Washington Probate > Probate for $595 + Costs > Additional Services

Examples of Additional Probate Services Provided

1.  For Any Estate:

• Publishing a Probate Notice to Creditors.
  
  Publishing a Probate Notice to Creditors is NOT legally required but is advantageous if the Decedent has died in the last year or so and you have not been handling his or her financial affairs.
  
  Our "Creditor's Claims services" include:
   

  • Sending the Notice to Creditors to a legal newspaper for publication;

  • Sending to you a detailed letter of instructions for paying Decedent's bills, giving actual notice of the probate to potential creditors, and dealing with creditors and their claims;

  • Receiving Creditor's Claims; and

  • Mailing a copy of each Creditor's Claim received to you.

  
  Our charge is a flat fee of $100 plus the cost of publication in a legal newspaper in the Decedent's county of residence at death, typically:
   

  • Clark County:             $80

  • King County:              $105

  • Kitsap County:           $225

  • Pierce County:           $117

  • Snohomish County:    $135

  • Spokane County:        $115

  • Yakima County:          $180
     

  An additional fee is charged, for example, if time is incurred to pay, allow, negotiate, compromise, or reject a claim.
   

• Transferring Real Property, such as Decedent's home, from the estate to heirs, beneficiaries, or a buyer.
  
  Our services include:
   

  • Preparing a Deed to transfer the real property;

  • Sending it to you for signature, notarization, and return to us for recording;

  • Preparing its associated Real Estate Excise Tax Affidavit; and

  • Sending the Deed and Affidavit to the County Recorder for recordation.
     

  If you can supply us with a copy of the Deed by which Decedent took title to the property & a copy of the relevant County Property Tax statement for the property, our typical charge is approximately $200 plus the cost of recordation, typically $51.
   

• Determining the true owner of any asset in or claimed by the estate.
   

• Dealing with an estate having medical reimbursement issues with the WA Dept. of Social & Health Services.
   

• Dealing with an insolvent estate (one that has more debts than assets).
  
  Nonintervention Powers are unavailable for an insolvent estate.  Without Nonintervention Powers, an estate is required to be closed by preparing and filing with the Court a Report and Account of the PR's Actions & Petition for Final Distribution, setting a hearing for the Petition, sending notice of the hearing to all heirs, beneficiaries, and creditors, and publishing the notice once in a legal newspaper.  This results in additional fees plus the cost of publication, typically $35.
   

• Responding to any disagreement, objection, contest, or dispute.

2.  Specifically for a Testate Estate:  Additional fees & costs should be minimal specifically for a testate estate.  The rare exception is if the Will is decades old, it may not be "self-proving," and its witnesses will need to be located and to sign a Declaration of Witnesses to Decedent's Will.

3.  Specifically for an Intestate Estate:  Intestate estates usually cost more in both fees and costs than do testate estates for two reasons:

• The Court requires a Probate Bond in an intestate estate.
  
  Exception: the PR is the surviving spouse and the estate consists of nothing but community property, resulting in all the estate passing to the surviving spouse by inheritance.
  
  Our typical charge for obtaining the Bond is approximately $200 plus the cost of the Bond, for example, $100 for a $10,000 Bond.
   

• An intestate PR does not automatically qualify for Nonintervention Powers.
  
  Exception: the PR is the surviving spouse, the estate is all community property, and there are no children of the Decedent by a prior marriage).
  
  Obtaining Nonintervention Powers requires either:
   

  • A Consent signed by every heir.  Usual fees to obtain the Consents are minimal.

  • A second, noticed hearing, if all the required Consents can't be obtained.  Our typical charge for a second, noticed hearing to obtain Nonintervention Powers is approximately $300.

4.  Overriding Principles:

• The "Basic Services" cover those services required to satisfy the laws of Washington for a typical basic, simple, problem-free estate.
   

• The "Additional Services" are those services provided to deal with any issue presented by the particular facts or circumstances of the specific Decedent and his or her estate.

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