[WSBAPT] Small Estate Affidavit (RCW 11.62.010)

Wed Jan 14 18:24:07 PST 2015

Having prepared one (1) small estate affidavit and having carefully read the
statute at that time, I believe the confusion lies in knowing what, exactly,
your client is claiming.

If, on the one hand, your client is claiming only that portion of the
account to which he has a personal right of ownership, he must simply give
notice to the other potential claimants before doing so.  

If, on the other hand, he wishes to claim any portion of the account that
rightfully belongs to a different claiming successor, he must have the
written authority of that other successor in order to take possession of
that successor's portion.  

The result is that any claiming successor who doesn't give written authority
to your client will have to do his/her own small estate affidavit to claim
his/her own portion of the account.

I hope it all works out.

Best,

Sara

Sara D. Longley, J.D., LL.M.

Attorney at Law

1718 NW 56th Street #304

Seattle, WA 98107

 <tel:%28206%29%20434-5644> (206) 434-5644

 <mailto:Sara at Longley-law.pro> Sara at Longley-law.pro

 <http://www.longley-law.pro/> www.longley-law.pro

From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com
[mailto:wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com] On Behalf Of Douglas Bratt
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2015 5:14 PM
To: wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com
Subject: [WSBAPT] Small Estate Affidavit (RCW 11.62.010)

Hello Fellow List-Serv Colleagues:

I am dealing with a client, named to be PR in his Decedent mother's Will,
related to a relatively small investment account, in the sole name of the
Decedent mother, maintained at a brokerage company whose main office is
outside the State of Washington (but which has branch offices located in
this State).  The small size of the investment account mirrors the small
size of the entire probate estate, putting the probate estate value at well
under $100,000.00.  We were finally able to convince the brokerage house
that the Washington Small Estates Affidavit method should suffice as opposed
to the company's earlier insistence that we automatically had to produce
"Letters." 

So, when I turned to RCW 11.62.010 (2), it struck me that subsections (h)
and (i) are at variance one with the other.  According to (h), the "Claiming
Successor" is to give ten days' notice to all of the "other successors" that
we are going to placing the claim with the brokerage company, for the
investment account contents, as a Claiming Successor.

However, subsection (i) requires that we include in the Affidavit a
statement that we have written authority from "all other successors who have
an interest" in the property the claiming successor wants to obtain, for the
benefit of himself and the other "takers" under the Will.  

What happens if one of those "takers" has a free flowing life-style and is
not often available, on short notice, and might not even receive the ten day
notice because of frequent moves, and, thus, will certainly not be available
to sign "written authority."  It appears that that would leave us out in the
cold, since the Claiming Successor client could not swear that he has
written authority from all of the other successors.  Why require a ten day
notice period if nothing occurs if one of the "other successors" does not
respond to the notice? 

That leads me to think that each of the four separate "takers" under the
will might have to be a "claiming successor" as to a one-quarter interest in
the investment account, but if all four people have to jump through those
hoops, the total cost might easily match the costs of a "shell probate,"
filed for the sole purpose of obtaining Letters Testamentary.

Have I missed something in my reading of the statute?

And, why is it that the smallest, seemingly insignificant, assets in an
Estate take much longer, and much more money, to deal with than any other
assets?

Thanks.

Doug Bratt

Douglas J. Bratt

Lawyer

Office: (360) 213-2040 

 Fax: (360) 213-2030

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:  This email message may contain confidential or
privileged information.  If you have received this message by mistake,
please do not review, disclose, copy, or distribute the email. Instead,
please notify us immediately by replying to this message or telephoning us.
Thank you.

NOTE:  I do not use encrypted email.  Messages sent to or from my office via
email are not secure and may not be protected by attorney-client privilege.
This email address is not monitored at all times.  If your matter is urgent,
please phone my office during regular business hours.

TAX ADVICE NOTICE: IRS Circular 230 requires us to advise you that, if this
communication or any attachment contains any tax advice, the advice is not
intended to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding federal
tax penalties. A taxpayer may rely on professional advice to avoid federal
tax penalties only if the advice is reflected in a comprehensive tax opinion
that conforms to stringent requirements. Please contact us if you have any
questions about Circular 230 or would like to discuss our preparation of an
opinion that conforms to these IRS rules.

.  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20150114/f175584a/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 7199 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20150114/f175584a/image004.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1517 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20150114/f175584a/image001.jpg>