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Washington Estate Planning Basics
Pillar GuideWashington30 min read

Washington Estate Planning Basics

Washington estate planning runs on five documents. A power of attorney is not durable by default here, and a living trust is not revocable unless it says so.

By Settled Editorial

A Washington estate plan runs on five documents. A will under RCW 11.12.020 names who inherits and who settles the estate. A power of attorney under chapter 11.125 RCW covers money and health care in one act. A health care directive under RCW 70.122.030 records your treatment instructions. A community property agreement under RCW 26.16.120 is the married couple's shortcut. A revocable trust under chapter 11.103 RCW is optional.

Here is what a checklist imported from another state gets wrong in Washington. Three of the defaults run backwards. A power of attorney is not durable unless it says so, coagents have to act together unless you say otherwise, and a living trust is not revocable unless the document uses the word. Every rule below was read at the Revised Code of Washington on August 8, 2026, and each one is linked so you can check it yourself. Read this page as a planning map and take anything touching your own house or your own family to a licensed Washington attorney before you sign. For what happens after a death, start with the Washington probate guide.

The Five Documents and the Sections That Govern Them

DocumentWhat it doesWashington law
WillNames who inherits and who serves as personal representativeRCW 11.12.020
Power of attorneyLets an agent handle money, property and health carechapter 11.125 RCW
Health care directiveDirects care in a terminal or permanent unconscious conditionRCW 70.122.030
Community property agreementPasses community property to the survivor with no court fileRCW 26.16.120
Revocable living trustHolds retitled property and skips the court filechapter 11.103 RCW

Every adult in Washington should hold the first three. The fourth is for married couples and registered domestic partners, and it does more work here than any other single page of paper. The fifth answers a narrower question and costs more to set up and maintain.

One vocabulary note before the documents. Washington calls the person who settles an estate the personal representative, and probate is heard in the superior court of a county under RCW 11.96A.040. In a trust the statute says trustor rather than settlor or grantor, which is why a search for "Washington settlor" turns up so little.

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Three Washington Defaults That Run Backwards

Most planning articles are written against the Uniform Power of Attorney Act and the Uniform Trust Code as other states enacted them. Washington took the first and skipped the second, and it changed the switches on the one it took. These three reversals decide whether your documents work.

A power of attorney is not durable unless it says so. RCW 11.125.040 terminates the agent's authority on the principal's incapacity unless the writing contains the words "This power of attorney shall not be affected by disability of the principal," or "This power of attorney shall become effective upon the disability of the principal," or similar words showing that intent. The section applies to documents created before and after January 1, 2017. Read your own document and look for the sentence.

Two agents have to act together. RCW 11.125.110(1) says that unless the power of attorney provides otherwise, all coagents must exercise their authority jointly, with one carve out letting a coagent delegate to another coagent. Naming two children as coagents in Washington means the bank wants both signatures. Say in the document that either may act alone if that is what you intend.

A trust is irrevocable unless it says otherwise. RCW 11.103.030(1) reads that unless the terms of a trust expressly provide that the trust is revocable, the trustor may not revoke or amend the trust. Washington runs the reverse of the Uniform Trust Code presumption. A trust sold to you as a revocable living trust has to carry the word.

A fourth difference is structural rather than a reversal. Health care lives inside the power of attorney act. There is no separate Washington health care power of attorney statute. RCW 11.125.400 supplies the agent's health care authority, and the old chapter 11.94 RCW that most older material cites is repealed. Chapters 11.88 and 11.92 RCW, the old guardianship chapters, are gone the same way and now sit in chapter 11.130 RCW. Check the chapter number on any Washington source before you trust it.

The Will

Your will speaks for you in the superior court. It says who inherits, names the personal representative, and records who you want raising your minor children.

RCW 11.12.010 sets who may sign one in a single sentence: "Any person of sound mind who has attained the age of eighteen years may, by last will, devise all his or her estate, both real and personal."

