Legacy Estate Planning

Making an estate plan is a big and important step; a step that no one should take without being informed. Our free estate planning webinars will give you the knowledge you need to help secure your legacy and provide a solid financial future for your loved ones.

Founded by Steve Waltar in 2000, our mission is to help our clients and their families build and maintain effective estate plans, and to help those struggling with the loss of a loved one navigate the required legal processes. Our firm has been dedicated to serving the Puget Sound area for over 19 years.

Our firm is dedicated to providing you with quality estate planning resources, so you can become familiar with all of the existing options. When you visit or call our office, we want you to feel comfortable discussing such an important issue concerning both you and your family. We want to arm you with the information you need to make an informed decision about your family’s future.

As a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, our firm has a wide range of benefits to offer you. For example, we can provide you with access to a nationwide network of qualified attorneys who can assist you with out-of-state transfers of title, provide help should you move to another state, or simply offer a referral to an out-of-state friend or family member who needs estate planning help.

In addition, the Academy provides its members with substantial legal, technical and practice management support to ensure we provide high quality estate planning service to our clients.

Experts
Steve Waltar
Andrea Lee

2320 130th Ave NE, Ste 230, Bellevue, WA | (425) 455-6788
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Podcasts

Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar

Financial Wellness: Who Do You Trust?

What are the criteria to use when choosing people to represent you financially? Attorney Steve Waltar from Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about this aspect of financial and legal wellness, one of the eight foundational principles of senior wellness featured this summer in the Vitality Revolution podcast series.
Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar

Financial Wellness: Family Meeting

Communication is key. Are we communicating our wishes properly to family members when preparing estate documents, to ensure our wishes are carried out in case something happens? Attorney Steve Waltar from Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about this aspect of financial and legal wellness, one of the eight foundational principles of senior wellness featured this summer in the Vitality Revolution podcast series.
Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar

Financial Wellness: Investing Rules

Are you preparing for the future financially? Attorney Steve Waltar from Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about investing rules, part of financial wellness, one of the eight foundational principles of senior wellness featured this summer in the Vitality Revolution podcast series.
Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar

Financial Wellness: Wills and Trusts

Attorney Steve Waltar from Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about financial and legal wellness, one of the eight foundational principles of senior wellness featured this summer in the Vitality Revolution podcast series. Are you preparing for the future? Topics include investing in long term care as well as critical documents to have in place as you age.
Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar

Nuts and Bolts of Living Trusts

Why would you want to set up a living trust? Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar joins Suzanne to talk about the basics and benefits of living trusts. Benefits include ease of management and they work in all 50 states.
Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar

Living Trusts and Trustees

Trustees manage assets on a trust. Successor trustees do the same sorts of things that an executor of an estate does, but for a trust. Sometimes it's the same person. Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar joins Suzanne to talk more about living trusts, and this segment focuses on trustees.
Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar

Living Trusts and Trustors

Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar joins Suzanne to talk more about living trusts. This segment focuses on who does what when trusts are created and managed.
Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar

Benefits of a Living Trust

You want to have documents to protect your wishes, making sure that you leave a legacy behind for your loved ones, and if you become incapacitated — if you need help in your later life, if you're unable to speak for yourself — there is legal proof that honors your wishes. Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar joins Suzanne to talk about the value of trusts.
Andrea Lee

How Legal Documents Work Together to Help You

This segment focuses on how various legal documents work together as part of your estate planning to make sure you're taken care of if anything happens that makes you incapacitated. Andrea Lee from Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about the pieces of a person's legal puzzle.
Andrea Lee

Incapacity: Everything You Need to Know

Incapacity planning is a broad area of law that covers how you are cared for if you become physically or mentally unable to care for yourself. Andrea Lee from Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about issues individuals and families face in regards to incapacity. The type of care could range from simple tasks like buying groceries, paying bills, and handling financial matters to more important decisions such as selling real estate, gifting assets to your children, or making critical medical decisions. Incapacity planning could include a number of techniques such as Property Powers of Attorney, Health Care Powers of Attorney, Living Wills or Advance Health Care Directives or Guardianships/Conservatorships. It is also important to have appropriate HIPAA authorization forms in place.
Steve Waltar

