Estate Planning Attorney

• We have a depth of experience in trust and estate management that will help you and your client understand how the language within the documents will affect them when the time comes to implement the plan.
• With over 30 years of experience managing complex assets and complicated family situations, we can give you and your client the benefit of our experience during the planning stage of an estate plan.

Northwest Trustee & Management Services does not draft trust documents, or practice law to the general public due to a conflict of interest. We rely on you to complete all legal documents.

• Your client is elderly
• You sense that your client is vulnerable to overreaching or undue influence
• Your client or potential beneficiaries are spendthrifts
• Potential beneficiaries have drug or alcohol addictions
• There are complex assets in the estate
• Mixed families or cultural issues
• Mental or emotional instability of either your client, their spouse, or the beneficiaries
• Large estates

• Trustee, co-trustee, directed trustee
• Attorney-in-fact under DPOA or Alternate-attorney-in-fact
• Personal Representative or Co-Personal Representative
• Agent
• Foundation administration

As Trustee, we manage the following:

• Revocable Living Trusts
• Charitable Remainder Trusts
• Special Needs Trusts
• ILITS
• Educational Trusts
• ByPass / Q Tip Trusts
• Incentive Trusts
• Family Foundations
• LLC’s

It is very tempting to assign the role of trustee to a capable family member.  We often hear things like ‘no one knows my family like family’ or ‘they will do it for free’.  However, in our experience, that is a huge risk to the family unit as the strain to complete the duties of trustee can quickly become a large burden.  The family member will often bend under that strain, but not want to give up their duties out of loyalty to the person who assigned them.  In cases where they break under the strain, it causes major family issues, with legal and tax implications for the trustee.  One of the phrases we hear when called in to resolve family issues is, “I never thought this could happen to my family.”  In retrospect, the cost of our services are minimal compared to the fallout of a family member unable to perform the duties of trustee. The toll this takes on the family as a whole is yet another unquantifiable cost.

We are different.  We are objective when it comes to family dynamics, and we care equally for all beneficiaries.  We work hard to understand your clients’ specific situations and compassionately deal with all mental, physical, and emotional issues of the beneficiaries.   We take away the burdensome administrative tasks associated with trust management.  Finally, we provide expertise for complex assets, and monitor the performance of the investment advisor.

If you identify that you have a client that needs trust or estate management, typically it works like this:

• You call us to discuss the client and their situation
• We then meet with you and your client in person, or conduct a phone interview if necessary
• We would then like to see a draft of the document before it is signed and have an opportunity to provide comments
• We would prefer to have copies of original signed documents in our files.

We are frequently named in documents that we are unaware of, and you can legally do this. However, it is always better for us to see a draft of the document before it is signed.

When we have the opportunity to meet with your client and fully understand their financial and family background, we can work with you to ensure we can carry out you client’s wishes through the specific language in the document.

Our fees are reasonable and usually include three components: an hourly charge, a percentage management fee, and a tax preparation fee.

In order for us to provide a value, we find that an initial funding size of at least $1M is best.