Trusts and Estates

Blair Stone is a skilled trusts and estates lawyer, with advanced training in taxation. She counsels individuals in matters of wealth transfer planning, including charitable giving. Blair has extensive experience in analyzing, selecting and putting into effect such strategies as living trusts, irrevocable gift trusts (including generation-skipping, life insurance and grantor-retained income trusts), personal residence trusts, special needs trusts, charitable trusts and foundations, and section 529 plans. Services offered include:

Wills and Irrevocable Trusts
The drafting of wills and trust agreements is a significant part of Blair's trusts and estates practice. These typically are the documents used to implement an estate plan carefully designed to achieve a client's planning goals in the most tax-efficient way possible. Irrevocable trusts can be used to transfer assets during one's lifetime in order to make gifts and to remove property from the trustor's estate. Trusts designed to benefit charities can, in addition, provide income tax benefits to the trustor.

Revocable Living Trusts
Although Washington's streamlined probate process makes living trusts less attractive than they are in other jurisdictions, living trusts are a useful estate planning tool for some clients--in particular those who are concerned with privacy or planning for incapacity. Clients with out-of-state real property often use revocable trusts to avoid ancillary probate in another state. funding, and administration of living trusts.

Planning for Incapacity
All of our estate planning clients are encouraged to have current durable powers of attorney, powers of attorney for health care and health care directives (also known as living wills) as a component of their basic planning documents. Washington recently enacted legislation authorizing an advance directive for mental health care, which we recommend in appropriate cases.

Estate and Trust Litigation
Phillips Law Group is prepared to represent fiduciaries and beneficiaries in significant litigation involving trusts or estates.