RCW 11.12.020(1) then sets the signing rule. A Washington will must be in writing, signed by the testator or by another person under the testator's direction in the testator's presence or electronic presence, and attested by two or more competent witnesses. The witnesses attest either by subscribing their names to the will or by signing an affidavit that complies with RCW 11.20.020(2), while in the presence or electronic presence of the testator and at the testator's direction or request.

Two consequences follow, and both surprise people.

  • Washington has no holographic will. The section list for chapter 11.12 RCW carries no handwritten will provision. One route stays open for anyone who moved here: the same subsection deems a will executed in the mode prescribed by the law of the place where it was executed, or of the testator's domicile at execution or at death, to be legally executed in Washington. A handwritten will valid where it was signed can still work here. A handwritten page signed at a Washington kitchen table with nobody watching cannot.
  • Video signing is written into the statute. Electronic presence is a live rule, not an emergency workaround, and the same subsection lets a will signed in electronic presence be executed, attested or acknowledged in counterparts that together count as one document. Washington also runs a full electronic wills act at RCW 11.12.400 through 11.12.491.

Pick witnesses who inherit nothing. RCW 11.12.160 does not void a will signed by an interested witness, and instead creates a rebuttable presumption that the witness procured the gift by duress, menace, fraud or undue influence, unless at least two other subscribing witnesses are disinterested.

Two smaller sections are worth knowing. RCW 11.12.260 lets your will refer to a separate handwritten or signed list disposing of tangible personal property, which you can rewrite later without redoing the will, as long as the will refers to the writing and the writing describes the items and the recipients with reasonable certainty. RCW 11.12.051 revokes every provision in favor of a former spouse or former domestic partner on dissolution, invalidation or termination, unless the will expressly says otherwise, and revives them on remarriage or reregistration.

A will has limits. It cannot move property already retitled into a funded trust, override a beneficiary form, redirect property that carries survivorship rights, or reach past a community property agreement. The Washington will requirements guide walks the whole signing sequence and the delivery duty after a death.

The Power of Attorney

A power of attorney names an agent to act for you while you are alive. Washington adopted the Uniform Power of Attorney Act as chapter 11.125 RCW, effective January 1, 2017, and it is one document rather than the financial and medical pair most states use.

Signing takes more than a signature. RCW 11.125.050(1) requires the power of attorney to be signed and dated by the principal, and the signature must be either acknowledged before a notary public or other individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments, or attested by two or more competent witnesses. The witness pool is restricted: no home care provider for the principal, nobody providing care at an adult family home or long term care facility where the principal lives, and nobody related to the principal or the agent by blood, marriage or state registered domestic partnership.

Use the notary. Subsection (3) presumes the signature genuine when it is acknowledged, and only an acknowledged power of attorney reaches the third party acceptance machinery at RCW 11.125.190 and RCW 11.125.200. Those two sections are what make a bank say yes.

Washington prints no statutory form power of attorney. The chapter carries an agent's certification form at RCW 11.125.430 and nothing for the instrument itself, so a Washington document is drafted rather than filled in. The section was also amended this year by House Bill 2604, Chapter 101, Laws of 2026, effective June 11, 2026, which added a narrow carve out at subsection (4) for a limited power of attorney transferring a vehicle to an insurer after payment of damages. Any description of Washington execution rules written before mid 2026 is missing that subsection.

Some powers never come along for the ride. Under RCW 11.125.240(1), an agent may do the following only if the document expressly grants the authority: create, amend, revoke or terminate an inter vivos trust; make a gift; create or change rights of survivorship; create or change a beneficiary designation; delegate authority; waive a right to be the beneficiary of a joint and survivor annuity; exercise fiduciary powers the principal may delegate; exercise a power of appointment in favor of anyone other than the principal; and create, amend or revoke a community property agreement. That last item is Washington's own addition, and it is the hook between the two documents most Washington couples rely on.

There is a bonus most people miss. RCW 11.125.080(1) lets you nominate a conservator of your estate or a guardian of your person inside the power of attorney, and the court shall appoint in accordance with your most recent nomination except for good cause shown or disqualification. Signing while you are well means you pick that person too. The Washington power of attorney guide covers the agent's duties, the accounting rules and the grounds a third party may use to refuse.

