Michigan Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

National Health Care Decisions days is just around the corner. April 16th, 2010 will be the third anniversary of National Health Care Decisions day which helps increase awareness of advanced health care planning and educating Americans about the importance of making health care decisions.

As a Michigan elder law attorney and member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, I want to help spread the word. If you have any questions about National Health Care Decisions day, please contact me or visit the website: NHDD.

With Michigan Estate Planning, there are a few basic things that you need to know.

First, no matter what your net worth is, how much in assets you have, how much debt you have, you need an estate plan. In Michigan, once you turn 18 you are legally an adult. So, even if you're a college age adult who lives at home with your parents, there is a certain level of estate planning that should be done. That is you need, what our office calls, a disability plan. A disability plan plans for your disability or incapacity.  We would put together a Patient Advocate Designation (which is the Michigan equivalent to a health care power of attorney), HIPAA Authorization, and a Financial Power of Attorney that most likely would name your parents as decision makers and agents.

Now that we've established that if you're over the age of 18, you need the disability documents, the next step would be once you have assets (now matter how meager) or children, it is important to plan for your assets and children.  This is done through using Revocable Living Trusts and Last Wills and Testaments.  Whether you opt for a Living Trust based estate plan or a Will based estate plan will depend on your goals.  Remember a Last Will and Testament only gives instructions to the Michigan Probate court on how to administer your estate, it does not avoid probate.

Lastly, it is important to consult a Michigan estate planning attorney in preparing your estate plan.  Proper Michigan estate planning involves more than buying Nolo Willmaker software or reading the latest Suze Orman Trust Kit book.  It involves analyzing your goals and situation and using the estate planning tools we've discussed in the most effective and cost effective way.

Let's face it, going to the hospital can be a little frightening.  But there are ways to prepare yourself and your loved ones.  A little bit of preparation can make the experience better for everyone: you, your family, and the hospital staff.

 

1. Make sure that your healthcare power of attorney is up-to-date.  This document names the person (or persons) you would like to make medical decisions for you if you can't do so.  Review this document periodically to make sure your choice(s) is still valid.
2. Review your Living Will.  This document states your desires regarding treatments you would (or would not) want to receive in the hospital if you cannot make these decisions yourself.  Your living will is an important resource for your healthcare power of attorney should he/she need to make decisions about your care.
3. Make your decision about organ donation and document it.  If you would like to donate your organs at the time of your passing, make that decision now and put it in writing.  One organ donor can save up to 8 lives and the need far exceeds the supply.
4. Talk to your loved ones about your healthcare choices:  who you've named as your healthcare power of attorney, what your medical wishes are, and whether you want to be an organ donor.  The more they know in advance, the easier it will be for them if they ever have to step in. 
5. Carry your DocuBank wallet card.  Our firm provides this card because we know that immediate access to your emergency information and healthcare directives is important.  Make sure that your card is next to your driver's license in your wallet at all times.
6. Update the emergency information you store with DocuBank.  This includes your allergies and medical conditions that display on your Emergency Card and can help with your emergency treatment.  Also update your doctor's and emergency contacts' names and phone numbers.

Christopher J. Berry, Esq., An Oakland Estate Planning Attorney, is a Partner with The Law Offices of Witzke Berry PLLC, which practices in the areas of Michigan Wills and Michigan Trusts, Living Wills, and Michigan Probate Litigation, serving Oakland County, Macomb County, and Wayne County.  We can be reached at 248-971-1700.

With the Health Care Reform discussion, a key estate planning step is in the spotlight, that is Living Wills and Advanced Medical Directives. The WSJ.com has a piece on how important Advanced Medical Directives are, especially for people who juggle work and family.  You can read the article here: Make Time to Create an Advanced Medical Directive.

The author of the article says that she "...implores readers to create an advanced medical directive, which details the kind of care you'd want if you are unable to voice your wishes." 

I couldn't agree more.

