Michigan Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

It looks like Redd Foxx's estate is causing all types of legal issues for the Las Vegas attorneys who are trying to wrap up the estate. It seems that upon his passing Redd Foxx owed more than $3.6 Million to the IRS. After some bumbling by one of Foxx's daughters in administering the estate, a Las Vegas City Administrator is now in charge of trying to knock the estate out of the red and into the black. One interesting item is that the there is the possibility of the life story of Redd Foxx being sold, which could provide the estate with a necessary shot in the financial arm. You can read more of the AOL story at Trying to Get Foxx's Estate Out of the Red.

The Elder Law Prof Blog has an interesting little post dealing with the Hong Kong Billionaire, Nina Wang's estate. Apparently, Ms. Wang who was known as "Little Sweeite" had a will drawn up in 2002 leaving her estate to a charity. A Judge just ruled that a "feng shui will" from 2006 would be invalidated due to Ms. Wang's signature being forged. You can read the post here: Feng Shui Master won't Inherit Eccentric Billionaire's Estate.

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.

Our Bloomfield Hills Probate Lawyer office helps individuals and families with Michigan estate administration issues on a regular basis. One thing that I must remind clients of many times, is that the Michigan probate process is generally, not as quick and easy as you would like it to be.

If you do not have a properly funded trust based estate plan, there is a very good chance that your estate will end up under the jurisdiction of the Michigan probate courts. That may not be a bad thing, but you have to understand that if your estate is in the Oakland County Probate Court system, Macomb County Probate Court system, the Wayne County Probate court system, or any other Michigan Probate Court system, there will certain hurdles and hoops that will have to be jumped through.

In addition to jumping through certain administrative hoops, you have to understand that there are certain statutory requirements that each probate court requires. Even if the Michigan probate matter is an unsupervised, informal probate case. You still need to keep the probate estate open for a at least 5 months. You still have to publish a notice to creditors. You still have to complete the inventory in a timely matter (within 91 days of appointment).

Maybe it is a failure on my part to educate and explain that even with a Michigan probate lawyer handling the administration, I can't wave a magic wand and bypass all the requirements of the Michigan probate court process.

Well, I take that back. I can, its called proper Michigan estate planning. Through proper planning (typically a living trust based Michigan estate plan that is properly funded) you can avoid the probate court completely. A Michigan Will does not avoid probate, no matter how pretty the backing or how long the document. A Michigan Last Will and Testament is your ticket to the probate system.

This isn't to bash the Michigan probate system either. I love the people at the probate register and the staff. But, the public needed to understand that there are certain rules and formalities involved and most of the time those rules and formalities were put in place for a reason.

That said, by working with an experienced Michigan probate lawyer, we can navigate the process to minimize the work, stress, and excess costs to make the process as smooth as possible, but we have to follow the rules and jump through the hoops.

As a Michigan estate planning lawyer, I participate in online discussions with other estate planning attorneys across the nation to stay up on the latest estate planning and business succession planning news, laws, and cases.  Well, one of my colleagues very succinctly summarized two situations that he has seen occur when a business owner only had a Last Will and Testament and not a Revocable Living Trust based estate plan.

The first situation occurred when a client became disabled.  With a Last Will and Testament that doesn't become effective in Michigan until the creator passes away, the court had no ability to pass the business to who the client would have preferred, a brother in this instance.  What happened was that the business basically disintegrated with a lack of proper leadership. 

Now if the client had used a Michigan Revocable Living Trust based estate plan drafted by a Michigan trust planning lawyer, the successor trustee, the brother in this case, would have been able to step and continue the business during the client's disability.  Michigan Living Trusts provide for trustees to manage assets (and businesses) during the incapacity of the creator while a Last Will and Testament has no such provisions and is only effect upon death.

The second situation is when the business owner dies.  At this time the Michigan Last Will and Testament will have to be probated.  During the date of death and the opening of the probate estate, or even worse upon final distribution if the proposed business successor isn't the Michigan personal representative, the business disintegrates or is diverted to third party creditors.  With a Michigan Revocable Livnig Trust based estate plan, the transition is quick and seamless, there won't be any erosion due to lack of legally recognized leadership.

So, if you are a Michigan business owner and are considering a Trust vs. a Will it's important to not only consider your personal assets, but also the business in creating your Michigan estate plan.

As Michigan probate lawyers we hardly ever run into situaitons where we have to engage in Michigan probate litigation over a forged last will and testament. That said, there is a forged will at the cent of the Booke Astor probate controversy. You can read the WSJ article on the subject of forged wills here: Forged Wills Are Now Not Just Fiction.

Unwed couples is a growing percentage for a variety of reasons, whether financial, political, religious, etc. There are plenty of reasons why a couple would not want to enter into a federally recognized marriage.  Two common financial reasons include collecting on deceased spouses' Social Security earnings or planning for Medicaid.

Whatever reason couples may have for avoiding vows, the situation can raise tricky consequences when it comes to their estate planning, whether the couple is a same-sex couple or opposite sex couple, if the couple does no planning.

The main Michigan estate planning issue for an unwed couple is the lack of ability to be able to make any financial or medical decisions for their partner.  If one partner is suffers an accident their is not presumption for the other partner to be able to act on behalf of the incapacitated partner.  Therefore, Michigan financial powers of attorney and Michigan medical powers of attorney (patient advocate designations) are vital.

The big issue that everyone thinks about is what happens if my partner passes away?  Well without a marriage and without joint ownership, the assets will pass through the Michigan probate courts and follow the Michigan laws of intestacy, leaving all of the partners assets with their family instead of the surviving partner.  Properly drafted estate plans including a Michigan Last Will and Testament and a Michigan Living Trust should be considered and should be drafted by a Michigan estate planning attorney.

Planning for an unwed couple can be tricky and should be handled by an experience and knowledgeable Michigan estate planning attorney.

With the baby boomers aging, the largest amount of wealth in history is passing from one generation to the next. Unfortunately, people are procrastinating on their estate planning until it's too late. 

Over at the greenbaypressgazette.com, they have an interesting article that discusses how to prioritize the details in estate planning which you can read here:  "Guest column: Tim Cisler Prioritize details in estate planning."

From the point of view of a Michigan estate planning attorney, there are a couple key points that I would like to reinforce from the article.

First, don't underestimate the value of your assets.  Sure the economy is down, that said, your estate could include your residence, your retirement accounts, your savings, and possibly your life insurance.  Add all those pieces up and you may be surprised at the value.  Regardless of the size, you most likely would want to protect those assets from needless expenses, for example the expense of opening a Michigan probate.

The next key point is to keep your beneficiaries designations updated on your assets, including life insurance, retirement accounts, deeds to property.  Just because it made sense at one point to name a family member the beneficiary of the IRA, doesn't mean now or in the future it would make more sense to name the living trust the beneficiary.

Lastly, know the difference between a probate estate and a trust.  People think that just because they have a Michigan Will, they will avoid the Michigan probate system.  Not true, a Michigan Last Will and Testament is your ticket to the Michigan probate system.  If you want to avoid a Michigan Probate, then a living trust would be a better option.

In Royal Oak, Michigan, the Royal Oak Probate court is located in Oakland County.

The address of the Oakland County Probate Court is located at:

Oakland County Probate Court -- Estates and Mental Health
1200 North Telegraph Road, Department 457
Pontiac, Michigan, USA 48341-0457

In West Bloomfield, Michigan, the West Bloomfield Probate court is located in Oakland County.

The address of the Oakland County Probate Court is located at:

Oakland County Probate Court -- Estates and Mental Health
1200 North Telegraph Road, Department 457
Pontiac, Michigan, USA 48341-0457