It has been said, "Where there is a will, there is someone to contest it." Sadly, the death of a family member often leads to disputes among those surviving. Sometimes conflict is the result of poor or no estate planning. Other times, deferred animosity between family members is all the rationale needed to embroil an estate in litigation. The fiduciary is often caught in the middle of these powerful dynamics with duties that may range from defending a Will or trust from contest to defending itself from claims of breach of fiduciary duty. Our firm has served as counsel in a myriad of estate disputes and has the substantive and procedural experience to guide the fiduciary through simple or complex litigation.

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We assist Personal Representatives and Trustees of Revocable Living Trusts to administer the estates of deceased individuals. We provide a full range of estate and trust administration services, and can help you:

• Determine if a probate is necessary or whether a less formal means of administration is possible.
• Collect and verify assets, including filing claims for insurance proceeds and death benefits, and arrange for asset appraisals and valuations.
• Provide required accounting services and maintain banking and investment records.
• Identify, notify and deal with decedent's creditors.
• Prepare federal and state estate and gift tax returns, the decedent's final income tax return and the fiduciary income tax returns.
• Oversee the transfer, sale and distribution of the decedent's assets.
• Close the estate.

In providing these services, we make extensive use of our experienced, highly trained paralegals, whose work is overseen by our lawyers. By employing the use of such paralegals, whose billing rates are lower than our lawyers' rates, we're able to hold down client costs while providing high quality legal services. We also do some estate administration work on a fixed fee basis.

There are at least two good reasons to plan your estate. First, proper estate planning ensures that your assets will be distributed in accordance with your wishes. Second, proper estate planning can minimize or eliminate estate tax upon your death.

The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 reduces the amount of your estate tax only if you should die between the years 2002 and 2010. It is uncertain as to how much estate tax will be imposed on your estate if you die after 2010.

To implement our clients' testamentary wishes and minimize the taxes on their estates, we provide the full range of estate-planning services allowed under federal and state laws, including:

• simple and complex wills
• living trusts, charitable trusts and life insurance trusts
• durable powers of attorney
• living wills or directive to physicians
• special needs trusts
• life insurance planning
• private foundation and supporting organizations
• ESOPs and other retirement plans
• family limited liability companies
• family limited partnerships
• retirement plans and IRAs
• lifetime gifting programs
• asset protection planning
• succession planning

We assist our clients with their estate planning needs regardless of size, from modest asset holdings to estates valued in the millions of dollars. Whatever the size of an estate, we believe strongly in the importance of estate planning, as well as wealth planning for the future. To encourage it, we keep the cost of our services as reasonable as possible.

Sadly, the death of a family member often leads to disputes among those surviving. Sometimes conflict is the result of poor or no estate planning. Other times, legal intervention is necessary to protect the deceased and his or her legitimate heirs from the terms of a Will induced by fraud or undue influence. Whatever the case, we understand the sometimes unfortunate necessity of estate litigation, and have many years experience advocating on behalf of estates and heirs.

As part of our practice, we have significant experience representing professional fiduciaries in trust administration and trust litigation, both as plaintiff and defendant. We are also familiar with the 2003 changes to the Washington Uniform Principal and Income Act, and many of our lawyers have lectured to the bar and other professionals on the subject.

Our Group advises clients regarding succession strategies with a focus on transferring business ownership to other family members, management groups and third-party purchasers in a tax-effective manner.