Welcome to your Agile Washington Estate Planning package!
Package organization, and why it matters
The estate planning forms and questionnaires in Agile EP are organized into functional folders, which group templates by purpose rather than by client or matter. This structure is designed to support how estate planning work is actually performed: gathering information > drafting documents > making updates > and addressing specific legal needs under Washington law.
You do not begin by selecting a client. Instead, you navigate to to the folder that corresponds to the task you are performing, and then selecting the appropriate template from there.
Client data, if available, can be loaded into the template during or after drafting.
Washington estate planning content is divided into the following folders:
Client-Facing Education Materials
This folder contains educational documents intended to help clients understand core estate planning concepts before drafting begins. It includes:
- Choosing Your Fiduciaries: Explains the roles and responsibilities of personal representatives, trustees, and agents, and provides guidance on how to select them.
- Choosing Your Minor’s Guardian: Helps parents evaluate and nominate appropriate guardians for minor children.
- The Basics of Estate Planning: Provides an overview of wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and the Washington estate planning process.
- Will or Revocable Trust: Compares planning with a will versus a revocable living trust, including probate and administration differences. This handout mentions that nonintervention probate in Washington is not something in and of itself to be avoided by the use of a revoacble trust, and that trust plans are best used to address certain concerns.
- Distributing Assets Outright or in Trust: Explains the practical and legal implications of leaving assets outright versus in continuing trusts.
- Organizing Your Digital Assets: Addresses planning for digital accounts and online property, including fiduciary access considerations.
These materials are educational only and do not generate legal documents. Once assmebled, each will be branded with your firm and attorney name.
Client Questionnaires
The Client Questionnaires folder contains templates used for information gathering at the beginning of the estate planning process.
- These questionnaires are structured to collect the facts, preferences, and decisions that drive downstream drafting, including Washington-specific legal considerations.
- Information gathered through these templates can later be used to populate estate planning documents, but completion of a questionnaire is not required to begin drafting.
For additional details about the types of questionnaires avaiable, view this article.
Codicil and Trust Amendments
This folder includes templates used to modify existing estate planning documents rather than create new plans from scratch. It is intended for situations where a client already has a will or trust in place and needs targeted updates, such as changes to beneficiaries, fiduciaries, or administrative provisions, without a full restatement or replacement.
The included templates are:
- Amendment to Joint Revocable Trust: Used when spouses or joint grantors wish to modify an existing joint revocable trust while keeping the original trust in effect.
- Amendment to Revocable Trust: Used to amend a single-grantor revocable trust without restating the entire document.
- Will Codicil: Used to make limited changes to an existing will, such as updating fiduciaries, dispositive provisions, or administrative clauses.
Deeds
The Deeds folder contains templates related to real property transfers, typically used in connection with trust funding or estate planning implementation.
This folder includes the following deed templates:
- Warranty deeds
Quit Claim deeds
Revocable Transfer on Death deeds
In addition to the standalone deed templates available in this folder, revocable trust estate planning document packages always include a funding deed that can be assembled with the estate plan to transfer real property into the trust as part of the initial funding process.
Estate Planning Document Packages
This folder contains bundled drafting templates designed to produce a coordinated set of estate planning documents. The templlate packages are typically used when creating a complete estate plan and may include wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and related documents drafted together to ensure consistency across the plan.
- To read more about the types of estate planning packages, read this article.
- To read more about estate planning drafting generally, read this article.
Miscellaneous Forms
This folder contains standalone supporting documents used to address specific administrative or implementation needs within a Washington estate plan. It includes:
- Temporary Delegation of Parental Powers: allows a parent to temporarily delegate certain parental authority to another adult, typically for short-term care situations.
- Certification of DPA by Attorney-in-Fact: provides a statutory certification for an agent acting under a Durable Power of Attorney, often requested by financial institutions.
- Assignment of Tangible Personal Property: transfers ownership of personal property, commonly used to fund a revocable living trust.
More forms will be added to this directory as requested by users.
Other Trusts
This folder contains trust templates that fall outside of standard revocable living trust planning including:
- Title Holding Trust: a limited-purpose trust designed to hold legal title to real property for privacy, administrative convenience, or simplified transfer, without serving as the client’s primary dispositive estate planning vehicle.
- For additional detail about the title holding trust template, read this article.