[WSBAPT] Disclaiming property

[Krista MacLaren]

Dear Listmates,

I am preparing disclaimers for the agent of an incapacitated surviving spouse to sign.  In this case, we are disclaiming part of deceased spouse’s assets to bring the surviving spouse’s estate below the Washington exemption amount.  I have never prepared disclaimers before, and I do have what I believe is a good form.  I have a few questions about how to describe the property being disclaimed:

Do I just describe the assets like I would on the estate inventory, with enough specificity to identify them?  
Is the exact value being disclaimed identified in the disclaimer, or evidence of the value attached to the disclaimer?  
If an asset has appreciated since the date of death, can the entire current value (or one-half of the entire current value in the case of community property) be disclaimed, or am I limited to the date of death value (or one-half thereof)?  

Among the assets to be disclaimed is an insurance policy on which the surviving spouse is the beneficiary.  Does the agent provide the disclaimers to the insurance company and request that the payment be made to the resulting beneficiary?  I am concerned about whether the insurance company would be willing to pay out the policy to someone other than the person identified in the policy documents as the beneficiary.  I have the same question as to U.S. Savings bonds.  As a practical matter, is it possible to cash out the bonds while disclaiming them?  I am thinking the agent cannot just make a claim as if they were not being disclaimed in order to get them paid out, and then disclaim, because a person cannot disclaim property in their posession?

Thank you for any advice or suggestions!

Krista

Krista J. MacLaren
Attorney at Law
Northgate Executive Center II
9725 3rd Ave NE, Suite 600
Seattle WA 98115
(206) 523-6116
kjm.inc at icloud.com

Please note, as with most email providers, Mac does not encrypt email messages. Accordingly, the confidentiality of messages sent to this address cannot be assured. This e-mail is intended for viewing only by the individual or entity to whom its content is addressed, and it may contain confidential or privileged information. If you received this email in error, please honor the privacy of the intended recipient: reply to the sender regarding the error and delete the message.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20180806/e0d151e1/attachment.html>