Areas of Practice


Estate Planning

Our attorneys are highly experienced and skilled in all aspects of estate planning. We believe estate planning is about people. While tax planning is important, it is secondary to accomplishing the client's goals in transferring assets to those people and/or charities that are important to the client.

Further Planning Issues and Situations

Some clients have estates that demand special knowledge and care to plan and administer. Our attorneys collectively have almost a century of legal knowledge that we can bring to bear in planning. Some examples of special situations are listed below:

Probate and Trust Administration

​The death of an individual gives rise to the need to administer the transfer of the decedent's assets via a will, a living trust, or state intestacy laws, and to comply with estate tax laws.

Our firm assists executors, personal representatives, and trustees in carrying out these duties. Specifically, we have extensive experience dealing with ambiguous documents, handling difficult valuation issues, and preparing federal and state estate tax returns.  In addition, we calculate and implement funding of trusts for the optimum estate and income tax savings.

To enhance the cost effectiveness for clients and to streamline the burden of administration for them, many of the administrative tasks are handled by our highly experienced paralegals.

Unlike many states, Washington State does not have arbitrary fee schedules based on the size of an estate. Rather, our fees are billed at our normal hourly rate and only for the time actually spent on the administration of the estate or trust.


Trust Administration

We represent corporate and individual trustees and executors in all matters relating to trust management, including administrative and distribution policies, tax planning, mandatory accounting and reporting before the Court, and  investment policy decision-making. ​ Our focus is on helping trustees manage their liability while carrying out the objectives of the trust. With significant working knowledge of the Washington Trust and Estate Dispute Resolution Act, we frequently assist fiduciaries and beneficiaries to fashion agreements that address administrative and investment matters creatively, frequently with success in averting potential disputes. Our attorneys have both professional and hands-on experience with varied trust matters.​


Business, Corporate and Real Estate

We serve as counsel to our clients in a wide variety of business matters. These include engagements to form entities, such as corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies, as well as guidance on governance matters, business acquisitions, dispositions, dissolutions and the like. We also counsel business owners on matters that arise in the ordinary course, such as the purchase, sale and financing of equipment and inventory. Finally, we assist clients with real estate transactions, such as purchases, sales, and leasing, whether these relate to an operating business or are simply for investment purposes.


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