Do Lifetime Gifts to My Kids Reduce What They Inherit in Washington?

You helped one child with a down payment. Another got nothing, or got something much smaller years ago. Now you are wondering whether the law evens things out when you die, or whether your children will each take an equal share on top of whatever they already received.

In Washington, the default answer is that a lifetime gift is just a gift. Under RCW 11.04.041, every gift made during life is treated as an absolute gift, and it does not reduce the recipient's inheritance unless it is shown to have been an "advancement," meaning an early payment toward that person's share. Even then, the statute applies only when the parent dies with no will at all. If you want gifts to count, or want to be sure they do not, the safest course is to say so in writing.

What Is an Advancement?

An advancement is property a person gives during life to someone who would be an heir, intended as a head start on that heir's share of the estate. When RCW 11.04.041 applies, the advancement is counted toward the recipient's share, and the estate is divided as though the advanced property were still part of it.

The statute is not limited to children. It reaches a gift to any person who would have been entitled to inherit part of the estate if the giver had died on the day of the gift.

The Presumption Runs Against Treating Gifts as Advancements

This is the part that surprises people. RCW 11.04.041 says that every gratuitous transfer during life is deemed to be an absolute gift and not an advancement "unless shown to be an advancement." The law starts from the position that when you gave your daughter money, you meant for her to have it in addition to her inheritance. A sibling who wants the gift counted against her has to show otherwise.

People often assume a gift has to be documented in a signed writing before it can count against an inheritance. Washington's statute, as written, does not contain a writing requirement. It asks only whether the gift is "shown" to be an advancement. As a practical matter, that makes a clear written record the best evidence anyone can have, and it makes cases without one hard to prove.

It Only Applies When There Is No Will

RCW 11.04.041 opens with a condition that is easy to miss: it applies if a person dies intestate "as to all" of his or her estate. In other words, the advancement rule is part of Washington's scheme for dividing an estate when there is no will. The article on what happens if you die without a will in Washington explains who inherits in that situation.

If you have a will, the advancement statute does not apply. Chapter 11.12 RCW, which governs wills, has no parallel section that subtracts lifetime gifts from what a will leaves someone. What matters then is what the will says. RCW 11.12.230 directs courts to have due regard for the true intent and meaning of the person who made the will. A will that says "the $50,000 I gave my son in 2022 is to be charged against his share" answers the question. A will that says nothing leaves a child who thinks the gift should count without a statute to point to, arguing about what the parent meant.

How Is the Gift Valued?

When a gift is an advancement, RCW 11.04.041 values it as of the time the recipient came into possession or enjoyment of it, or as of the giver's death, whichever happens first. For an ordinary gift that the child received right away, that means the value on the day of the gift. If you gave your son $60,000 toward a house in 2016, the advancement is $60,000, even if the house has since doubled in value.

The statute counts an advancement only "to the extent that it does not exceed" the recipient's intestate share. It contains no language requiring a child who received more than his or her share to pay the difference back to the estate.

What If the Child Who Got the Gift Dies First?

Suppose the child who received the advancement dies before the parent and leaves children of his own. RCW 11.04.041 covers this directly. If the recipient dies first, leaving a lineal heir who takes from the parent's estate, the advancement is taken into account as if it had been made directly to that heir.

There is a proportional adjustment when the heir is entitled to a smaller share than the original recipient would have received. In that case the heir is charged with only a matching proportion of the advancement. The related question under a will, what happens when a person named in the will dies first, is covered in what happens if someone in my will dies before I do.

A Worked Example

Marta is a widow in Lynnwood with three adult children: Aaron, Beth, and Colin. In 2019 she gave Aaron $60,000 for a down payment and had him sign a short note, which she also signed, stating that the money was an advancement against his share of her estate. Marta dies without a will, leaving a net estate of $300,000.

Because the gift is shown to be an advancement and Marta died without a will, RCW 11.04.041 applies. The $60,000 is added back on paper, making $360,000 to divide. Each child's share is $120,000. Aaron has already received $60,000 of his, so he takes $60,000 from the estate, and Beth and Colin take $120,000 each.

Change one fact. If there were no note and no other evidence of what Marta intended, the $60,000 would be treated as an absolute gift. The $300,000 would be split three ways, $100,000 each, and Aaron would keep his down payment on top of that.

Change a different fact. If Marta had a will leaving everything to her children in equal shares and never mentioning the gift, the advancement statute would not apply at all, and the result would turn on the will.

If You Want Things to Come Out Even

Some parents want every child to end up with the same total and view the down payment or the tuition as an early distribution. Others see lifetime help as separate from the inheritance and want the estate split equally regardless. Washington law will honor either choice, but the default leans toward the second, and it leaves the first to be proven.

A will or trust that states plainly whether earlier gifts count, and how much they were, removes the guesswork. Keep in mind that a gift to a married child raises its own questions about whose property it becomes, which the article on gifts and inheritance as separate property in Washington addresses.

Put Your Intentions in Writing

Uneven lifetime gifts can turn into friction among siblings after a parent's death, and a few clear sentences in an estate plan can head that off. If you have helped one child more than another and want to be sure your estate is divided the way you intend, the Law Office of Chad Foster can help you put that in writing. Call 425.785.8679 to talk with a Snohomish County estate planning attorney.