In Michigan, your Advanced Medical Directives actually involves a few different documents.  First, you need to have your Patient Advocate Designation.  This form outlines who will be appointed and how they will make medical decisions if you become incapacitated.  In Michigan, the Patient Advocate Designation also includes Living Will type language where you can make decisions with regard to remaining on life support.

Additionally, you will want to include a HIPAA Authorization form that allows the people you have appointed in your Michigan Patient Advocate Designation to access your medical records.

These Advanced Medical Directives are just one aspect of a comprehensive estate plan and should be prepared by an experienced Michigan estate planning attorney.

Christopher J. Berry, Esq., An Oakland County Probate and Estate Administration Lawyer, is a Partner with The Law Office of Witzke Berry PLLC, which practices in the areas of Estate Planning, Michigan Medicaid Planning, and Michigan Probate Litigation.

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Ever wonder what the absolute essential Michigan Estate Planning documents are? Well, Business Week put together a list, from caregiving.com listing the essential documents for any estate plan not including a Will. You can read the article here: The Essentials.

The key estate planning documents, according to the article, are:

• Medical Directive. This is also commonly called a living will.  This document makes known your wishes regarding life support.  Michigan is the only state that does not recognize by statute a living will.  However, we do have case law stemming from the Martin case, that recognizes living will type language.
• Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. This document appoints someone to make your medical decisions for you if you become incapacitated.  In Michigan, we call this document the Patient Advocate Designation.
• Privacy Release.  This document allows your patient advocate to get access to your medical directives.  In our office we call this a HIPAA Authorization.  HIPAA places severe penalties on physicians who release your medical information to an unauthorized party.  The HIPAA Authorization releases the physician from liability for sharing your information with the individiuals named in the document.
• Durable Power of Attorney for Finances.  The individually tailored durable power of attorney appoints someone to manage your finances for you.  The document can be effective immedialty or upon disability.
• Revocable Living Trust.  A Revocable living trust allows you to avoid probate while exerting more control over your assets than what a last will and testament would provide.

It goes without saying, these documents should be prepared by a Michigan Estate Planning Attorney.

Christopher J. Berry, Esq., A Bloomfield Hills Elder Law Attorney, is a Partner with Witzke Berry PLLC, which practices in the areas of Estate Planning, Michgian Long-term Care Planning, and Michigan Medicaid Planning.

Michigan Estate planning often does not get the attention it deserves.  It is more exciting to talk about saving for your kids education, purchasing a second home, or deciding how to retire.  Unfortunately, ignoring what happens to your affairs when you pass away will not prevent the day from happening, regardless of the size of your estate.

The New York times had an interesting article on the matter, which you can read here.

Two important issues include:

• Last Will and Testament.  Everyone should have a Last Will and Testament.  Your Will is a document that names guardians for dependent, minor children and can provide instructions to the probate court on how to distribute your assets.
• Advanced Medical Directives.  Anyone over the age 18 in Michigan NEEDS to have prepare a patient advocate designation to appoint someone to make medical decisions if they are incapacitated.  Think of the Terri Schiavo case down in Florida if you need any reminder of what can happen if you don't do this planning.

On top of these documents, other things to think about in estate planning are Trusts, Financial Powers of Attorney, and HIPAA Authorizations.  Also, don't forget to look at how all of your assets are titled.

There is quite a bit that goes into preparing a comprehensive Michigan estate plan.  The sooner you start the process the better of you and your loved ones will be if something were to happen.

-Christopher J. Berry, Esq.
Bloomfield Hills Trust and Estate Planning Laywer

If have you ever dealt with a parent's or loved one's estate,  financial affairs or Michigan probate, you most likely know what a pain it is to administer their estate, clean up their affairs, and locate important documents and records.  I wanted to provide you some straightforward easily digestible advice on how make sure you don't leave your loved ones in a lurch.

First and foremost, you must get organized.  You should begin creating a list of all your assets, liabilities, accounts, passwords.  Compile all of your records in one place and make sure they are safe and that your proposed personal representative, trustee, or whoever will handle you affairs when you pass, knows where to locate your documents.

