Protecting Your Family, Future, and Legacy
You have worked diligently to create a secure future for your family. Ensuring their wellbeing and preserving your legacy requires top-tier legal expertise.
We believe in a holistic approach to estate planning, coordinating with your professional team to ensure all your assets will pass as you’ve intended, whether to loved ones or to your preferred charitable causes. Our group includes attorneys with years of experience in estate tax mitigation, charitable gifting, and planning for family members with special needs.
Estate planning should offer you peace of mind and a plan that you know you can rely on should life bring you unexpected circumstances.
At GTH, we strongly recommend that families initiate the estate planning process proactively and review their plan regularly. Estate planning is more than deciding who receives your assets upon your death— it also involves documents that authorize the right people to help you during life if, or when, it becomes necessary.
We know it’s difficult to predict when your loved ones will need to step in and assist you. Planning ahead allows your family or other trusted individuals to act in your place and ensure you are supported when you need it most.
For more than a century, the estate planning lawyers in our Trust & Estates group have earned the trust of families across Western Washington by helping them manage some of life’s most important questions. Imagine the peace of mind you will have knowing your GTH estate planning team has created a plan that accurately expresses your wishes for care during your lifetime and disposition of assets upon your death.
Washington estate planning laws are designed to help families protect their loved ones, preserve their assets, and fulfill their personal wishes.
When you schedule a consultation, our legal team will guide you through the creation of a comprehensive estate plan. Wills, living trusts, durable power of attorney, health care directive (living will) are all essential components of an estate plan, but GTH estate planning attorneys go further.
Our legal team will work with you to support the unique needs of your family and can advise on special needs trusts, trusts for young beneficiaries or beneficiaries with substance abuse, and strategies to make the most of charitable giving. We work alongside you and your trusted advisors to craft a thorough strategy for the future.
Estate planning is a sound investment in your family’s financial future. It often comes as a surprise that Washington state has an estate tax. Families with a net worth of two million dollars or more can save thousands of dollars with sound estate tax planning. GTH estate planning attorneys are experienced in implementing strategies to reduce Washington state and Federal estate taxes.
A Durable Power of Attorney to appoint an agent to act on your behalf during your lifetime to avoid the burden and expense of guardianship if you are unable to manage your own affairs. A well thought out and properly executed estate plan avoids costly estate administration and can prevent expensive and painful disputes among family members after you are gone.
At GTH, our Tacoma and Seattle estate planning attorneys are experienced in not only estate planning law, but the laws governing your estate: real estate law, elder law, power of attorney, advanced health-directives, wills, trusts and more.
Practice Areas
A Century Of Trusted Legal Counsel
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Charitable Giving
Our legal team will work with you to support the unique needs of your family and can advise on special needs trusts, trusts for young beneficiaries or beneficiaries with substance abuse, and strategies to make the most of charitable giving. -
Estate & Gift Tax Planning
Estate & gift tax planning is essential if you want to protect yourself and transfer generational wealth to your loved ones and avoid major tax payments. Any efforts to avoid or reduce estate taxes requires careful consideration and planning. -
Estate Disputes
Our attorneys have decades of experience successfully representing clients in real estate litigation, including representation in disputes arising from purchase-and-sale agreements, easements, property lines, restrictive covenants, foreclosures, fraudulent concealment, trespass, nuisance, and condemnation. -
Guardianship
Guardianship is a possible legal option to protect your loved ones, whether vulnerable children or adults who might be unable to manage their own affairs due to age, disability, or incapacity. -
Probate
Probate is the Court-sanctioned process of administering a Will, by officially appointing the person in charge. -
Wills & Trusts
Wills and trusts ensure that a decedent’s wishes are carried out by designated family members. This type of estate planning tool also helps ensure that loved ones are protected long-term. Consulting with a GTH attorney can help you decide if a revocable living trust or irrevocable trust makes sense for your family.
Why hire an estate planning attorney at GTH?
You worked hard to provide for your family. We work hard to protect your family, secure your assets, and help you define your legacy.
We strongly recommend all families schedule a consultation to create a valid Last Will and Testament and possibly a Revocable Living Trust to pass assets on to your intended beneficiaries. In addition, preparing updated Durable Powers of Attorney ensures that the Agent of your choice is authorized to make financial and/or health care decisions on your behalf if you are incapacitated.
If you have strong feelings about your end of life care, you may also wish to complete an advanced Health Care Directive (also known as a “living will”) to document your wishes. Too often, family members leave it to chance resulting in ugly disputes that can divide loved ones and diminish assets.
Our estate planning team can advise you on how to:
Everyone should consider estate planning. While one may think that they have minimal assets, the lifetime benefits of having current Durable Power of Attorney documents and healthcare directives are for everyone, regardless of wealth. Individuals and couples with complex assets (e.g., business interests, rental properties, beneficial interests in irrevocable trusts) or considerable wealth assets should also prioritize seeking legal advice on estate planning. People who want to protect vulnerable adult children, spouses, siblings, or parents should also prioritize estate planning to protect their loved ones.
