Estate Planning Attorney in Michigan

It’s easy to put off planning for your legacy. But the best time to start an estate plan is before you need one. Estate planning is an important tool to ensure your assets are handled the way you want, your minor children are cared for, and your end-of-life wishes are clear. A Traverse City estate planning lawyer from Alward Fisher can help you achieve your goals and protect your legacy.

With more than 100 years of combined legal experience, our seasoned estate planning attorneys are dedicated to helping Michigan residents prepare for the future. We can help you draft or revise a will, set up a Power of Attorney or Advance Health Care Directive, create a trust to protect the assets in your estate, and devise an overall plan to meet your needs.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help with your estate planning needs.

The Importance of Having an Estate Plan

If you don’t have a will or some other type of estate plan in place upon your death, your family will need to go to court to claim your assets. This process, known as probate, can be a significant expense in terms of money, time, and energy. It can also cause conflict for grieving family members who may disagree about what they believe your wishes would be. Ultimately, without an estate plan in place, the court will decide how your estate is settled. The court’s decision could go against what you would have wanted.

Estate planning has other benefits aside from making your wishes clear. You can also protect your assets by placing them in a trust for safekeeping. Creating a trust can minimize the tax penalties your heirs will pay on your estate and help your family avoid the draining probate process. Trusts also give you more flexibility when it comes to how you wish to distribute your assets and can protect your assets from family members you do not trust.

Finally, estate planning allows you to prepare for certain kinds of healthcare emergencies. For example, it’s a good idea to create an Advance Health Care Directive to outline what should happen in the event that you are mentally or physically incapacitated due to an illness or injury. Otherwise, your family may be left to make painful decisions without any guidance regarding what you want.

Similarly, drafting a Power of Attorney lets you designate someone to make financial, medical, and other important decisions on your behalf if you cannot do so.

Why You Need an Attorney for Estate Planning in Michigan

An experienced Traverse City estate planning lawyer can help you by:

Creating a Will

Creating a will is the cornerstone of estate planning. A will allows you to:

• Account for your assets — Depending on the size of your estate, you may have many different kinds of assets to pass down to your heirs. This can include homes, vehicles, bank accounts, retirement accounts, investment portfolios, insurance policies, jewelry, and other valuables. Creating a will gives you the chance to fully account for all your assets and decide how they should be distributed upon your death. A Traverse City estate planning attorney can help you draft your will and ensure it’s properly signed and notarized to minimize future challenges.
• Plan for your children’s future — We all want what’s best for our children, and one way you can help them is by making a plan to pass on your assets. If your children are minors, you also need to plan for who would care for them in the event of your death. If you die without a will in place, the courts would decide who would care for your children and how your assets would be passed on.

Protecting Your Assets with a Trust

Trusts are crucial estate planning tools that can help you shield your family from the probate process. If your estate is over a certain value, a trust can also help you pass on assets while keeping tax liability to a minimum. Some of the different types of trusts include:

• Revocable trust — A revocable trust can be altered or rescinded at any point. The head of the estate transfers the title of their assets to the trust and often serves as the first trustee. Any assets transferred to the trust will be protected from probate proceedings, and assets can be removed from the trust at any time prior to the head of the estate’s death.
• Irrevocable trust — An irrevocable trust is largely the same as a revocable trust, except that the terms of the irrevocable trust cannot be modified or amended. In many cases, a revocable trust is converted into an irrevocable when the head of the estate dies.
• Marital trust — Marital trusts can be used to pass assets to a surviving spouse while avoiding probate and minimizing tax liability. A martial trust may be used in conjunction with other types of trusts to achieve a strategy that best fits your family’s circumstances.
• Special needs trust — Children with disabilities can have their government benefits reduced when they receive a large inheritance. A special needs trust can allow them to keep their benefits, as long as they do not control how the trust’s assets are distributed, and they can’t revoke the trust.
• Charitable trust — You can donate assets to charities of your choice through a charitable trust. In addition to supporting philanthropic efforts, you can reduce your estate’s tax liability through charitable contributions.

Creating an Advance Health Care Directive

An advance health care directive outlines your wishes should you become incapacitated or unable to communicate due to an injury or illness. The two main components of an advance health care directive are:

• Power of attorney for health care — A power of attorney for health care designates someone to make medical decisions on your behalf if you’re incapacitated. You’ll need to make sure the power of attorney document is properly drafted for it to be enforceable.
• Individual instructions — In addition to designating a power of attorney for health care, you can outline specifics instructions regarding end-of-life care in an advance health care directive. By having your own wishes written down, you can save your family a great deal of grief and heartache.

Designating a Durable Power of Attorney

A durable power of attorney designates someone to make financial, medical, and other important decisions on your behalf if you’re incapacitated. It is called durable because its terms remain in effect even if you become incapacitated. You can give this person broad or narrow powers depending on your preferences.

Business Succession Planning

A thoughtful estate plan will enable you to designate the person you wish to own and run your company after you pass. With extensive experience in both business and estate law, the legal team at Alward Fisher can help you map out a plan for business succession.

Estate Planning FAQs

Here are some of the most common questions we get about estate planning issues in Michigan:

Talk to a Traverse City Estate Planning Attorney Now

Our Traverse City estate planning attorneys are here to answer your questions and devise a strategy that meets your goals. Contact our office for a consultation with a member of our experienced estate planning team.