The next step is to identify what your goals are with regard to when you become incapacitated or pass away.  Do you want to protect your assets in case you go into a Michigan nursing home?  Do you want to protect your children from poor financial choices with your inheritance?  Do you want to avoid the hassle, stress, cost of Michigan probate? Do you want to provide for your pets to be taken care of and not euthanized?  There are many difficult decisions to take into account.  We can provide you a list of some of the items to think about with regard to Michigan estate planning.  Just contact us using the contact form on this page.

Third, you need to select your team of advisors including your Michigan estate planning lawyer or Michigan elder law attorney.  Your attorney will assist you, along with your accountant and financial professional in matching the legal environment to your goals to create an individualized Michigan estate plan to meet your goals.  Through meeting with your Michigan estate planning professionals, you will have a Michigan estate plan that may include  living trusts, wills, general durable powers of attorney, health care powers of attorney, HIPAA authorizations and living wills.  Though Michigan statute does not recognize a living will.

Next, there should be a review of how your assets are titled.  For example, who is the beneficiary of your life insurance?  Should it be titled into the trusts or should the life insurance go outright to beneficiaries?  What about the IRA's and 401k's?  These are all questions and items that will be reviewed with your Michigan estate planning attorney and the rest of your estate planning team.

Next, it is important to speak with all of your family members about what decisions you made and how your Michigan estate plan will be implemented and how it will take effect.  If our clients are interested, we have a "family meeting" where we have our clients bring in any family members or children to answer any questions in a round table format so that all of the loved ones and beneficiaries are on the same page.

Last, you need to review your estate plan annually once completed.  There can be changes in your family situation, changes in Michigan or Federal law, or changes in the tax laws.  Any changes could have drastic effects on your estate plan.  We bring our clients in every year as a part of our Foundations program to ensure that their estate plan is just effective the day they signed there documents as it is the day the the documents take effect.

The key to Michigan estate planning is taking action.  You can't wait until the day you need an estate plan to start thinking about estate planning.

-Christopher J. Berry, Esq.
Michigan Estate Planning Attorney

National Healthcare Decisions Day is right around the corner.  It is a day to take the opportunity to talk to your loved ones about their health care decisions and advanced directives.  Do they have a Michigan Patient Advocated Designation?  Do they have a HIPAA Authorization for their Patient Advocate?

Please visit the National Health Care Decisions Day website.

Here is a snippet from the press release:

In Estate Planning Gone Wrong Part 1, I discussed the mistake of people trying to do their estate plan on their own without the aid of a Michigan estate planning lawyer.  In Estate Planning Gone Wrong Part 2 I discussed the second major issue we see at our Oakland county estate planning law firm, that being people not updating their estate plans.

The third major issue we see with people who either have not done an estate plan or have done an estate plan not at our firm is that people are failing to plan for incapacity.

This problem is also at the heart of the trust vs. will debate where having a living trust based estate plan prepared by a Michigan estate planning lawyer probably makes more sense then just having a Michigan will based estate plan.  The reason is that a last will and testament does not have any planning for incapacity.  Incapacity could take the form of brain injuries, strokes, Alzheimer's, and other issues not including death.  With our population living longer and longer there is a greater chance than ever that you will spend at least some time legally incapacitated.  Doesn't it make sense to take this into account in your estate planning?

The way to plan for incapacity is through executing and annually reviewing a living trust based estate plan with effective powers of attorney for health care and financial decisions.  All prepared by a Michigan estate planning lawyer.

Christopher J. Berry, Esq.
Metro Detroit Estate Planning Lawyer

Choosing the correct trustee for your trust, personal representative for your will, and agents for your financial and health care powers of attorney are some of the most important estate planning decisions that you can make.  As Michigan estate planning lawyers, we often assist our clients in making these tough decisions through compassionate counseling (something you won't get with Legalzoom, Suze Orman, or any of the other "trusts in a box" sources).

Continue reading "Michigan Estate Planning How-To | How to Choose Fiduciaries" »

As a Michigan estate planning lawyer, I was contacted by an author who is writing a book on estate planning nationally.   One of his questions was "When should an individual begin thinking about planning their estate?"