The Health Care Documents

Washington splits medical planning across two instruments that live in different titles, so a reader who finds one often stops before finding the other.

The agent comes from the power of attorney. RCW 11.125.400 provides that where a power of attorney grants general authority over health care matters, the agent is authorized to act as your personal representative under the federal privacy rules and to give informed consent for health care decisions on your behalf. Grant that authority in the same document that handles your money, and make it durable, or it stops at incapacity along with everything else.

The directive is the living will, authorized by the Natural Death Act at chapter 70.122 RCW. RCW 70.122.030(1) lets any adult person execute a directive directing the withholding or withdrawal of life sustaining treatment in a terminal condition or a permanent unconscious condition. Signing takes one of two routes: acknowledgment before a notary public or other individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments, or signature in the presence of two witnesses who are not related to you by blood or marriage, would not take any portion of your estate under an existing will or codicil or by operation of law, are not your attending physician or an employee of that physician or of the health facility where you are a patient, and hold no claim against your estate. The statute prints a model form and says the directive may be in that form, so it is a safe harbor rather than a mandate.

One line in that form is gone and most published Washington packets still print it. The directive used to lose all force during a pregnancy. House Bill 1215, Chapter 56, Laws of 2025, titled "NATURAL DEATH ACT MODEL DIRECTIVE FORM REFERENCES TO PREGNANCY," struck the paragraph with an effective date of July 27, 2025. The word pregnant appears nowhere in RCW 70.122.030 today.

Washington runs a separate instrument for mental health treatment under chapter 71.32 RCW, with its own execution rule. Washington also publishes two answers on how a health care agent ranks against a court appointed guardian. RCW 11.130.335(1) says a guardian may not revoke or amend a power of attorney for health care, and that the agent's health care decision takes precedence over the guardian's unless a court orders otherwise. RCW 7.70.065(1)(a) runs the other way, ranking an appointed guardian ahead of a health care agent in its consent-priority list. Both are current law, and quoting either alone gives a settled answer the code does not supply. The Washington health care directive guide covers the form, revocation, what paramedics can act on, and this conflict in full.

The Community Property Agreement

This is the document that has no analogue in most states, and for many Washington couples it does more than the trust they were quoted for.

Start with the ownership rule. RCW 26.16.030 makes property acquired after marriage or after registration of a state registered domestic partnership community property, lets either person manage and control it, and then caps what a will can reach: "Neither person shall devise or bequeath by will more than one-half of the community property." RCW 11.02.070 confirms one half of the community property to the survivor at death and leaves the other half to pass by will or by intestate succession.

RCW 26.16.120 then lets both spouses or both domestic partners jointly agree on the status or disposition of the whole or any portion of the community property, then owned or afterwards acquired, to take effect on the death of either. The agreement must be in writing under their hands and seals, witnessed, acknowledged and certified in the same manner as a deed to real estate, and it may be altered or amended the same way. The same section keeps three limits alive: it does not derogate from the right of creditors, the superior court may still set it aside for fraud or on another recognized head of equity, and the slayer and abuser rules of chapter 11.84 RCW still apply.

Two things follow that a generic plan gets wrong.

  • A later will does not quietly undo it. RCW 11.02.005 names the community property agreement in its list of nonprobate assets, and RCW 11.11.010(7)(a)(iv) takes a right or interest passing under a community property agreement out of the chapter that otherwise lets a will redirect nonprobate assets. Anyone who signs one and later writes a will pointing somewhere else needs both documents read together.
  • It does not outrun creditors. RCW 11.18.200(2)(a) says a beneficiary of property passing at death under a community property agreement takes it subject to the decedent's liabilities, claims, estate taxes and share of administration expenses.

Work the tradeoff in how community property changes the plan before you sign one. The agreement is cheap and it moves everything to one person on one event. It answers nothing about what happens when the survivor dies, and it does nothing for a blended family.

