How we handle trusts at View Ridge Law

Whether you want a revocable living trust to keep your estate out of court, a special needs trust for a family member who will need lifelong support, or help untangling a trust someone else created, our team handles it all. If you are weighing a trust against a simple will, a trust lawyer in Seattle can usually tell you in one conversation which tool actually fits your family.

Trusts offer flexibility, control, and protection for your assets. They keep decisions in your family’s hands instead of a courtroom. They can also be oversold. Not every Seattle household needs one, and we will tell you plainly if a will serves you better.

Trusts sit inside our broader estate planning practice, and we build them the way we practice: alongside family law. That matters more than it sounds. Blended families, co-parenting arrangements, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, and prior court orders all shape what a trust can and should do. A trust drafted without that context is where disputes start. Ours are designed around your actual family structure, not a template family.

The process is straightforward. You start with a Case Evaluation through our Client Services Director, who reviews your situation and what you want your plan to accomplish. If you move forward, you meet with an attorney who designs the trust around your assets, your people, and your concerns. We draft, you review, we revise, you sign. Then we walk you through funding the trust and coordinating your beneficiary designations so the plan works when it is needed. Washington law changes, and so do families, so we recommend revisiting the plan after major life events like a marriage, a divorce, a birth, or a significant purchase.

Living trust or will: what Seattle families should weigh

Start with the honest version. Washington probate is more streamlined than probate in many other states, so “avoid probate at all costs” is weaker advice here than it is in California. A well-drafted will, paired with the right beneficiary designations, covers plenty of Washington families. We draft those too. See our wills page for how that works.

A revocable living trust in Washington earns its keep in specific situations. You own real estate in more than one state and want your family to avoid a second probate there. You want privacy, since probate files are public record and a trust is not. You want a plan for incapacity, so a successor trustee can manage your affairs without a guardianship proceeding. You have a blended family or children from a prior relationship and want distributions controlled precisely. You want a young adult to receive their inheritance in stages rather than all at once at eighteen. If two or more of those describe you, a trust is worth a serious look.

Either way, the document is only half the job. A trust that is never funded, meaning your house, accounts, and other assets are never retitled into it, does almost nothing. We treat funding as part of the engagement, not an afterthought.

Special needs trusts

If your child or another family member receives means-tested benefits like SSI or Medicaid, or may need them someday, an outright inheritance can disqualify them from that support. A special needs trust solves this. Assets are held for the beneficiary’s benefit without being counted as their resources, so the inheritance supplements public benefits instead of replacing them.

A special needs trust attorney will help you choose the right structure. A third-party special needs trust holds money that was never the beneficiary’s own, typically funded by parents or grandparents through their estate plans. A first-party trust holds the beneficiary’s own assets, such as a settlement or a direct inheritance, and follows stricter federal rules including payback provisions. Getting this wrong is expensive and hard to undo, which is why Seattle families searching for a special needs trust lawyer should look for a firm that drafts these documents as part of a complete family plan, including who serves as trustee after the parents are gone.

Trust administration and TEDRA disputes

Drafting is not where our trust work ends. When a trust creator dies or becomes incapacitated, the successor trustee inherits real legal duties under Washington law: notifying beneficiaries, inventorying and protecting assets, keeping accurate accountings, and distributing property according to the trust’s terms. We guide trustees through trust administration step by step so those duties are met and documented.

When trusts go wrong, Washington’s Trust and Estate Dispute Resolution Act, known as TEDRA, is the framework for fixing them. TEDRA lets interested parties resolve disputes over a trust or estate, whether through a binding agreement among the parties or through a court petition. Disputes over a trustee’s conduct, ambiguous trust language, or contested distributions all run through it. View Ridge Law handles TEDRA matters as a listed practice area, so if administration turns into conflict, you are not hunting for a second firm mid-crisis.

Why families across King, Snohomish, and Pierce Counties choose View Ridge Law

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About Evelyn Emanuel

Evelyn Emanuel

Estate Planning Attorney, View Ridge Law

Evelyn Emanuel helps individuals and families plan for the future with empathy, clear communication, and attention to each client’s wishes. She believes proactive planning can preserve wealth, protect assets, reduce family conflict, and leave a legacy that reflects a client’s values.

Evelyn graduated cum laude from Seattle University School of Law in 2012. She belongs to the WSBA Elder Law Section and the Washington Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and serves on the editorial board of the WSBA’s Bar News.

Credentials: Seattle University School of Law, J.D. cum laude (2012) · WSBA Elder Law Section · Washington Academy of Elder Law Attorneys · Editorial Board, WSBA Bar News · Read Evelyn’s full bio →