the clients are gone there will also be asset protection elements for the children.

The Will does names a personal representative (i.e. executor) of the clients’ estates and ensures all assets get into the trust, even those the client failed to allocate.

The Power of Attorney names people to manage the clients’ finances if they are ever incapacitated.

The Medical Power of Attorney nominates people to manage the clients’ health care if they are unable to do so themselves.

The Health Care Directive tells the client’s Medical Power of Attorney what to do if they are in a vegetative state (i.e. pull the plug or not).

The Disposition Instructions state what the clients would like to happen to their remains after they are gone.

The Quit Claim Deeds transfer the clients’ interest in real property to their trust, so it will avoid going through probate.

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