Probate and Trust Administration
When a family member or friend passes away, the personal loss often makes it difficult to move forward with handling their affairs. Let us take some of the burden off your shoulders by providing legal advice and assisting you in the entire process of administering the estate, whether the deceased had a Will, a trust, or no estate plan at all. It does not matter whether it is a small or very large estate. If you are an heir of an estate, we can help you protect your inheritance throughout the administration process. Our services include all matters related to getting the executor appointed by the probate court, dealing with creditors, providing notices to heirs, creditors, the state and the public, marshalling and managing assets, getting valuations, and making distributions to the heirs. For estates which may have estate tax due to the State of Washington or the Internal Revenue Service, our services include the production of everything necessary for the preparation of estate tax returns.
Business Planning, Corporations, Entity Formations & Non-Profits
When you come to us because you are interested in starting a business or forming a corporation, we do not assume that one type of entity fits all. Instead, we take time to learn how you want to do business, deal with legal matters, and report your taxes. Whether you ultimately choose to be a sole proprietorship, corporation or limited liability company (LLC), our legal guidance typically includes close consultation and collaboration with your accountant, insurance agent, and professional advisors. Choosing the right entity is critical since you have to live with all the legal formalities and tax reporting consequences. Our services include the preparation and filing of the articles of incorporation, formation certificate and initial annual report necessary to form your new entity with the State of Washington, bylaws, operating management agreement, initial formation meeting consents, and bank authorizations. For non-profit organizations, we can prepare all the initial formation documents, and assist you in filing the entity with the State of Washington.
Businesses need customized contracts for owners, managers, employees, leases and all kinds of business relationships. We can either review contracts which have been provided by other parties or draft contracts to help protect your interests. If you have business partners, we can facilitate a buy-sell agreement that determines what happens in the event of a buyout, sellout, disability, bankruptcy, divorce or death. If you wish to buy or sell a business, we can represent either the buyer, the seller, or both parties as escrow to close the purchase and sale transaction.
Estate Planning, Wills and Trusts
No one plans to fail, but many fail to plan. Your family members will be grateful and relieved to discover you have a Will, revocable trust or community property agreement in place when you pass away. Most clients who come to us for estate planning are surprised how smooth the process is once they identify their main concerns and decide who they want to leave in charge of their estate. We can assist you in putting a plan in place that addresses both legal and estate tax issues. We have experience in preparing plans for small estates with simple Wills or plans for large estates which require estate tax relief and testamentary trusts. If you have a blended family, we can provide creative alternatives to protecting your spouse’s and children’s interests. For some people, the confidentiality and control of a revocable living trust is a preferred vehicle for avoiding the probate court process. For revocable living trusts, we provide services and detailed information on “trust funding”, which is simply changing the title of your assets into the name of your trust, or designating your trust as a contingent beneficiary of special kinds of assets. Estate planning includes issues related to disability. This is why we typically include in your estate plan powers of attorney for management of property and health care matters should you ever become incapable of managing your own affairs. For those who wish to do some lifetime planning or gifts to children, grandchildren or others, our services include family partnerships, gifting of partnership shares, annual exclusion gifts, irrevocable trusts, and life insurance trusts. We provide referrals for those who wish to do lifetime charitable gift planning.
Guardianships
If you are concerned that a friend or family member is no longer able to manage their own personal affairs, a guardianship proceeding is a legal means of protecting their property and health. We can assist you in petitioning the court for appointment of you or another person who may serve as a full or limited guardian for such friend or family member. The guardianship process includes initial and annual reports of the protected person’s estate, budget and personal care plan, for which we can provide you assistance in preparation and filing with the court.
Adoptions
We readily accept stepparent adoption cases, and accept other types of adoptions on a case-by-case basis, depending upon the circumstances of the adoptive parents and child. Please call our office to discuss your adoption proposal.