Trusts Under Chapter 11.98 and Chapter 11.103 RCW

Washington never adopted the Uniform Trust Code. Its trust law sits in chapter 11.98 RCW, titled TRUSTS, with revocable trusts broken out into chapter 11.103 RCW and disputes routed through chapter 11.96A RCW. A citation to a "Washington Trust Code" points at nothing, and the statute's word for the person who creates a trust is trustor.

Four sections decide how a Washington revocable trust behaves.

It is irrevocable unless it says otherwise. RCW 11.103.030(1) is one sentence: unless the terms of a trust expressly provide that the trust is revocable, the trustor may not revoke or amend the trust. Ask to be shown that clause in your own document.

Community property inside a joint trust follows its own rules. RCW 11.103.030(2)(a) lets either spouse or either domestic partner revoke the trust alone as to community property, while amendment takes joint action. Subsection (2)(c) confirms that the character of community or separate property is unaffected by its transfer to and from a revocable trust, so funding a trust does not quietly convert one kind into the other.

Capacity matches the will standard. RCW 11.103.020 sets the capacity required to create, amend, revoke or add property to a revocable trust, or to direct the trustee, at the same level required to make a will.

Your agent cannot touch it unless you said so. RCW 11.103.030(5) lets an agent under a power of attorney exercise the trustor's revocation, amendment or distribution powers only to the extent the power of attorney specifies, as provided in RCW 11.125.240, and only so far as the trust agreement allows.

A contest clock runs after death. RCW 11.103.050(1) gives someone the earlier of twenty four months after the trustor's death or four months after the trustee sends a notice naming the trust, the trustor, the trustee and the deadline. Sending that notice is what shortens the window.

Funding is where these plans fail. A trust keeps property out of court only if you retitle the property into it. The deed has to be signed and recorded with the county auditor where the land sits, and the accounts have to be moved. An unfunded trust in a drawer changes nothing, which is why a pour over will rides alongside one. Read a Washington revocable living trust against a community property agreement before you buy, because for a married couple whose assets are community property and whose plan is to leave everything to each other, the agreement does the same job for a fraction of the effort.

Washington also allows a trust for the care of an animal at chapter 11.118 RCW. RCW 11.118.020 makes it valid, lets the animals be identified individually or in a way that makes them readily identifiable, and terminates the trust when no designated animal remains living. See a trust for the care of an animal for how to fund and enforce one.

Two Instruments a Generic Checklist Gets Backwards

A national article tells you to sign a transfer on death deed and to name a beneficiary on the car title. Washington answers those two sentences in opposite directions, and the reason is the scope of one act.

The house: yes. Chapter 64.80 RCW is the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act. RCW 64.80.060 requires the deed to carry the elements and formalities of a properly recordable deed, to state that the transfer to the beneficiary occurs at the transferor's death, and to be recorded before the transferor's death with the auditor of the county where the property sits. Missing that recording is the way these deeds fail.

The car: no. The act is titled real property for a reason, and Washington provides no transfer on death titling for a vehicle. The rule after a death is WAC 308-56A-335, "Owner deceased," and its community property route takes a copy of the death certificate plus a copy of the community property agreement. That is another quiet argument for signing the agreement.

Never infer one answer from the other, and check ways to keep assets out of Washington probate before assuming any of these transfers is also a shield from creditors.

Titling and Beneficiary Forms Beat Your Will

Beneficiary designations and the wording on a deed pass property on their own terms. Line them up with the will or they work against it.

RCW 11.02.005 defines a nonprobate asset as an interest that passes at death under a written instrument other than the will, and its list names joint tenancy with right of survivorship, joint and payable on death bank accounts, transfer on death deeds, transfer on death securities, community property agreements, individual retirement accounts and more. None of those reads your will.

Three rules govern the whole category.

