[WSBAPT] Motion for Determination of Probate Asset?

[Hillary Dawn]

I'm wondering if anyone has any insight/exemplars they would be willing to share.

H and W were married for ~ 20 years with one child (16). For the last year they were physically separated but not legally separated and dissolution proceedings were not started. H died after a brief illness and W opened probate. There are some other nightmares we are dealing with (H's brother got him to sign DPA and will when he likely was not competent, then changed his beneficiary designations). Most assets are not a problem, as they are pretty clearly community or separate. The big issue is a life insurance policy around $250,000. The beneficiary was 100% W, but during his illness H's brother used his DPA to change the beneficiary to 100% to the minor son. W has no funds and is struggling to support her son. We believe at least 1/2 of the life insurance proceeds should be hers as her interest in the community property, and have found case law to support that. Unfortunately, the life insurance company firmly states they will only disburse the funds to the son in a blocked account.

I am thinking we should petition the court for a determination as to the proper distribution scheme of the funds, and an order directing the life insurance company to pay out according to that. Has anyone else done anything similar or have a better tactic?

Much appreciated!

Hillary L. Dawn
[cid:image004.jpg at 01D41F45.E4AF3880]
Hillary L. Dawn
Attorney at Law
721 45th Street N.E.
Auburn, WA 98002
hdawn at vansiclen.com<mailto:hdawn at vansiclen.com>
Office:   253-859-8899

Visit us on the web:  www.vansiclen.com<http://www.vansiclen.com/>

Like us on: [cid:image005.jpg at 01D41F45.E4AF3880]    facebook.com/VSSF.law<https://www.facebook.com/VSSF.law>


NOTICE: The contents of this message, including any attachments, may be protected by attorney-client privilege, the work product doctrine or other applicable legal protections.  If you are not the intended recipient or have received this message in error, please notify the sender and promptly delete the message. Thank you for your cooperation.
CLIENT ADVISORY:  A spam filter is in use in our IT system.  If you have not received a Reply to an e-mail message within forty-eight hours, please call or leave a voice mail message with the receptionist at 253.859.8899.
IRS CIRCULAR 230 DISCLAIMER:  To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, I inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code; or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or tax-related matter addressed herein.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20190409/6ba4c89b/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 7353 bytes
Desc: image005.jpg
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20190409/6ba4c89b/image005.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image006.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 833 bytes
Desc: image006.jpg
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20190409/6ba4c89b/image006.jpg>