The Law Practice to Rely On

Our firm provides a full range of legal assistance to business clients, including the planning, formation, and purchase of a business. We advise clients on the best type of legal structure they need for their business to be able to achieve their purposes. We then help set it up, guiding clients through the often bewildering array of issues faced at the inception of a business. Whether it is a sole proprietorship, S-corporation, corporation, limited liability company (LLC), partnership, or limited partnership, we can create Articles of Incorporation, partnership agreements, and other business contracts.

Our law practice assists business clients with all kinds of legal matters, from setting up employment and compensation arrangements to real estate leasing, including purchase and sale agreements to financing. For established enterprises, our experience allows us to offer wide-ranging and astute legal advice as well as dispute resolution. We vigorously represent our clients both in and out of court.

Iwama Law Firm combines the fields of Elder Law and Estate Planning to provide comprehensive estate planning services coupled with elder disability and Medicaid planning issues.

Clients may establish trusts to avoid probate proceedings when the inevitable comes and to provide for substitute decision-making in the event of disability. On the elder law side, we plan ahead to protect assets from being lost to nursing home costs or, where no preplanning has been done.

The sadness of losing a loved one is incomparable. Compassion and thoughtfulness are the keystones of our estate administration and probate settlement process.

 

Probate is the legal procedure in which the probate court assumes jurisdiction over the assets of someone who has died. The court will appoint a representative of the estate and this person will be charged with the responsibility to make the payment of debts, taxes, and fees. After they are paid, the distribution of the remainder assets will be made to the persons named in a will, or to the legal heirs if there is no will. Probate may not be necessary if a deceased person had a properly drafted and funded trust. However, trust administration is necessary.

 

Family members commonly believe that their deceased loved one properly planned because the decedent had a will, had created and funded a trust, or had designated certain individuals as beneficiaries. In fact, sometimes, the decedent’s plans may actually have a negative impact on the family with regard to estate taxes, and/or Medicaid planning strategies for the surviving spouse. If this occurs, experienced Elder Law estate planning attorneys can advise you about post-mortem planning techniques that may rectify the situation and create more favorable tax consequences for the surviving family members. Assets that were “exempt” for Medicaid while the spouse was living may now be “available,” such as the home. It is always a good idea to review the estate plan after the first spouse dies.

Unlike a will, a trust is a private document and need not be filed with the probate court on death. Nonetheless, the successor trustee must still take steps to administer the trust: Beneficiaries must be contacted and kept informed; the grantor’s assets gathered and invested; any debts paid; potential creditors notified; taxes filed and paid; assets and/or income distributed in conformity with trust provisions to beneficiaries, etc.
 

Successor trustees often lack the time, resources or knowledge to personally administer the trust, and therefore may call upon legal, accounting, and investment professionals for assistance.

Below is a summary of the basic obligations of the successor trustee of a trust.

 

Show loyalty of all trust beneficiaries. Even if the successor trustee is himself a beneficiary, he has as a trustee the duty of loyalty to all the other beneficiaries, including the contingent beneficiaries.

 

Deal impartially with beneficiaries. The successor trustee may not favor the lifetime income beneficiary over the interests of the remainder beneficiaries who will take after the death of the lifetime beneficiary.

 

Make the trust property productive of income. This duty is violated if the successor trustee keeps large amounts in a checking account that does not pay interest and does not grow in value. There may be other trust assets that do not produce income, such as a vacant home. These assets must be disposed of or made productive within a reasonable time, since they are considered “wasting” assets that deplete the estate. The trustee may be liable for failing to convert “wasting” assets into productive assets.

Real estate transactions are often complex and full of innumerable details. There are many potential problems that can arise out of buying, selling, or owning a home: breach of contract claims and earnest money disputes, misrepresentation claims based on a failure to disclose defects, and disputes with neighbors over boundaries, to name a few.

 

If you plan on buying or selling your home by yourself, we can assist you with this complicated legal transaction involving what may be your most valuable asset. Furthermore, we can help you structure a transaction that will allow you to minimize or avoid disputes in the future, such as conflicts that may arise out of joint ownership of property.

 

We serve the construction community (including contractors, subcontractors, owners, architects and engineers) in Tacoma, Kent, Des Moines, Renton, Puyallup, Federal Way, Seattle, and many other regions of Washington and California.

 

Applying our expertise, we handle cases involving non-payment, additional services, default terminations, design defects, differing conditions, changes, delays, suspensions of work, acceleration, labor inefficiency, bid mistakes, and protests.