Probate and Estate Planning
December 7th, 2023

It is exceedingly common for an older parent to add a child to one or more financial accounts. Whether to start helping immediately with managing their day-to-day finances (like staying on top of the bills) or maybe just as precaution against potential future disability or incapacity, they go into their bank or brokerage and request…

June 28th, 2022

It used to be that if you had physical stuff (also known as tangible personal property or “TPP” for short) you wished to pass on at death to someone in particular (for example, “I give grandma’s diamond ring to cousin Tansy” etc.) then that gift language needed to be written into your will. That’s easy…

April 12th, 2022

In honor of the close of Women’s History month, it seemed a good time to share a quick primer on the origins of community property law in Washington State and its connection to women in Washington. What is community property? Community property is property owned by both spouses equally. Separate property is property owned only…

December 30th, 2021

Whether putting together your will for the first time or reviewing your existing estate planning documents, it’s important to keep this estate planning concept in mind: minors can’t receive property outright like an adult can. Someone must hold a minor’s inheritance for them at least until they reach the age of 18. If you have…

February 26th, 2021

Executor. Trustee. Power of Attorney. Most of my clients have encountered these common estate planning terms before, but often they aren’t quite clear on the differences between them. It’s helpful to think of each term as a job title. Each “job” is similar in that all involve acting as a fiduciary (that is, being legally…

September 25th, 2020

I frequently find that my estate planning clients come into our initial meeting with a decent understanding that end-of-life care directions are an important part of a complete estate plan, but that they often have a confused sense of how end-of-life care directions are actually documented. This is understandable as the central document for end-of-life…

May 29th, 2020

A surprising number of people, being understandably (and blissfully) unstudied in Washington’s probate laws, carry in their heads the vague notion that one of the risks of dying without a proper will is that the State then gets to gleefully step in and inherit one’s unprovided for property. Like many common misconceptions, there is a…

August 27th, 2019

When applying for Medicaid for yourself or on behalf of your spouse, it can be easy to forget that life insurance is an important asset that can impact financial eligibility. Generally speaking, term life insurance is an exempt resource and doesn’t count toward the Medicaid resource limits (the $2,000 resource limit for the applicant and,…

August 19th, 2019

Michael Kleps practices in the areas of Wills, Trusts, Estates and Elder Law. He is back full time at Carmichael Clark, P.S. after a nine month sailing adventure on the east coast US, Bahamas and Cuba. His family found living and traveling on a 30’ sailboat to have quite a learning curve between keeping an…

March 15th, 2019

When a single individual purchases real estate in “fee simple,” which is outright ownership of the land, they hold a 100% interest in the property. When more than one person owns property together, a “tenancy” situation is created. “Tenancy” here does not mean how it is most commonly used today; no one is renting property…

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