Washington is one of several states that imposes an estate tax on assets owned upon death. It is important for individuals or couples whose net worth exceeds $2 million to seek advice from a qualified estate and tax planning attorney. Individuals who worry about end-of-life decisions due to an accident or health event should seek help with estate planning. Advanced healthcare directives (also known as living wills) provide direction regarding your end-of-life care to healthcare providers and family members and help reduce conflict at a difficult time.
Estate planning can also be a family affair. It is an opportunity to bring your family together in consultation with an attorney to discuss concerns ranging from management of the family beach cabin or family business and preserving generational wealth to minimizing estate taxes, avoiding a costly guardianship, or setting up a special needs trust for a family member with limited capacity.
In summary, estate planning is a minor investment for major peace of mind.
Wills and trusts are estate planning tools that can be used to protect and ensure the continued support of a surviving spouse, children, vulnerable adults and other loved ones. Wills and trusts ensure that a decedent’s wishes are carried out by designated family members. This type of estate planning tool also helps ensure that loved ones are protected long-term.
Consulting with a GTH attorney can help you decide if a revocable living trust or irrevocable trust makes sense for your family. Certain types of trusts have tax advantages and protect assets from a beneficiary’s creditors. Trusts can also help streamline the management of family assets and maintain privacy. A revocable living trust, if properly set up and funded during lifetime, can allow your estate to avoid a probate court proceeding after your death and thus save some time and money.
Consulting with an estate planning attorney about how to efficiently and effectively manage your assets for your loved ones’ long-term benefit will give you the answers you need and ease your mind. By investing some time in good estate planning, you can spare your loved ones the heartache of costly court battles that will diminish the legacy you intended for them to inherit.
Guardianship is a possible legal option to protect your loved ones, whether vulnerable children or adults who might be unable to manage their own affairs due to age, disability, or incapacity.
Families often consider guardianship when:
- A child with special needs or disabilities turns 18
- A spouse or parent can no longer manage money due to mental or health issues
- They want to prevent neglect or abuse of a vulnerable child or adult after you are gone
The guardian may have authority over personal, financial, or medical decisions, depending on the court’s order and will be subject to court oversight.
Estate & gift tax planning is essential if you want to protect yourself and transfer generational wealth to your loved ones and avoid major tax payments. Any efforts to avoid or reduce estate taxes requires careful consideration and planning. Tax laws change all the time and families can face stiff financial penalties if generational wealth, assets and real estate are not carefully managed within a legal estate plan reviewed by Washington estate planning attorneys.
FAQs on Estate Planning
The urgency to retain an estate planning attorney will vary with the needs of each person and family. Estate planning for people of modest means and needs is still a smart strategy to protect your family assets and your wishes should something happen to you.
All individuals benefit from having current, valid Durable Powers of Attorney to ensure the right people are authorized to act on your behalf if you are incapacitated. If you die without a valid Will, intestacy laws will govern the disposition of your assets after your lifetime. The result might not be what you wanted. We encourage all individuals and families to consult with an estate planning attorney to create an estate plan tailored to their specific circumstances.
Families who want to protect loved ones with special needs should particularly prioritize consulting with an estate planning attorney.
Business owners and families with significant wealth and/or complex assets will benefit from estate planning to facilitate the transfer of generational wealth to their heirs with fewer estate taxes paid, and to ensure the smooth transition of ownership and management of the family business.
Our Seattle and Tacoma estate planning attorneys can help you create a special needs trust, also known as supplemental needs trusts. These trusts allow beneficiaries to receive public benefits even if they have personal assets, in some instances. Estate planning attorneys are available to meet you at GTH offices located in Tacoma and Seattle.
Attorneys at GTH have decades of practice in establishing special needs trusts and living trusts with special needs provisions so families have the power to carefully and privately manage assets for vulnerable loved ones.
Families of victims of catastrophic personal injury incidents often require estate planning attorneys to help them manage living trusts of their loved ones. This helps families maximize assets needed to protect loved ones with special needs who require long-term care as a result of their injury.
It is first important to identify what your estate planning needs might be. There will likely be less work involved in planning for the distribution of a family home and bank account, for example, versus managing a large estate with complex assets. There are also key considerations for families protecting vulnerable relatives with special needs.
Before you start searching for an estate planning attorney, it is helpful to put together a financial statement that reflects the current value of your assets and liabilities. This gives a sense of the scope of estate planning you might need. If your assets approach two million dollars ($2 million), you might have a Washington taxable estate and should retain an estate planning attorney with experience in estate and gift tax planning.
If you are interested in protecting loved ones with special needs, it is important to evaluate their expected long-term needs: housing, food, health care, assisted living, rehabilitation care, designated guardians, lifestyle preferences, etc.
At GTH, our estate planning team has more than 100 years of experience in guiding families through planning for all sizes of estates. Contact our Tacoma or Seattle office to schedule a consultation so we can start your estate planning process today.
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GTH attends Goodwill Luncheon
GTH to attend Power Up Goodwill Luncheon
