Your property can help the people that you love when you die. Creating an estate plan or at least a last will helps guarantee that certain assets go to specific people.
Otherwise, the Michigan probate court will have the final say about what happens with your property. Regardless of the people who are the closest to you personally, it will be your family relationships that determine who inherits which assets if you die without first creating a valid last will or estate plan.
How will Michigan distribute your property after your death?
Your closest family members and dependents are the ones who have the best claim to inherit property from your estate after your death. Your spouse and your children have these strongest inheritance rights in an intestate estate or an estate without a last will.
Michigan law has different rules for when you and your spouse share children versus when your spouse is not the biological parent of your children because you have a blended family. If you don’t have a spouse or children, your parents will be the ones with the strongest inheritance right.
After that, the rights to your property will pass to your siblings or to the children of your siblings. If there are people who are not related to you by blood or marriage that you would like to leave assets to when you die, the only way to ensure that legacy is to create your own estate plan.
Advance planning leaves you in control of your legacy and ensures that the people you love receive the property that you want to leave for them.
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