In 2022 Americans gave $499.33 billion to charitable causes.[1] You might be surprised to learn that such giving was not attributable primarily to corporations or to wealthy private foundations, which accounted for 6% and 21% respectively, but was powered by individuals making lifetime gifts (64%) or gifts at death through their estate plan (9%). Yes,…

It is exceedingly common for an older parent to add a child to one or more financial accounts. Whether to start helping immediately with managing their day-to-day finances (like staying on top of the bills) or maybe just as precaution against potential future disability or incapacity, they go into their bank or brokerage and request…

It used to be that if you had physical stuff (also known as tangible personal property or “TPP” for short) you wished to pass on at death to someone in particular (for example, “I give grandma’s diamond ring to cousin Tansy” etc.) then that gift language needed to be written into your will. That’s easy…

In honor of the close of Women’s History month, it seemed a good time to share a quick primer on the origins of community property law in Washington State and its connection to women in Washington. What is community property? Community property is property owned by both spouses equally. Separate property is property owned only…

Whether putting together your will for the first time or reviewing your existing estate planning documents, it’s important to keep this estate planning concept in mind: minors can’t receive property outright like an adult can. Someone must hold a minor’s inheritance for them at least until they reach the age of 18. If you have…

Executor. Trustee. Power of Attorney. Most of my clients have encountered these common estate planning terms before, but often they aren’t quite clear on the differences between them. It’s helpful to think of each term as a job title. Each “job” is similar in that all involve acting as a fiduciary (that is, being legally…

I frequently find that my estate planning clients come into our initial meeting with a decent understanding that end-of-life care directions are an important part of a complete estate plan, but that they often have a confused sense of how end-of-life care directions are actually documented. This is understandable as the central document for end-of-life…

A surprising number of people, being understandably (and blissfully) unstudied in Washington’s probate laws, carry in their heads the vague notion that one of the risks of dying without a proper will is that the State then gets to gleefully step in and inherit one’s unprovided for property. Like many common misconceptions, there is a…

When applying for Medicaid for yourself or on behalf of your spouse, it can be easy to forget that life insurance is an important asset that can impact financial eligibility. Generally speaking, term life insurance is an exempt resource and doesn’t count toward the Medicaid resource limits (the $2,000 resource limit for the applicant and,…

Michael Kleps practices in the areas of Wills, Trusts, Estates and Elder Law. He is back full time at Carmichael Clark, P.S. after a nine month sailing adventure on the east coast US, Bahamas and Cuba. His family found living and traveling on a 30’ sailboat to have quite a learning curve between keeping an…