HB 2445 — Ending probates for profit.

(8) "Guardian," "limited guardian," "conservator," or "limited conservator" means a personal representative of the person or estate of a person who has been placed under a guardianship under RCW 11.130.265 or who has been placed under a conservatorship under RCW 11.130.360 and the term may be used in lieu of "personal representative" wherever required by context.

(9) "Heirs" denotes those persons, including the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner, who are entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the real and personal property of a decedent on the decedent's death intestate.

(10) "Interested person" or "person interested," when used with respect to an estate, means an heir, devisee, distribute, legatee, or creditor whose claim has been duly served and filed, or an attorney or fiduciary for the same.

(11) "Internal revenue code" means the United States internal revenue code of 1986, as amended or renumbered as of January 1, 2001.

(((11))) (12) "Issue" means all the lineal descendants of an individual.

An adopted individual is a lineal descendant of each of his or her adoptive parents and of all individuals with regard to which each adoptive parent is a lineal descendant.

A child conceived prior to the death of a parent but born after the death of the deceased parent is considered to be the surviving issue of the deceased parent for purposes of this title.

(((12))) (13) "Net estate" refers to the real and personal property of a decedent exclusive of homestead rights, exempt p.

20 EHB 2445 property, the family allowance and enforceable claims against, and debts of, the deceased or the estate.

(((13))) (14) "Nonprobate asset" means those rights and interests of a person having beneficial ownership of an asset that pass on the person's death under a written instrument or arrangement other than the person's will.

"Nonprobate asset" includes, but is not limited to, a right or interest passing under a joint tenancy with right of survivorship, joint bank account with right of survivorship, transfer on death deed, payable on death or trust bank account, transfer on death security or security account, deed or conveyance if possession has been postponed until the death of the person, trust of which the person is grantor and that becomes effective or irrevocable only upon the person's death, community property agreement, individual retirement account or bond, or note or other contract the payment or performance of which is affected by the death of the person.

"Nonprobate asset" does not include:

A payable-on-death provision of a life insurance policy, annuity, or other similar contract, or of an employee benefit plan;

a right or interest passing by descent and distribution under chapter 11.04 RCW;

a right or interest if, before death, the person has irrevocably transferred the right or interest, the person has waived the power to transfer it or, in the case of contractual arrangement, the person has waived the unilateral right to rescind or modify the arrangement;

or a right or interest held by the person solely in a fiduciary capacity.

For the definition of "nonprobate asset" relating to revocation of a provision for a former spouse upon dissolution of marriage or declaration of invalidity of marriage, RCW 11.07.010(5) applies.

For the definition of "nonprobate asset" relating to testamentary disposition of nonprobate assets, see RCW 11.11.010(7).

(((14))) (15) "Personal representative" includes executor, administrator, special administrator, and conservator or limited conservator and special representative.

(((15))) (16) "Real estate" includes, except as otherwise specifically provided herein, all lands, tenements, and hereditaments, and all rights thereto, and all interest therein possessed and claimed in fee simple, or for the life of a third person.

(((16))) (17) "Record" means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.

p.

21 EHB 2445 (((17))) (18) "Representation" refers to a method of determining distribution in which the takers are in unequal degrees of kinship with respect to a decedent, and is accomplished as follows:

After first determining who, of those entitled to share in the estate, are in the nearest degree of kinship, the estate is divided into equal shares, the number of shares being the sum of the number of persons who survive the decedent who are in the nearest degree of kinship and the number of persons in the same degree of kinship who died before the decedent but who left issue surviving the decedent;

each share of a deceased person in the nearest degree must be divided among those of the deceased person's issue who survive the decedent and have no ancestor then living who is in the line of relationship between them and the decedent, those more remote in degree taking together the share which their ancestor would have taken had he or she survived the decedent.

(((18))) (19) References to "section 2033A" of the internal revenue code in wills, trust agreements, powers of appointment, beneficiary designations, and other instruments governed by or subject to this title are deemed to refer to the comparable or corresponding provisions of section 2057 of the internal revenue code, as added by section 6006(b) of the internal revenue service restructuring act of 1998 (H.R.

2676, P.L.

105-206);

and references to the section 2033A "exclusion" are deemed to mean the section 2057 deduction.

(((19))) (20) "Settlor" has the same meaning as provided for "trustor" in this section.

(((20))) (21) "Special administrator" means a personal representative of the estate of a decedent appointed for limited purposes and the term may be used in lieu of "personal representative" wherever required by context.

(((21))) (22) "Surviving spouse" or "surviving domestic partner" does not include an individual whose marriage to or state registered domestic partnership with the decedent has been terminated, dissolved, or invalidated unless, by virtue of a subsequent marriage or state registered domestic partnership, he or she is married to or in a domestic partnership with the decedent at the time of death.

A decree of separation that does not terminate the status of spouses or domestic partners is not a dissolution or invalidation for purposes of this subsection.

p.

22 EHB 2445 (((22))) (23) "Trustee" means an original, added, or successor trustee and includes the state, or any agency thereof, when it is acting as the trustee of a trust to which chapter 11.98 RCW applies.

(((23))) (24) "Trustor" means a person, including a testator, who creates, or contributes property to, a trust.

(((24))) (25) "Will" means an instrument validly executed as required by RCW 11.12.020 or 11.12.400 through 11.12.491.

Words that import the singular number may also be applied to the plural of persons and things.

Words importing the masculine gender only may be extended to females also.

1923 HBEHB 2445