Washington probate is quick and inexpensive, and a married couple can skip it at the first death with a signed agreement. So why can a Washington family still owe the state six figures at death? Washington's estate tax is the expensive part.
Washington taxes estates above $3,000,000, and for now that figure is stuck. The exclusion is set by Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 83.100.020 for deaths on or after July 1, 2026. The statute schedules an inflation adjustment from 2027, but it points at a consumer price index that no longer exists, so whether the figure ever moves is unsettled. Plan on $3,000,000 staying $3,000,000 and treat any increase as a bonus.
Two more Washington rules raise the bill. There's no portability between spouses, and life insurance you own counts in your estate.
| What your family faces at death in Washington | The number |
|---|---|
| State estate tax | Yes. 10 percent starting above the $3,000,000 exclusion, rising to 20 percent above $9,000,000 of taxable estate |
| State inheritance tax | None |
| Portability between spouses | None. Preserved by drafting before the first death, or in part by a disclaimer within nine months |
| Federal estate tax | $15,000,000 per person, and portable. Few estates are that large |
| Court filing fee | About $290 (King County, schedule effective October 2026) |
| Personal representative commission | No statutory percentage. Just and reasonable, RCW 11.48.210 |
| Attorney fee, simple estate | $3,000 to $5,000 flat is a common quote |
| Attorney fee, with an estate tax return | $5,000 to $15,000 |
| Typical time, uncontested | 6 to 9 months |
| Typical time, with an estate tax return | 9 to 15 months |
A single person who leaves $4,000,000, with no deductions, would owe Washington $100,000 in estate tax. Settling the same estate through probate, return included, typically runs $5,000 to $15,000 in attorney fees plus about $290 to file. Advice written for states where probate is the big expense sends a Washington family after the wrong problem.
A written agreement between spouses converts what you own into community property and vests all of it in the survivor automatically at the first death. Title passes by contract, not by will, so there's no probate at the first death. The agreement must be written, signed by both spouses, and witnessed, acknowledged and certified the way the statute requires. Authority: RCW 26.16.120.
Above $3,000,000, a community property agreement can cost more than probate. The agreement puts the whole estate in the survivor's name, so the first spouse's $3,000,000 exclusion usually goes unused. One spouse can't revoke it alone. In a blended family, it can leave stepchildren with no legal claim.
Best for: a first marriage, shared children, and an estate comfortably under $3,000,000.
Nonintervention administration doesn't avoid probate. It's the reason Washington probate is inexpensive. The court gives the personal representative authority to administer and close the estate without further supervision. For a solvent estate with a properly drafted will, the court must grant it. Authority: RCW 11.68.011(2).
Nonintervention doesn't shorten the creditor claim period, remove the estate tax filing, or make the file private.
Best for: anyone whose estate will pass through probate anyway.
Assets titled in the trust aren't part of your probate estate. The successor trustee distributes them without a court file. Authority: RCW 11.98, and RCW 11.103 for the trust instrument.
An unfunded trust avoids nothing. A trust document with no assets retitled into it holds nothing. The deed has to be recorded and the accounts moved into the trust's name.
Best for: real property in more than one state, privacy, or a blended family where a community property agreement is the wrong instrument.
Retirement accounts, life insurance, and accounts titled payable-on-death or transfer-on-death pass directly to the named person, outside probate. A transfer-on-death deed does the same for real property. The deed has to be recorded in the county before your death. Authority: RCW 11.02.091 for nonprobate assets; RCW 64.80 for the transfer-on-death deed.
A death benefit you owned skips probate and still counts in your Washington gross estate. Paid to your spouse, the marital deduction takes it back out, so no tax is due on it at the first death. Paid to anyone else, it counts toward the $3,000,000 exclusion and any tax above it.
Best for: nearly everyone with a retirement account, a life insurance policy or a bank account.
If everything subject to probate is worth $100,000 or less after liens, a successor can collect the personal property by sworn affidavit after a 40-day wait, with no probate at all. A surviving spouse's community half doesn't count toward the $100,000. Real property can't be transferred this way. Authority: RCW 11.62.010.
Best for: modest estates with no real property to pass through probate.
Each of the five tools moves an asset around the probate court. None of them removes a dollar from your Washington taxable estate.
The estate tax return is due whenever your gross estate is at or above the exclusion, even when no tax is owed. It's due nine months after death. An extension gives you six more months to file, and the payment deadline doesn't move with it.
