Karen R. Bertram

If you’re looking for a law firm that mishandles estate matters and misses critical deadlines, then look no further than Karen Bertram and the firm KHHB of Seattle, Washington. I hired Karen Bertram when I needed to fire the estate’s first attorney. Bertram told me the earlier attorney had ma...de an error in inheritance tax and assured me she could “file the estate tax return accurately, competently, and cost-effectively.” Unfortunately, that did not happen in a timely matter as she promised. Despite having eight months to do so, and multiple emails asking about it, Ms. Bertram never filed the return. She later admitted she thought it had been filed and did not know there was a deadline for requesting the overpayment refund from the state. By the time she realized the oversight, the estate had lost more than $120,000 that should have gone to well-deserving charitable beneficiaries. She apologized, filed an appeal, and then billed the estate for her time spent trying to fix her own mistake—something I had to object to before she withdrew the charge. You don’t charge people by the hour to fix your mistakes. Bertram lost the appeal and the charities received none. In the end, it took a full year after hiring her and her firm to get the return filed. This experience reflects serious lapses in communication, organization, due diligence and follow-through. Emails show that I repeatedly asked about the tax filing status, including one where she replied “Don’t recall” regarding the return. Another email said that “you didn’t receive a copy of the estate tax return because it wasn’t done. My apologies for thinking that it was.” If you value due diligence, responsiveness, and accountability in your estate attorney, I would strongly advise looking elsewhere. Those charities sure could have used that $120,000.

Very disappointed with the performance of Ms. Bertram. At first she seemed to be on top of things in our family dispute. Errors were made that I had to pay for on her/staff behalf. After time went by, I found out she had not been honest when I hired her in the questioning process of who she knew. ... I would not recommend her. Never seemed to have her full attention when she was present working with me.