  • Some of them a will can redirect, and some it cannot. Chapter 11.11 RCW is the machinery, and RCW 11.11.010(7)(a) excludes real property passing under a joint tenancy with right of survivorship, a transfer on death deed, a community property agreement, and an individual retirement account or bond. For those four, the form or the deed wins outright.
  • Divorce cancels the ex, on most of them. RCW 11.07.010 revokes a provision in favor of a former spouse or former state registered domestic partner in a nonprobate asset held at the time the decree is entered. That section defines the assets it reaches by its own list, so refresh every beneficiary form after a divorce rather than relying on it.
  • Creditors still get their turn. RCW 11.18.200(1) makes the beneficiary of a nonprobate asset take it subject to the decedent's liabilities, claims, estate taxes and a fair share of administration expenses, and liable to account to the personal representative after notice. Avoiding probate and defeating creditors are separate claims in Washington.

Retirement accounts and life insurance pass by the form on file. Name a first choice and a backup, then refresh both after a marriage, a divorce, a birth or a death in the family. A stale beneficiary form is the most common way money lands somewhere nobody intended.

What Washington Decides When a Document Is Missing

An estate plan is not only for large estates. Here is what state law decides on your behalf when a document is not there.

  • No will. RCW 11.04.015(1) gives your surviving spouse or state registered domestic partner all of your share of the net community estate, plus one half of the net separate estate if you left issue, three quarters of it if you left no issue but a parent or the issue of a parent, and all of it if none of those survive. The rest runs down the ladder in subsection (2). See Washington intestate succession for the tiers.
  • No power of attorney. Your family petitions the superior court under chapter 11.130 RCW. RCW 11.130.265(1)(a) sets a clear and convincing standard and requires the court to find that the needs cannot be met by a protective arrangement or another less restrictive alternative. The process is public, it takes months, and the court chooses. See avoid a guardianship for what the petition involves.
  • No health care agent and no directive. RCW 7.70.065(1)(a) ranks ten classes in order: an appointed guardian, then a health care agent, then your spouse or state registered domestic partner, adult children, parents, adult siblings, adult grandchildren, adult nieces and nephews, adult aunts and uncles, and finally a close adult friend who meets the listed conditions. A higher class blocks the ones below it.
  • No plan for titled assets. Property in your sole name runs through a county superior court probate, with filings, a public file and months of administration.

The Washington Tax Picture

Washington charges an estate tax and no inheritance tax. RCW 83.100.020(1)(a) ties the applicable exclusion amount to the date of death and lists a tier for each period. Recent tiers read $2,193,000 for deaths from July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2025, then $3,000,000 through December 31, 2025, then $3,076,000 through June 30, 2026, then $3,000,000 for a death on or after July 1, 2026. The figure for a death today is $3,000,000.

The Department of Revenue's estate tax FAQ states plainly that Washington does not have an inheritance tax, that voters repealed the old inheritance tax in November 1981, and that the change took effect January 1, 1982. If you inherit money or property while living in Washington, you owe no Washington tax on the inheritance.

Two points belong in any planning conversation here.

  • Community property changes the arithmetic. The Department of Revenue's own guidance says a married couple's return is required when the decedent's half of the community property plus the decedent's separate property meets the filing threshold, even where the whole estate passes to the survivor.
  • Do not plan around a projected future number. RCW 83.100.020(1)(a)(xi) directs an annual adjustment beginning in calendar year 2027, while the Department of Revenue's estate tax page states that the $3,000,000 figure "is not set to increase" because of "an expired CPI in the statute." Both statements are current and published, and nothing reconciles them, so no projected 2027 figure appears on this page.

Avoiding probate does not shrink this tax. See the Washington federal estate tax guide for how the state and federal returns interact.

Planning for Minor Children

If you have children under 18, your will is where you record who should raise them. RCW 11.130.215(2)(a) gives that nomination real force: the court shall appoint the person a parent nominated in a probated will or other record unless it finds the appointment contrary to the child's best interest, and the "other record" must be a declaration or other sworn document, which may include a power of attorney or a sworn statement about the care, custody or control of the child. Where two parents nominated different people, subsection (2)(b) has the court pick whichever appointment serves the child.

Many parents pair the nomination with a trust that holds the child's inheritance to a later age, rather than handing a lump sum to an 18 year old on a birthday.

