Estate Planning Basics Attorney in Tukwila, Washington

What types of estate planning services do you provide?

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When people hear about estate plans, they think about people that have lots of money and that isn’t necessarily the case. We talk about estate planning it’s broken down into various elements. One is the will, and most people are familiar with the will. The other is the power of attorney for finance, power of attorney for healthcare, there’s a healthcare directive or living will, and in this state, we have community property agreement. What we try to do is look at the person’s estate, look at different situations, for example, if they have medical issues and they may or may not go onto Medicaid there’s a five-year lookback rule. So anything that you try to divest within that five year period counts as income and the state mandates that you burn down that amount before you’re going to get any assistance. In the will, we like to consider whether or not there’s children and if there are children who the parents wish to be the guardian. And so that’s spelled out so it gives a voice to the individual when they’re not there. And that’s the key piece for a will is telling others how they wish that their possessions are distributed to the individuals they wish to have those.

Seattle, WA business lawyer Thomas E. Gates talks about how he helps clients in need of estate planning services.

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