An estate can owe Washington a return and no tax. Deductions, such as everything left to a spouse, can bring the taxable estate to zero. The return is still due.
A policy you own on your own life is pulled into your Washington gross estate at its full death benefit, because Washington starts from the federal gross estate. A policy bought to create cash at death also adds to the bill. Authority: Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 2042, applied through RCW 83.100.020(7).
Count your coverage before you decide how much you need.
At the federal level a surviving spouse can use whatever exclusion the first spouse didn't, if the executor files a return and elects it. Washington has no equivalent. The Department of Revenue states it plainly: “Washington law does not have, nor does it incorporate, the federal provisions of portability for estate tax.” Without planning before the first death, the first spouse's exclusion is usually lost. The one after-death fix is a qualified disclaimer within nine months that sends assets to someone other than the spouse, such as the children. The survivor gives up whatever is disclaimed. Authority: RCW 83.100.020 for the exclusion; IRC 2010(c)(5)(A) for the federal election; IRC 2518 and RCW 11.86.021 for the disclaimer.
Drafting before the first death is the dependable way to preserve the exclusion. Your attorney drafts them, and we can tell you what they're worth in tax.
When one spouse dies, community property is revalued for tax purposes at its date-of-death value, and both halves get the new value. A rental bought for $300,000 and worth $1,200,000 can be sold by the surviving spouse shortly afterward with little or no capital gain. Most states step up only the decedent's half. Authority: IRC 1014(b)(6).
The full step-up is a Washington advantage, and it can pull against estate tax planning. Your numbers decide which one matters more.
We're Enrolled Agents. We work on the tax: what you'll owe, what triggers a filing, what an asset costs you when it changes hands, and how to size a decision in dollars. We don't draft documents and we don't practice law.
Every tool on this page is a legal instrument. Which one fits your family, how it should be drafted, and how it works with the documents you already signed are questions for a Washington attorney. We can tell you what each choice is worth in tax, so you walk into that conversation knowing the number.
Estate tax planning above the exclusion, and the documents that carry it out. Which property counts as community property in a second marriage. Medicaid estate recovery. Real property owned outside Washington, which may need a second probate in that state. A move of your legal home away from Washington. The qualified family-owned business interest deduction under RCW 83.100.048, which requires the business to be more than half the estate, measured before the $3,000,000 exclusion, among other tests.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Probate | The court process that moves what you owned into the names of the people who inherit it. |
| Personal representative | The person who settles your estate. Called an executor in many other states. |
| Nonintervention administration | Washington's streamlined probate. The court appoints your personal representative and then stays out of it. |
| Community property | Property a married couple owns together, each holding half. Washington is a community property state. |
| Community property agreement | A signed agreement between spouses that makes everything community property and passes it all to the survivor automatically at the first death. |
| Revocable living trust | A trust you control and can change during your life. Assets titled in it skip probate. |
| Irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) | A trust that owns a life insurance policy. The death benefit stays out of your taxable estate as long as you keep no incidents of ownership (meaning no right to change the beneficiary, borrow against it, or cash it in), the proceeds aren't payable to your estate, and the policy wasn't moved into the trust within three years of death. |
| Gross estate | Everything counted in your estate at death, mostly what you owned, before any deductions. The gross estate decides whether a return is due. |
| Taxable estate | What's left after deductions and the exclusion. Washington calculates the tax on the taxable estate. |
| Exclusion | The amount that passes free of estate tax. In Washington, $3,000,000. |
| Portability | A surviving spouse's right to use whatever exclusion the first spouse didn't. Federal law allows it, but only if the first estate files a return and elects it. Washington has no portability at all. |
| Marital deduction | The rule that lets everything pass to a surviving spouse with no estate tax at the first death. |
| Basis step-up | The reset of an asset's tax cost to its value at death. In a community property state both halves reset, not only the decedent's. |
| Payable-on-death, transfer-on-death | A beneficiary named directly on an account or deed. The asset passes to that person without probate. |
| Death benefit | What a life insurance policy pays when you die. Your family generally receives it without owing income tax. |
| Estate tax | A tax on what you leave, paid by the estate before anyone inherits. |
| Inheritance tax | A tax on what a person receives, paid by the heir. Washington has none. |
| RCW, IRC | Revised Code of Washington (state statutes) and Internal Revenue Code (federal tax law). |
Our Enrolled Agents and advisors can review your titling, your beneficiary forms, and who owns your life insurance. Then we'll show you your Washington estate tax today and what each choice is worth, before you see an attorney. Book a no-cost discovery call.
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