When to Review What You Signed

Documents drift out of date faster than people expect. Look at yours every three to five years, and sooner after any of these:

  1. A marriage, a state registered domestic partnership, or a divorce.
  2. The birth or adoption of a child.
  3. The death of a beneficiary, an agent, or your named personal representative.
  4. A move to Washington from another state, or a move away.
  5. Buying or selling a house, or selling a business.

Washington adds two review triggers of its own. A power of attorney drafted before June 11, 2026 predates the current text of RCW 11.125.050, and a health care directive printed before July 27, 2025 probably still carries the repealed pregnancy paragraph.

To change a Washington will, sign a codicil or sign a fresh will that revokes the old one. A new will is usually cleaner. After a divorce, walk back through every beneficiary form as well, because those forms move property no matter what your will says.

Frequently Asked Questions

What documents do I need for an estate plan in Washington?

Five carry most of the weight here. A will under RCW 11.12.020 names who inherits and who serves as personal representative. A power of attorney under chapter 11.125 RCW covers money and health care inside one act. A health care directive under RCW 70.122.030 records your instructions on life sustaining treatment. A community property agreement under RCW 26.16.120 moves community property to a surviving spouse or state registered domestic partner with no court file. A revocable trust under chapter 11.103 RCW is optional and earns its cost when you own land in another state, want privacy, or want a clean handoff if you lose capacity.

Is a Washington power of attorney durable by default?

No, and that catches almost every form written for another state. RCW 11.125.040 terminates the agent's authority on the principal's incapacity unless the writing contains the words "This power of attorney shall not be affected by disability of the principal," or "This power of attorney shall become effective upon the disability of the principal," or similar words showing that intent. The section applies to powers of attorney created before and after January 1, 2017. A Washington power of attorney missing that language quits at the exact moment it was written for.

Is a living trust revocable by default in Washington?

No. RCW 11.103.030(1) reads that unless the terms of a trust expressly provide that the trust is revocable, the trustor may not revoke or amend it. That is the opposite default from the Uniform Trust Code states, and Washington never adopted the Uniform Trust Code. A Washington trust meant to be revocable has to say so in words. RCW 11.103.020 sets the capacity to create, amend, revoke or add property to a revocable trust at the same level required to make a will.

What is a Washington community property agreement?

RCW 26.16.120 lets both spouses or both domestic partners jointly agree on the status or disposition of the whole or any portion of their community property, then owned or afterwards acquired, to take effect on the death of either. It has to be in writing, witnessed, acknowledged and certified the same way a deed to real estate is. RCW 11.02.005 counts it as a nonprobate asset, and RCW 11.11.010(7)(a)(iv) takes it out of the chapter that otherwise lets a will redirect nonprobate assets, so a later will does not quietly undo it.

Does a Washington will or health care directive need a notary?

Neither one needs a notary to be valid, and the two rules differ. RCW 11.12.020(1) asks for a writing signed by the testator and attested by two or more competent witnesses, in the testator's presence or electronic presence. RCW 70.122.030(1) gives a choice instead: acknowledge your signature before a notary public or other individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments, or sign in front of two witnesses who are not related to you by blood or marriage, not in line to take part of your estate, not your attending physician or that physician's employee, and not holding a claim against your estate.

Does Washington charge an estate tax or an inheritance tax?

Washington charges an estate tax and no inheritance tax. RCW 83.100.020(1)(a) ties the applicable exclusion amount to the date of death, and for a death on or after July 1, 2026 that figure is $3,000,000. The Department of Revenue's estate tax FAQ states that Washington does not have an inheritance tax, and that voters repealed the old inheritance tax in November 1981 with the change taking effect January 1, 1982.

Related Washington Guides

This page is general information about Washington estate planning. Planning turns on facts specific to your family and your property, so confirm anything that affects your situation with a licensed Washington attorney before you sign or record a document.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

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Settled Estate is not a law firm and does not give legal advice.

Information current as of August 8, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Washington can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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