Everything You Need to Know About Probate

Probate is a court process to retitle assets. Probate is designed to create a “final accounting” upon death. It is the legal process of “proving up” a will, or verifying that a will is valid, takes place in one of two instances. First, if a person dies leaving behind a will, or second, if the deceased has died intestate, that is, has not left behind a will or estate plan of any type or the will cannot be found. Estate planning attorney Steve Waltar with Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to give us a primer on probate.
Steve Waltar

The Trouble With Joint Tenancy: Estate Planning

Although Joint Tenancy offers some short-term conveniences, in the long run it poses a host of problems that can cost you and your loved ones many times the expense and headaches you thought you were avoiding. Estate planning attorney Steve Waltar with Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about the difficulties of using joint tenancy while trying to plan your estate.
Steve Waltar

Your State Does It If You Won’t: Estate Planning

If you don't file estate planning documents, your state will do it for you, perhaps not the way you expect. Estate planning attorney Steve Waltar with Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about various options available when planning your estate, what happens when you list beneficiaries, generally how wills work, living wills, living trusts, and Medicaid planning.
Steve Waltar

Guarantee Your Wishes Are Honored: Estate Planning

Estate planning attorney Steve Waltar with Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about having an estate plan. Families run into gotcha moments where they discover a loved one hasn't files certain documents, or haven't made plans, and are left to second guess what they want. In this segment, Steve introduces the concept of estate planning and different types. Most people don't want it to be a curse, but a blessing, and it's about protecting yourself during your lifetime. Make sure your wishes are honored they way you want to be honored.
Andrea Lee

Family Caregiver Tips: Legal Documents You Need

Elder law and estate planning attorney Andrea Lee joins Suzanne to provide some tips for unpaid family caregivers caring for a loved one about the legal documents they need to have in place, and also some practical tips to keep in mind. Andrea Lee serves as an attorney for Legacy Estate Planning in Bellevue, Washington.
Estate planning

Overlooked Legal Documents You Need to File

Elder law and estate planning attorney Andrea Lee joins Suzanne to talk about essential legal documents to have in place no matter your age, keeping them up to date, and describing oft overlooked documents such as the HIPPA release and POLST form, Physicians Order of Life Sustaining Treatment form. Andrea Lee serves as an attorney for Legacy Estate Planning in Bellevue, Washington.
Estate planning

Why Choose a Healthcare Power of Attorney

Elder law and estate planning attorney Andrea Lee joins Suzanne to talk about the healthcare power of attorney document. Andrea Lee serves as an attorney for Legacy Estate Planning in Bellevue, Washington. This document is often overlooked by families. Who can make medical decisions for you when you're not able to make your own choices?
Estate planning

Why You Need to Grant Powers of Attorney

Elder law and estate planning attorney Andrea Lee joins Suzanne to share advice and tips for legal planning to help you age gracefully in a situation that you like. Andrea Lee serves as an attorney for Legacy Estate Planning in Belleville, Washington. The power of attorney document is a critical tool to let your family help take care of you when you're in a crisis situation.
Steve Waltar, Legacy Estate Planning

Leave a Lasting Legacy: Estate Planning

Most people want their family to remember them, they want to pass on something. What does it mean to leave a lasting legacy? What's a mistake, and what are some pointers? Steve Waltar with Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about matters of Inheritance and philanthropy with your estate.
Legacy Estate Planning

How to Decide: A Will or a Trust?

Steve Waltar with Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about whether you might prefer to have a will or a trust, and why.
Steve Waltar, Legacy Estate Planning

How to Choose Beneficiaries: Estate Planning

Steve Waltar with Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about the particulars of choosing beneficiaries when planning for your estate.

More About Estate Planning with Stephen Waltar

Stephen Waltar from Legacy Estate Planning in Bellvue discusses trusts. If you own a home, you need a will or a trust. We all...

The Value of Trusts with Stephen Waltar

Stephen Waltar from Legacy Estate Planning in Bellvue discusses trusts. He said he likes the phrase, "Don't put your trust in money, put your...

Importance of Estate Planning

Stephen Waltar from Legacy Estate Planning in Bellvue, WA discusses the importance of estate planning. People think because we're a community property state that...

What Is Estate Planning?

Stephen Waltar from Legacy Estate Planning in Bellvue, WA discusses estate planning. A good estate plan protects what you love and protects your wishes...