Family Law

• Guardianship
  Guardianships are court proceedings where the court is requested to determine if a person is unable to manage their financial or health care affairs. If the court makes such a finding, a guardian will be appointed to manage these areas. We represent people seeking guardianships of minors or persons who are unable to manage their own affairs. We represent guardians after appointment by the court and assist them with fulfilling their legal obligations. We also represent the alleged incapacitated person when they object to the choice of guardian or to the appointment of one at all.

Health Law

• Personal Injury
  A Special Needs Trust, if correctly worded, allows elders facing long-term care and disabled individuals to enhance their quality of life through trust assets while retaining government benefits. There are several different Special Needs Trusts which can be created depending on the origin of the assets that may be used to fund the trust. These trusts are appropriate in situations such as: parents wishing to leave assets to their disabled children while the parents are alive or through their estates on their death; when disabled individuals directly receive monetary gifts through an inheritance or as the result of a settlement in a personal injury case; or, when an elder is disabled and receiving long–term care assistance from the government and a spouse or other family member wishes to provide funds to enhance the elder’s quality of life. We assist clients in all aspects of creating and administering Special Needs Trusts.

Trusts and Estates

• Estate Planning
  David M. Neubeck will be teaching a virtual two-part course on estate planning basics through Whatcom Community College this spring.  Estate planning documents are crucial for managing your assets, healthcare decisions, and providing for your [...]
• Wills
  In 2005, the tragic Florida case of Terri Schiavo illustrated the importance of decision making for end of life treatment. Unfortunately Ms. Schiavo had not expressed her wishes in a written document, known as a Living Will. The battle over her wishes resulted in the involvement of the federal and state government not to mention the acrimony among family members. End of life planning requires a person to consider numerous issues such as the use of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, hydration, nutrition, use of antibiotics and pain management to name a few. As part of our comprehensive planning, the Living Will is an essential document.
• Trusts
  So now that we’ve got the trust basics under control, what exactly is a revocable living trust?  First, as the name indicates, a
• Power of Attorney
  An advance directive is a document that provides direction about what types of medical treatment you want in cases when you cannot speak for yourself. The advance directive is sometimes also called a Living Will or Physician’s Directive or Health Care Directive.   A complete advance directive gives both physicians and the person who will be making medical decisions on your behalf detailed instructions on what types of medical conditions warrant what type of medical interventions.  Some advance directives will also name a health care agent to make decisions on your behalf.  (The naming of an agent is also often done in a separate Health Care Power of Attorney.)  In Washington, an Advance Directive must be witnessed by two people or notarized in order to be valid.
• Probate

Finance Law

• Tax Law
  Tax Planning. Sometimes revocable living trusts are created to avoid or minimize estate tax.  In Washington, unless the estate exceeds approximately $2.1 million, there isn’t any estate tax.  Additionally, the federal estate tax doesn’t apply unless your estate is over $11.4 million ($22.8 million for married couples).  With these very high estate tax exemptions, not many people need to use revocable living trusts for tax planning.  This wasn’t always the case, however, as estate tax exemptions, both in Washington and federally, used to be much lower.