Spokane Estate Planning Attorneys

As Kennewick, Yakima, & Spokane Estate Planning Attorneys, We offer Will & Trust Planning Services within both Idaho & Washington State.

We Can Help w/ Wills, Taxes, Trusts & much more!

There are many legal strategies involved in Spokane estate planning, including wills, revocable living trusts, irrevocable trusts, durable powers of attorney, and health care documents. New clients often say that they do not have an estate plan. Most people are surprised to learn that they actually do have a plan. In the absence of legal planning otherwise, their estate will be distributed after death according to Washington’s laws of intestacy. Of course, this may not be the plan they would have chosen. A properly drafted estate plan will replace the terms of the State’s estate plan with your own.

Moulton Law Offices has multiple veteran estate planning attorneys serving individuals and families in Spokane, Tri-Cities, and even Idaho. We provide legal assistance with a number of elder law and estate planning services.

Within our Spokane Estate Planning practice, Moulton Law provides many well-known estate planning services which include Wills, Trusts, and Durable Powers of Attorney. What makes our approach unique is that we always focus on ensuring that our clients are armed with tools that align with their core values and larger financial goals. Within the Probate, Trust Administration, and Guardianship context – we choose to utilize a similar approach by focusing our practice goals on helping families maintain their harmony and personal dignity.

If you do sit down to craft your estate plan with us, we’ll help you consider the best options for protecting your children and supporting your family in the event of your untimely passing. All plans are created with the end goal of distributing your financial assets in a way that matches up with your objectives, whether that is designed for your family’s benefit, or for other charitable causes that are dear to your heart.

Following a death in your family, our firm can work directly with your designated representatives to implement the plan we helped you create. Washington State happens to have a very efficient, private, and affordable probate system, in addition to having one of the more flexible courts for trust law when compared to other states.

We invite you to learn more about the firm and read our attorney profiles.

Moulton Law provides client-centered services which focus on using the right tools (at the right time) – to ensure that your legacy will be preserved for years to come. We have 30+ years of experience between our veteran estate planning attorneys. Moulton Law strives to ensure that your family will always be provided with informed and personalized legal guidance and counsel.

Whether you require a complex wealth transfer of your assets or a forthright and practical statement of your preferences when you pass away – you can depend on receiving much needed support and advocacy for your legal interests. We always strive to provide our full attention to the administration of your Spokane estate planning interests and legal affairs.

Commitment to Spokane Estate Planning Excellence

Our practice is concentrated into the areas of estate and wealth transfer planning, income and estate tax planning, probate, trust and estate administration, international estate and tax planning matters, charitable donations, general elder law, as well as business formation within the scope of Spokane estate planning.

We regularly serve as speakers at educational seminars and other professional forums to provide additional guidance to our valued clients.

We also do our best to write about issue pertaining to our area of expertise through our blog and have earned our reputation from providing knowledgeable, effective and professional legal counsel throughout Washington State and Idaho.

Whether you need well-written legal documents, comprehensive legal advice or advocacy, family mediation services or outright courtroom representation, we have estate planning attorneys that will help your family achieve your estate planning objectives.

To schedule your own personal Spokane estate planning consultation to determine if our services are right for your family, please call us at (509) 328-2150, or email us at info@moultonlaw.com. If you haven’t read about our Client Care program yet, this is another option for folks who want to ensure their estate planning affairs are reviewed on a yearly basis.

It’s easy to see how a new financial concern or other life-changing event could offset or affect your existing estate plan. We designed our Client Care program to allow you to meet with our attorneys once per year for one low yearly fee. Visit our Client Care page to learn more, we offer one of the best Client Care plans in the Northwest!

To learn more about other helpful Spokane estate planning documents you can use, please see this resource.

Your Last Will and Testament

Your last will and testament is just one part of a comprehensive estate plan. If a person dies without a Will they are said to have died “intestate” and state laws will determine how and to whom the person’s assets will be distributed. Some things you should know about wills:

• A will has no legal authority until after death. So, a will does not help manage a person’s affairs when they are incapacitated, whether by illness or injury.
• A will does not help an estate avoid probate. A will is the legal document submitted to the probate court, so it is basically an “admission ticket” to probate.
• A will is a good place to nominate the guardians (or back-up parents) of your minor children if they are orphaned.  All parents of minor children should document their choice of guardians.  If you leave this to chance, you could be setting up a family battle royal, and your children could end up with the wrong guardians.

Trusts: Revocable Living Trusts, Irrevocable Trusts, Testamentary Trusts, Special Needs Trusts, etc.

Trusts come in many “flavors,” they can be simple or complex, and serve a variety of legal, personal, investment or tax planning purposes. At the most basic level, a trust is a legal entity with at least three parties involved: the trust-maker, the trustee (trust manager), and the trust beneficiary. Oftentimes, all three parties are represented by one person or a married couple. In the case of a revocable living trust, for example, a person may create a trust (the trust-maker) and name themselves the current trustees (trust managers) who manage the trust assets for their own benefit (trust beneficiary).

Depending on the situation, there may be many advantages to establishing a trust, including avoiding probate court. In most cases, assets owned in a revocable living trust will pass to the trust beneficiaries (or heirs) immediately upon the death of the trust-maker(s) with no probate required. Certain trusts also may result in tax advantages both for the trust-maker and the beneficiary. Or they may be used to protect property from creditors, or simply to provide for someone else to manage and invest property for the trust-maker(s) and the named beneficiaries. If well drafted, another advantage of trusts is their continuing effectiveness even if the trust-maker dies or becomes incapacitated. Trust our experienced Estate Planning Attorneys to help you make informed decision when it comes time to create your own documents. Again we also have offices in both Kennewick, WA & Yakima, WA as well.

Other Services our Spokane Estate Planning Attorneys can Help with:

Powers of Attorney

A power of attorney is a legal document giving another person (the attorney-in-fact) the legal right (powers) to do certain things for you. What those powers are depends on the terms of the document. A power of attorney may be very broad or very limited and specific. All powers of attorney terminate upon the death of the maker, and may terminate when the maker (principal) becomes incapacitated (unable to make or communicate decisions). When the intent is to designate a back-up decision-maker in the event of incapacity, then a durable power of attorney should be used. Durable Powers of Attorney should be frequently updated because banks and other financial institutions may hesitate to honor a power of attorney that is more than a year old. When you working with our veteran Spokane Estate Planning Attorneys, we’ll be able to customize your documents to your liking.

Health Care Docs (Advance Directives)

An advance directive is a document that specifies the type of medical and personal care you would want should you lose the ability to make and communicate your own decisions. Anyone over the age of 18 may execute an advance directive, and this document is legally binding in Washington. Your advance directive can specify who will make and communicate decisions for you, and it can set out the circumstances under which you would not like your life to be prolonged if, for example, you were in a coma with no reasonable chance of recovery.

A document that goes hand-in-hand with your advance directive is an authorization to your medical providers to allow specified individuals to access your medical information. Without this authorization, your doctor may refuse to communicate with your hand-picked decision maker.

One of our Spokane estate planning attorneys was recently selected as one of the 3 Best Rated Spokane Estate Planning Attorneys. You can also view our profile on HG.com.