AN
ACT Relating to references in instruments to section 2033A of the internal
revenue code; amending RCW 11.02.005; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE
LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
11.02.005 and 1999 c 358 s 20 are each amended to read as follows:
When
used in this title, unless otherwise required from the context:
(1)
"Personal representative" includes executor, administrator, special
administrator, and guardian or limited guardian and special representative.
(2)
"Net estate" refers to the real and personal property of a decedent
exclusive of homestead rights, exempt property, the family allowance and
enforceable claims against, and debts of, the deceased or the estate.
(3)
"Representation" refers to a method of determining distribution in
which the takers are in unequal degrees of kinship with respect to the
intestate, 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 intestate who are in the nearest degree
of kinship and the number of persons in the same degree of kinship who died before
the intestate but who left issue surviving the intestate; each share of a
deceased person in the nearest degree shall be divided among those of the
deceased person's issue who survive the intestate and have no ancestor then
living who is in the line of relationship between them and the intestate, those
more remote in degree taking together the share which their ancestor would have
taken had he or she survived the intestate. Posthumous children are considered
as living at the death of their parent.
(4)
"Issue" includes all the lawful lineal descendants of the ancestor
and all lawfully adopted children.
(5)
"Degree of kinship" means the degree of kinship as computed according
to the rules of the civil law; that is, by counting upward from the intestate
to the nearest common ancestor and then downward to the relative, the degree of
kinship being the sum of these two counts.
(6)
"Heirs" denotes those persons, including the surviving spouse, who
are entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the real and
personal property of a decedent on the decedent's death intestate.
(7)
"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.
(8)
"Will" means an instrument validly executed as required by RCW
11.12.020.
(9)
"Codicil" means a will that modifies or partially revokes an existing
earlier will. A codicil need not refer to or be attached to the earlier will.
(10)
"Guardian" or "limited guardian" means a personal
representative of the person or estate of an incompetent or disabled person as
defined in RCW 11.88.010 and the term may be used in lieu of "personal
representative" wherever required by context.
(11)
"Administrator" means a personal representative of the estate of a
decedent and the term may be used in lieu of "personal
representative" wherever required by context.
(12)
"Executor" means a personal representative of the estate of a
decedent appointed by will and the term may be used in lieu of "personal
representative" wherever required by context.
(13)
"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.
(14)
"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.
(15)
"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, 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 revocation of a provision for a former
spouse upon dissolution of marriage or declaration of invalidity of marriage,
see RCW 11.07.010(5). For the definition of "nonprobate asset"
relating to testamentary disposition of nonprobate assets, see RCW
11.11.010(7).
(16)
"Internal Revenue Code" means the United States Internal Revenue Code
of 1986, as amended or renumbered on January 1, 1999.
(17)
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 shall be 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" shall be deemed to mean the section 2057
deduction.
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.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.
Section 1 of this act applies to decedents dying after December 31, 1997.
