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Wait!? You Mean I Don’t Pay the Probate Attorney? Clients are shocked when I tell them they don’t have to pay me for the probate themselves.  Everyone seems to think that executors or family members of an estate are simply stuck floating the bill for the attorney.  Well, in many states, including Washington, they have structured the probate statutes in such a way that the estate itself will pay for the probate attorney; not the executor and/or family! So if the estate pays for your attorney’s fees, then I don’t have to pay you a dime? For the most part, that is true.  However, when a client...

A Good Trust Still Needs a Good (Pour Over) Will I recently met with a client that was very interested in setting up a revocable living trust.  Being thrilled to help a new client set up their estate plan, I went right to work going over all the finer details with him.  At one point, I made mention that one of the benefits of having a living trust is that it really helps to simplify the will.  The look on his face when I mentioned the word “will” was of utter confusion. Then came the question I knew was coming, “I thought the entire point of setting up a revocable living trust is so that you...

Did You Know Probate Can Sometimes Escape Debt? I recently spoke with a potential client that was interested in probating his grandmother’s estate.  He said that he’d been pushing it off though because once he started having her mail forwarded to him, he received a ton off outstanding bills that she owed money on.  He figured that she owed so much to creditors, that it wasn’t worth his time to file the probate action because they would all just end up draining her bank accounts before it would ever reach any of their family. I told him that it is CRITICAL that as soon as a loved one passes a...

Yes! You Should Really Have a Power of Attorney I have a lot of clients that want to talk to me about putting together a will, but that don’t think to ask for a power of attorney. Some of them don’t know what these things are, and some simply do not think they are necessary. I always tell them, “you should really have a power of attorney.” As a matter of fact, you shouldn’t just have one type of power of attorney, you should have two, potentially three. One for your finances, one for your medical needs, and maybe one to designate an individual(s) for your children if you become incapacitated...

Being an attorney, it is surprising to me when someone asks what a probate matter is. However, taking a step back and thinking about it, it makes sense that most people do not know what it is. Most would not have to deal with the probate process until later on in their life; and even then, it usually occurs during a stressful time that they might not remember the legal term for what is happening. To give a brief overview, probate is the legal process in which a Court oversees the disbursement and resolution of a deceased person's financial and personal affairs. Simply put, when someone dies, ...

Many people often wonder, "what am I supposed to do if I think a trustee and/or a personal representative is inappropriately handling a trust and/or estate?"  Well, in 1999 the Washington legislature endeavored to provide an answer to that exact questions.  Their response was to introduce RCW 11.96a, which is more commonly referred to as TEDRA.  TEDRA is an acronym that stands for the Trust and Estate Dispute Resolution Act, and its purpose was to provide a simplified and streamlined the litigation method for trust and estate disputes. In the state of Washington, TEDRA is utilized for most an...

From Nowakowski Legal PLLC, have a happy and safe Easter! Let Nowakowski Legal PLLC help you protect your legacy.  Contact us today to set up a free consultation for all your business law, estate planning and probate needs!