Christopher S. Mulvaney,

Attorney and Counselor-at-Law

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THIS WEBSITE INCLUDES GENERAL INFORMATION & THE OPINIONS OF CHRISTOPHER S. MULVANEY. IT IS INTENDED TO STIMULATE A BASIS FOR QUESTIONS RELATED TO YOUR PARTICULAR FACTUAL CIRCUMSTANCES — BEFORE YOU ACT.  THIS WEBSITE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU WANT LEGAL ADVICE, PLEASE MAKE A ZOOM APPOINTMENT TO SPEAK WITH ME.

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Gonzaga University School of Law – Spokane, Washington – Class of 2002 – Cum Laude The Latin phrase “Deo patriae, scientiis, artibus” translates to “For God and country through sciences and arts”.  The initials A.M.D.G. on the seal of Gonzaga Law School stand for Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, which is Latin for “For the Greater Glory of God” the Motto of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits): a Catholic religious order founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola.

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“By obliging men to turn their attention to other affairs than their own, it rubs off that private selfishness which is the rust of society.”
– de Tocqueville on jury service

Probate should be avoided if possible. If it cannot be avoided, a Will that can be submitted to Probate without communicating with beneficiaries first has a higher risk of disputes than a Probate without a Will that requires all beneficiaries to agree (about the Executor, bond requirement, and non-intervention powers, and sign affidavits in advance of Probate). This is the best source of online information about probate in Washington.

The Washington Legislature has essentially already executed a Will for every resident of Washington in the form of the Intestacy Statute.

If you absolutely insist on having a Will in spite of all of the information provided, then the best way to do so is to find a lawyer who will sign a paper Will with live witnesses. I don’t do this and don’t know any lawyer who does. The world has changed such that Wills are completely unnecessary for any purpose. The primary purposes of Wills in overriding the Intestacy Statute which already gives equal shares to children, if any, and equal shares to parents, if any , and equal shares to siblings, if any and so on through layers of blood relations is to do three things:

1. Appoint the Personal Representative (PR) to be the Administrator of the Estate.
2. Waive the Bond Requirement so that the PR doesn’t have to pay money to post a bond to protect beneficiaries against theft.
3. Disinherit a child or children.
4. Grant Non-Intervention Powers to the PR, so that no permission from the Court is needed for the PR’s actions and the PR doesn’t have to ever report the the Court again or close the Probate Case.

1. The Personal Representative should live in the County where the property is located. Ideally, the Beneficiaries should agree as to who the Personal Representative is. There is no requirement that a PR named in a Will notify Beneficiaries prior to submitting the Probate Petition to the Court. There should be such a requirement. By not having a Will, the Beneficiaries are forced to communicate and agree in writing in an Affidavit as to who the PR should be. This decreases the likelihood of disputes and is superior to the result of a Will Probated without prior notice to Beneficiaries.
2. The bond protects the Beneficiaries against theft and can and should be paid from the assets of the Estate. I had a case in which the oldest son was named as Beneficiary. He probated the paper will with live witnesses without notice to his two siblings. He swore under penalty of perjury that he would share equally with his two siblings. He lied. He sold the house and blew $300,000 on drugs, alcohol and who know what other debauchery. If the parents would have not had a Will, there is no way the siblings would have consented to their alcoholic, drug addicted brother being PR; there is no way they would have agreed to no bond. Distribution without a Will would have avoided disinheritance of two of the adult children by the criminal PR.
3. Disinheriting children is something that commonly happens due to estrangement, addiction, criminality, or any number of disagreements and resentments. A Will is a public document that has to be sent to the disinherited children giving them the chance to contest the Will due to incapacity or undue influence or duress. A Will is simply not the best way to disinherit. Preferred methods include a Transfer on Death Deed for real estate only to the children the deceased wishes to have the property. The disinherited child receives no notice, and has no legal recourse regarding a house transferred to the siblings by the filing of a death certificate. Similarly, a Beneficiary Designation naming some children and not others requires no notice and the disinherited child has no legal recourse regarding the transfer of funds pursuant to the Beneficiary Designation. Both the Transfer on Death Deed transfer and the Beneficiary Designation transfer are irrevocable, meaning that they cannot be changed by anyone, even a Court, after the person who made them dies. That is the exact opposite of the Probate of a Will in which the disinherited child has a statutory right to notice and a statutory right to challenge the validity of the Will.
4. Non-Intervention Powers should not be allowed. Non-Intervention means Non-Intervention by the Court. Not all States has such a statutory provision. I used to practice in Nevada. In Nevada, every Estate Account is a blocked account so checks cannot be written without a Court Order. The Probate Commissioner supervises the distribution of every Estate and all the proper paperwork is filed in every Probate and every Probate is properly closed because it has to be. Final Distribution cannot be made without a Court Order. In Washington, Beneficiaries can steal from each other and don’t have to close the case, or even file any type of accounting of what happened to the money. There are tens of thousands of Probate cases in King County that have never been closes and never will be because the PR got the Letters of Administration and never filed anything with the Court after that. I am sad to say, that some of those cases are mine because my client ghosted me after receiving the Letters. That is why I don’t appear as attorney of record for any Probates anymore. I just advise clients who appear Pro Se. That way it is on them if they don’t complete the Probate as required.

King County has a Will Repository where your Will can be kept for 100 years for $20.

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Washington State residents can meet with me in Zoom/DocuSign from anywhere in the world, and I can notarize their electronic signatures because I am a remote online notary.  Just email me an image of your photo ID.