Estate planning isn't just for the ailing and elderly.

It should start as soon as someone has responsibilities in life, says Paul Viren, managing principal at Viren & Associates Inc., a Spokane financial planning firm.

An estate plan ensures that real estate, bank accounts, securities, insurance benefits, and personal property will be transferred to beneficiaries and trusts identified by the decedent as quickly as possible, Viren says.

It also identifies who has power of attorney to make decisions for someone who becomes incapacitated, and who can make certain decisions in disposing of the decedent's estate, he says.

For many people, estate planning should start at parenthood, Viren says.

"When you have a birth, you have an obligation to say who's going to take care of that child," says Viren, who also is president of the nonprofit Spokane Estate Planning Council, which promotes a multidiscipline approach to estate planning.

"If you die without a will and a guardianship directive in the will, the court has to get involved in a long, arduous exercise," he says.

Without a proper will, probate can take several months to several years to dispose of an estate, Viren says. Probate is the legal process through which a person's estate is administered and distributed.

"I've seen it take as long as five or six years if there's a dispute over assets or taxes," Viren says.

Even then, some assets are allocated among creditors, spouses, children, and other relatives according to a state formula regardless of how it would reflect the decedent's wishes, he says.

Jerry Felts, managing principal at Jerry Felts CFP, a Spokane financial planning service, says many clients ask for assistance in estate planning, but at some point an attorney has to be involved.

Often clients turn first to whomever is dealing with their investments, he says.

"We hear requests when people come in with assets they want to retain to continue on to the next generation," he says. "We look at investments and tax ramifications if they don't implement an estate plan."

Sometimes the firm teams up with an attorney "like a physician referring a client to a specialist" who drafts the legal document.

Richard Sayre, a partner in the Spokane law firm Sayre & Sayre PS, says it's common to work with a team of professionals on an estate plan.

"I often meet with the client's accountant and a financial planner, because they usually know the client's financial circumstances better than the client knows them," Sayre says.

Clients tend to start their estate planning when they're in their late 30s and 40s or even older, though they shouldn't wait that long, he says.

"Usually they are becoming successful and it's dawning on them that they need some protection for their kids," he says.

Depending on the complexity of the estate and the client's wishes, an estate plan costs $500 to $5,000, Viren says.

An estate plan can start out as a simple will or a power-of-attorney agreement.

A community-property agreement, which puts assets in the possession of a surviving domestic partner, costs about $70 and it avoids probate that can cost $1,500 to $2,000, Sayre says.

A community property agreement, though, doesn't replace the need for a will that would distribute assets if both partners die, Sayre says.

A will can establish a trust that can help guard against frivolous spending of an inheritance or set aside money for the heirs' college, he says.

"If you die without a will, the state decides where the money goes," he says.

Estate planning also is important in reducing tax liability, Sayre says. Estates worth more than $5 million are subject to a federal estate tax, and Washington residents who inherit more than $2 million are subject to the state's inheritance tax.

"Anyone with an estate worth anywhere near $2 million should be talking to a qualified tax lawyer or they could get nailed," Sayre says.

Sayre also says people shouldn't think of estate planning simply as an end-of-life issue.

It's important to plan for disabilities at any age, he says.

"Many young people develop multiple sclerosis," Sayre says. "They need access to government programs without impoverishing their families."

In a worst-case scenario, the spouse of a suddenly incapacitated person would have to have a specific power of attorney directive to permit the transfer of assets, so the partner can qualify for Medicaid benefits.

Without such an arrangement, the spouse might have to petition the court to become a guardian and then put up a bond "to ensure she isn't stealing from herself," he says.

Parents and grandparents who plan to leave an inheritance to a disabled child should set up a special-needs trust that protects the beneficiary's access to public services, he says.

Otherwise, a disabled child with a sudden inheritance could lose Supplemental Security Income, Medicaid benefits, and housing subsidies.

"With estate planning, if I'm leaving money to a disabled child or grandchild, that money won't be something Medicaid or the Washington state Department of Social and Health Services can count as a resource, and it could be used to help enhance the child's quality of life," he says.

A revocable living trust is a helpful estate-planning tool for clients who have children from two or more marriages, Viren says.

One advantage of such a trust is that assets and beneficiaries named in it can be altered quickly while the person who creates it is alive. Without such a tool, some of the grantor's intended beneficiaries might not share in the estate.

Such a trust, however, is complex, and care should be taken to keep it current.

"The house, the cars, and every titled asset have to be included in the trust," he says.

"Once the trust is set up, the grantor has to contact an attorney to change the trust documents if any of the property changes hands."

As part of estate planning, people should review their beneficiary designations whenever a family has "big life changes," Viren says.

Most retirement plans, like IRA and 401(k) plans, aren't subject to probate because the beneficiary is named when the account is set up, he says, adding, however, that at least 20 percent of the beneficiary designations are incorrect, due to divorce or other changes in circumstances.

"The custodian of the account willpay only to the person named on the account," Viren says.

He adds that long-term care insurance also should be considered in the estate-planning process.

"If you spend all of your years attaining assets, you don't want to risk losing them if you have a care issue," he says.