[WSBARP] TEDRA Agreements that Contradict the Intent of the Will

[Jared Hawkins]

Colleagues: I hope your week is going well.  I'd appreciate any helpful thoughts you might have for me regarding the following scenario:


  *   Decedent dies testate with no surviving spouse.  The Will fairly clearly indicates that the majority of the estate assets are to be sold and the resulting funds placed in annuities for 2 of his 3 children.  The surviving grandchildren are to be listed as beneficiaries of the annuities
  *   The 2 children to receive the annuities don't want to be hampered by the annuity and want to share the estate assets with their disinherited sibling
  *   The children want to enter into a binding agreement under TEDRA to modify how the estate assets are paid out (i.e., to avoid the annuities)

Question:  RCW 11.12.230 is pretty clear that the intent of the testator is meant to be followed.  But the language of the legislative comments when TEDRA was adopted seem to say that its permissible for TEDRA agreements to run afoul of testator intent.    Can the children enter into a binding agreement under TEDRA to avoid placing the funds in an annuity even though that contradicts the apparent intent of the Testator in his Will?

Any help is appreciated.  Thanks!


Jared N. Hawkins, Attorney at Law
jared at hawklaw.biz<mailto:jared at hawklaw.biz>
Hawkins Law, PLLC
Phone 509-529-5175 / Fax 509-529-2564
2225 Isaacs, Suite A/ Walla Walla, WA 99362
Visit our website at hawklaw.biz.
This email is intended only for the named recipient(s) or their designees, and may contain legally privileged or confidential information.  If you have received this email in error, please delete it entirely from your computer and notify the sender.  Thank you.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbarp/attachments/20171206/7a6a8753/attachment.html>