[WSBAPT] Probate/Will Questions - Nonprobate assets

[J Richard McEntee, Jr.]

Hello Listmates -

This may be a duplicate message for some of you. I sent to the Solo and Small Practice Listserv as well.

A client (named personal representative) has contacted me regarding a possible probate. The decedent left a will with a gross estate of approximately $1.6 million. The decedent has no surviving spouse. The decedent owned no real property. The entire estate currently appears to be comprised of a life insurance policy payable to decedent’s children and a number of brokerage accounts also payable to decedent’s children. As it stands, it looks like all assets are non-probate. The decedent’s final tax return will need to be filed. Question 1: will a probate be necessary as to these facts? 

Question 2: Decedent made a specific bequest in his will. It states “[a]t the time of my demise, I direct my personal representative to evaluate the extent of my estate using whatever means in my personal representative’s reasonable discretion would yield an accurate accounting. Upon that information, I give a specific bequest to the General Fund of (named church), an amount in cash equaling 2% of my gross estate. If all assets are non-probate, does this specific bequest fail?  What other factors are considered? I have looked at RCW 11.11 but am not sure that it applies to this bequest as it does not name a specific non-probate asset to be distributed. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thank you
Rich


RICH McENTEE
McENTEE LAW OFFICE
3800 Bridgeport Way W, Ste A411
University Place, WA 98466
253.227.9894(m)
jrmcentee at gmail.com       

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20180104/277919d8/attachment.html>