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WA-Probate > Probate Instructions > Opening the Estate > Avoiding Notice of Hearing for a Petition for Nonintervention Powers > Satisfying the Notice Requirements for a Petition for Nonintervention Powers > Who Is Entitled to Notice for a Petition for Nonintervention Powers?
RCW 11.68.041(2) provides as follows:
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(2) In ... cases [in which notice is required to be given], if the petitioner wishes to obtain nonintervention powers, the personal representative shall give notice of the petitioner's intention to apply to the court for nonintervention powers to all heirs, all beneficiaries of a gift under the decedent's will, and all persons who have requested, and who are entitled to, [Special Notice] under RCW 11.28.240, except that:
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(a) A person is not entitled to notice if the person has, in writing, either waived notice of the hearing or consented to the grant of nonintervention powers; and
(b) An heir who is not also a beneficiary of a gift under a will is not entitled to notice if the will has been probated and the time for contesting the validity of the will has expired. |
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Assuming that:
No one
has waived notice of the hearing on, or consented to, your being granted
Nonintervention Powers, and
If Decedent died testate, four months have not elapsed since his/her Will was admitted to probate, ...
then the persons who are entitled to Notice of the hearing on a Petition for Nonintervention Powers are:
Decedent's heirs --- those individuals who would take the estate if the
Decedent had died intestate (See:
Decedent's Heirs);
Decedent's beneficiaries --- those individuals and organizations who would
take the estate according to the terms of Decedent's Will had he/she died
testate (See:
Decedent's Beneficiaries);
and
Those persons who have requested and are entitled to receive Special Notice under RCW 11.28.240.
Caution: Determining the identity of a Decedent's heirs, especially in a large, extended family, can be complicated, for example:
Going up
one level of kinship & then down --- If the Decedent:
Is not
survived by children (or lower issue) but
Is
survived by one or more:
Parents
or
Their
children (or lower issue) (ie, siblings --- Decedent's brothers or
sisters, nephews or nieces, etc.); or
Going
down more than one level of kinship --- If the Decedent is survived by:
Multiple
generations, and
One or more of the Decedent's children have predeceased leaving children of their own who have survived the Decedent.
Throughout the process of determining the identity of a Decedent's heirs, one is guided by the traditional legal principal known as the "right of representation," which is, indeed, a trap for the unwary. See: Becoming an Heir by Right of Representation.