Financial Power of Attorney

A method for planning for the unexpected and arranging to have someone else manage the financial and property affairs in the event an individual is no longer able to do so.

Healthcare Power of Attorney

Medical Powers of Attorney can include a grant of authority over personal issues, including the ability to act as your proxy to make healthcare decisions. This is a valuable tool for ensuring that your preferences stated in a Living Will or Advance Directive are followed. We are available in the case of emergency and able to step in on your behalf to ensure your wishes are respected.

Guardianship

Guardianships of person are established and monitored by different names courts depending on which stats has jurisdiction and managed by the appropriate court. Guardians are appointed through a legal process that can impact an individual’s rights. For this reason, guardianship should be only sought when all other avenues have been exhausted.

Examples of Guardianships Service:

• Regular visits to monitor care and well-being, including nutrition, medications, safety, and security.

• Advocate for the client’s preferences and needs.

• Consider, coordinate, and consent to medical treatment.

• Arrange for in-home or in assisted living facility.

• Coordinate with community services, medical providers, DSHS, VA, Medicare, and other entities to assure our clients receive the maximum benefits.

Trust Management / Trustee Services

While most people will designate a family member such as a spouse, adult child, siblings or other close relative to serve as successor trustee of a trust that is created on behalf of an individual by an attorney licensed in the state of jurisdiction. The majority of states within the United States as per state banking law require an individual to serve in the cases of a private trustee. There are several circumstances that might necessitate the need to appoint an unrelated party to serve as trustee.

Examples:

• There are no close family members to designate, or the grantor of the trust does not feel that any family members have the skill, or aptitude or willingness to effectively administer the trust.

• The grantor wants to avoid creating the potential for conflict among their family members or restrict certain rights of the settlor which arise when the designated trustee is also a beneficiary of the trust.

• The responsibilities of administering a trust, particularly a complex trust, might be too overwhelming for an elderly spouse or an adult child with full-time job and personal family responsibilities.

For those individuals choosing to appoint a professional trustee, they can appoint a private professional fiduciary. The benefits of appointing Select Fiduciary as your private fiduciary are as follows:

• We don’t have the inherent potential for conflicts of interest that might arise with an attorney, CPA, or investment advisor who is providing other professional services to the trust

• We offer greater flexibility and independence and fewer limitations in carrying out the provisions of the trust agreement than an institutional trustee might have, particularly when it comes to managing, investing, and continuing to own the trust assets

• We spend the time to get to know you and our principals personally administer the trust according to your wishes and instructions as opposed to having a paralegal or junior trust officer whom you have never met administering your trust.

As your trustee, some services we provide include:

• Marshalling and creating an inventory of all trust assets including all accounts and real and personal property and ensuring that they are held in the appropriate trust name.

• There is limited conflict of interest as there is with making a financial institution one’s trustee whereby, they invest in their own company’s institutional stock portfolio that increases their own companies net worth and is not to any benefit of the individual trust. Plus, there is an inherit conflict of interest that these and any other financial institution limits expenditures for their own benefit of maintain funds to take their own fees from. Additionally, the company gets a credit back or a discounted rate for increased investment into their own portfolio from the stock or bond provider that they are investing in. This applies to every organization or individual as a trustee, so ones need to get to know their trustee and trust that they will do what is in the best interest of the beneficiary rather that their own organization.

• Making all the required notifications to interested parties and establishing lines of communication

• Dividing the trust assets into the appropriate trusts as designated in the trust document

• Setting up all appropriate records and accounting procedures required to document trust activity

• Assembling a professional advisory team required to carry out all the provisions of the trust including legal and accounting requirements and property management services if appropriate

• Making sure all required tax returns are filed including estate taxes if appropriate

• Communicating with all beneficiaries and creditors of the estate and treating them impartially and with respect

• Making sure assets of the trust(s) are prudently invested to best meet the desired benchmarks of the trust for income and growth for the beneficiaries

• Providing an annual accounting of the trust activity to the designated beneficiaries

• Winding up the trust and distributing assets to the designated beneficiaries as provided for in the trust document