Our Services
Planning & Administration
Estate Planning
We counsel clients to help them achieve their estate planning goals. As part of our work, we prepare wills, revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, powers of attorney, and other estate planning documents. The estate planning process is unique for each client, and can involve naming guardians and establishing trusts for minor children, planning for the tax-efficient transfer of wealth, addressing concerns regarding the potential for dispute after a loved one’s passing, and a variety of other important goals.
Representative Work: Adrienne enjoys estate planning to reduce exposure to federal and Washington State estate tax and particularly enjoys working with clients with complex assets. She often works with clients to establish insurance trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs), gift trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs), and various charitable split interest trusts such as charitable lead and remainder trusts (CLTs and CRTs).
Paul enjoys working with clients who need to construct an estate plan to address complex or difficult family dynamics. He often works with clients who have second marriages, children from prior relationships, or other circumstances requiring closer attention to ensure an orderly process upon death.
California Issues
Adrienne advises California residents and non-residents regarding application of California residency rules, transfers of real property in California, and other issues relevant for clients with interests in California. Adrienne also helps clients plan with regard to transfers of ownership of California real estate to avoid unnecessary property tax reassessment under Prop 13.
Intestate Estates
When a person dies without a will, intestate estate administration is often required. We help surviving parties understand and apply the laws of intestacy, and we help probate estates even when a decedent left no will.
Probate
We counsel executors through the probate process for both simple and complicated estates; assist clients with the transfer and distribution of assets; and prepare and present to the court all documents necessary for probate in both Washington and California.
Trust Administration
We represent trustees and successor trustees in administering both revocable and irrevocable trusts; assist in transferring and distributing assets; and prepare any necessary tax and court documents for trusts administered in Washington and California.
Beneficiary Representation
We represent beneficiaries of trusts and estates who have questions about the estate or trust administration process; we help beneficiaries understand and advocate to protect their interests, and when needed, we advocate to ensure estates and trusts are properly administered.
Gift Planning
We help individual clients evaluate the benefits of making lifetime gifts, either to charity or individuals, and to examine the various methods of making those gifts so their tax and personal goals are met.
Tax Preparation
We prepare federal estate and gift tax returns and Washington State estate tax returns, and represent clients in connection with issues relating to estate and gift taxation.
Dispute Resolution & Litigation
Dispute Resolution
Often the loss of the loved one can cause confusion and disagreements. We help fiduciaries and beneficiaries navigate the difficult situations that can arise in the wake of a death, including drafting and negotiating nonjudicial agreements to resolve disputes out of court. We also represent parties in mediation and arbitration to resolve disputes relating to trusts and estates.
Litigation
When a dispute relating to a trust or estate cannot be resolved through out-of-court means, we represent fiduciaries, beneficiaries, and other interested parties in litigation relating to these matters. Early in Paul’s career, he had the opportunity to take several criminal cases to trial through an externship with the King County Prosecutor’s Office. Since then, Paul has applied those trial skills to resolve numerous trust and estate disputes in court, including the successful enforcement of a no-contest clause after a five-day bench trial and several successful appeals of lower court decisions.