Ardith Wenstrom
Attorney, estate planning and elder law
A valley lawyer, a grown daughter and a planner myself.
I've worked in the valley my whole career, and for most of it I did what you're doing now: worried about my own parents.
When my father's health turned, I was the one driving to Selah after work, finding the bills, calling the doctors. He'd never signed a power of attorney, and I learned what that costs a family. Years later my husband and I did our own plan at our kitchen table, with the coffee going cold.
That's the meeting I try to give every client: plain words, your own table if you like, and a plan your family can actually use.
What I do
- Wills and living trusts
- Probate
- Medicaid planning
- Powers of attorney
- Guardianship
Where I'm admitted, and where I studied
Bar admission
Washington State Bar
Admitted 1989
Courts
Yakima County Superior Court
Kittitas County Superior Court
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Washington
Admitted 1991
Education
J.D.
Gonzaga University School of Law, 1989
B.A., History
Central Washington University, 1985
Languages
English
Spanish
Conversational
Memberships
Washington State Bar Association
Elder Law Section
Yakima County Bar Association
Why the orchard
My grandparents planted apples on a slope above Naches. They knew they'd never see those trees at full crop.
That's what a good estate plan is: something you put in the ground now, carefully, for people who'll come after you. You do the planting while you can. You tend it when life changes. And when the time comes, your family picks it without a fight.
I think about that slope every time I sit down with a family.
Sit down with me
At the office nearest you, or at your kitchen table. The first meeting is where we find out what your family needs.