▍ Foundational plan
Young family of four, first comprehensive plan.
Coordinated wills, durable powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and a revocable living trust around the home, retirement accounts, and guardianship choices for the children.
Most of our estate clients didn’t come looking for a lawyer. They came because something changed: a baby, a marriage, a sale, a diagnosis, a loss. The paperwork that was fine for the last chapter wasn’t going to carry them through the next. We sit at the kitchen table with Pacific Northwest families in plain language, on plans that fit the way they actually live.
Talk to an estate attorneyEstate planning, probate, and trust work has been part of the firm since the start. We draft wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, powers of attorney, and the more advanced planning that comes with closely-held businesses, blended families, and multi-generational holdings. When a death happens, we handle probate and trust administration end to end, including the conversations with surviving family members that are not strictly legal but tend to need a lawyer in the room.
Last will and testament, guardianship designations, and the foundational documents every family needs in place.
Trust drafting, funding, and the probate-avoidance planning that simplifies administration for the next generation.
Durable powers of attorney for finances and healthcare, living wills, and healthcare directives.
Washington nonintervention probate, small-estate affidavits, and out-of-state probate coordination.
Trustee counsel, accountings, distributions, and the fiduciary-duty support trustees need from year one onward.
Federal and Washington estate-tax planning, lifetime gifting strategies, and coordinated income-tax planning.
Family-business transition, buy-sell coordination, and the long-term planning that lets a business survive a generation change.
First-party and third-party special-needs trusts, ABLE accounts, and the planning that protects benefit eligibility.
Charitable remainder and lead trusts, donor-advised fund coordination, and the planned-giving structures that align values with assets.
Trust and entity structures that protect family wealth from creditor and litigation exposure within legal and ethical limits.
Community-property agreements, premarital and postnuptial agreements, and the family-governance framework that supports them.
Will-contest representation: lack of capacity, undue influence, and improper execution claims, on both petitioner and defender sides.
Beneficiary disputes, missing-asset claims, and the family conversations that go better with a steady third party in the room.
Claims against and defense of trustees, personal representatives, and attorneys-in-fact who carry duties under a plan.
Estate clients return for the same three reasons. None of them is the document at hand. It’s the years of stewardship that follow.
We write plans in language a family can actually read. If a sentence requires a lawyer to read, we keep editing.
We listen first. The plan follows the family, the business, and the values, not the other way around.
The lawyer who drafts the plan is in the same office as the litigators who defend it and the probate team that administers it. No handoffs when it matters.
A working conversation about the family, the assets, and the goals on the table. The plan follows the goals, never a template.
A simple summary of accounts, real estate, business interests, life insurance, and the beneficiary designations already in place.
We propose the structure in plain language: will-based or trust-based, with the tax, business, and family considerations baked in.
Wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and the schedule of bequests. Senior attorney drafting from the first version.
Formal execution of the documents, plus the funding work that moves assets into the trust where applicable. The plan is in place.
We stay available for the questions that come up over the years: a refinance, a new child, a sale, a loss. Most of the value of a clean plan is what doesn’t happen later.
We coordinate wills, durable powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and a revocable living trust around the home, retirement accounts, and guardianship choices for the children. The plan grows with the family.
Parallel plans for spouses with grown children from prior marriages. A marital trust structure that protects the survivor and preserves each side’s family inheritances.
Restructured trust framework with a dynasty layer, coordinated annual gifting, and a buy-sell agreement aligned with the estate plan. Family-governance principles documented alongside the legal documents.
We step in mid-process for an executor who has taken on more than expected. Close the estate within nine months, coordinate final returns, and resolve beneficiary questions without litigation.
Coordinated wills, durable powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and a revocable living trust around the home, retirement accounts, and guardianship choices for the children.
Restructured a long-standing family trust to add a dynasty layer, coordinated annual gifting, and aligned the family business’s buy-sell agreement with the estate plan.
Stepped in mid-process for an executor who had taken on more than expected. Closed the estate within nine months and resolved a beneficiary question without litigation.
Both can work. For Washington families with simple estates and a community-property agreement, a will-based plan is often the right answer. For families with real estate in multiple states, complex business interests, or a preference for privacy, a properly funded trust avoids probate and simplifies administration. We work through the trade-offs honestly.
Four to nine months for a typical nonintervention probate. The four-month creditor-claim window is the binding constraint. Smaller estates handled through Washington’s small-estate affidavit can be resolved in weeks.
A CPA is a written agreement between married Washington spouses that automatically vests the deceased spouse’s share of community property in the survivor at death, often without any probate. It’s an inexpensive, powerful tool, used carefully.
Every five to seven years, or whenever something material changes: a marriage or divorce, a child, a move, a sale, a death. A plan that hasn’t been read in a decade usually doesn’t match the family it was written for.
A foundational plan for a young family is typically a few thousand dollars. Trust-based plans, multi-generational planning, and business-succession work cost more and are quoted in writing after the first conversation. There is no charge for the first conversation.
Plain language, careful drafting, and the steady counsel a family deserves.
Oseran Hahn P.S. · 11225 SE 6th St, Suite 100 · Bellevue, WA 98004
This content is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Viewing this page does not create an attorney–client relationship.
