Washington Estate Planning Attorney

Estate planning in Seattle, Spokane or Yakima all have one thing in common. You will have the best results if you include the help of a Washington estate planning attorney. They are experts in Washington estate law and how these laws effect your estate when you die. While none of us plan to die in the near future, it does happen to everyone sooner or later, and we might as well be prepared.

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Estate planning focuses on many different things, one of them being passing your estate on to your heirs in the fastest and least expensive way possible. Most of the time this means avoiding probate court. The laws have given us many ways to do this, it just takes a little planning to make it happen, because if you fail to plan, your heirs are going to be in probate court wishing you had.

Why would you want to avoid probate court? First off, it's just not the best way of turning over your estate. It takes way to long and may require many different attorneys, hired by your beneficiaries, to sort things out. Yes, it's time consuming and possibly expensive. It is also completely open to public view, anyone can find out what you had and where it is going. And lastly, the judge will most likely be making decisions that you could have made for yourself had you done it while you were alive.

Property that is allowed to pass outside of probate does so quickly, usually immediately upon your death. Their is seldom any expense involved to the new owner of the property and everything goes where you have decided it should. A will can be contested, property deeded as joint tenancy with right of survivorship should not be. Bank accounts assigned as "payable on death" or "transfer on death" should automatically go to the new owner uncontested. A living trust should do the same thing and they have become one of the most popular probate avoiding estate planning tools available.

Your estate planning attorney should be talking with you about any minor children in your family and how to deal with them. You should be the one deciding on a guardian should the need arise, not a judge. Leaving money for children involves special considerations as there are many way of doing it.

Don't forget to talk about taxes. They have a lot to do with your estate planning and are discussed on our estate and taxes page. Taxes, financial planning and most matters carried out with an attorney require forms and documents of one kind or another. Lucky for all of us, Legal Zoom is open 24 hours a day.

Hopefully you understand the need for estate planning and the importance if hiring the best qualified professional you can find to help you. Legal Match is at your service to help find the best Washington estate planning attorney near you.

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