My response was"at the age of majority."  In Michigan, an individual is legally an adult when they turn 18.  What this means is that an 18 year old (maybe college student) now has to make legal that which would be assumed, i.e. if something happened, their parents would make decisions for them. 

Our firm recommends that Michigan 18 year olds complete at least a patient advocate designation, living will, and financial power of attorney.  Most likely they would name their parents for each of these roles.

The Michigan powers of attorney and healthcare directives are especially important for those 18-25 year olds that are away to college.  If something were to happen it is important to already have the necessary documents in place so that parents can act quickly with legal authority.

Continue reading "Michigan Estate Planning | When to Start?" »

As we near the end of the year our law firm has scheduled estate planning review meetings with our clients who have opted into Foundations, our client membership program.  Reviewing your estate plan with your Michigan estate planning lawyer is vital to the well being of your estate plan.

There are many things that can go awry with an out of date estate plan.  To often we see people from other law firms who have not updated their estate plan for years and years.  Problems include, agents passing away, Federal Tax planning gone wrong, powers of attorney documents going stale in the eyes of banks, and changes in law that make documents ineffective.

All these issues can be avoided by having your estate planning attorney review your documents on a yearly basis, similar to a doctors check up.  Some years everything will be OK, but often times there are minor tweaks, changes, and amendments needed to the will based estate plan or trust based estate plan.

Continue reading "Michigan Estate Planning Check-Up" »

As we come to the end of November, I wanted to mention that November is National Family Caregivers Month- where we honor the time, care, and energy people give to help members of the family.  A caregiver is a family member or friend who provides unpaid care for a love one and assistance in daily tasks.

Family conversations about personal wishes regarding dignity and autonomy can be very challenging.  Often times family members must look to the small things of a loved one to really find out their need.  For example are they having troubles walking? 

Along with providing care, it is important your loved ones prepare the necessary documents reflecting their wishes, so that as they age or become incapacitated their wishes our followed.  It is important to have an estate planning attorney prepare powers of attorney for health care, powers of attorney for financial and business decisions, and a living will for your loved on so their wishes are respected.

Continue reading "Elder Law Update | November is National Family Caregiver Month" »

As I was getting ready to head to the office and my wife was getting ready to head out shopping for Black Friday in Metro Detroit, we had the television on.  On Good Morning America (or one of the morning talk shows, they all seem the same to me) there was a representative from the AARP talking with the hosts regarding just what I wrote about in my last post about end of life decisions and how to have the conversation with your parents.

With the holidays upon up, this is the time to have important family conversations with your parents.  There needs to be a discussion about handling aging with privacy and dignity.
As the AARP rep mentioned, this is best accomplished through creating advanced health care directives, including a living will, and creating a power of attorney to handle financial and business decisions.

The AARP representative also mentioned, which I wholeheartedly agree with as an estate planning lawyer, that these documents need to be executed early before there are any health of financial issues.

-Christopher J. Berry, Esq.

With the holidays upon us, we will be surround by family.  This is an opportune time to discuss with loved ones how you want your end of life care handled.

A great website (www.engagewithgrace.org) encourages people to talk with their loved ones about the five questions of end of life care and encourages you to get your appropriate health care documents in place.  In Michigan, everyone needs at least a Patient Advocate Designation for health care decisions and possibly a living will.  A Michigan estate planning lawyer can help your prepare your health care directives.

There was an article about the site in the Boston Globe.

Here is an except:

When Rosaria Vandenberg lay unconscious in the hospital, a malignant brain tumor stealing her life, her brother decided to overrule doctors' advice and bring her home to die. He believed, but wasn't sure, that this was what she would have wanted. The truth is, when she was conscious, her family had never asked.

Back at home, Vandenberg's 2-year-old daughter, who had been afraid to touch her mother in the hospital, snuggled next to her in bed. Rosaria opened her eyes, the first time in a week, and took in the sight. She died the next night at home.

-Christopher J. Berry, Esq.