Oakland County Wills & Trusts Lawyer

Wills

Making Sure Your Wishes Are Clearly Expressed

A will is one of the fundamental building blocks of an estate plan. It gives you the opportunity to decide what should happen to property that passes through your probate estate rather than leaving those decisions entirely to Michigan law.

Your will allows you to name the people or organizations you would like to benefit and nominate the person you trust to serve as your personal representative – the person responsible for administering your estate and carrying out the instructions in your will.

For parents of minor children, a will is especially important because it allows you to nominate the person you would want to serve as guardian if neither parent were able to care for the children. Your will can also provide a structure for managing an inheritance for children or other beneficiaries who may not be ready to receive property outright.

If you die without a valid will, Michigan law determines who inherits property that passes through your probate estate. Those rules may or may not produce the result you would have chosen for yourself.

A will does not necessarily control every asset you own. Assets held jointly, assets with beneficiary designations, and assets held in a trust may pass in other ways. Good estate planning therefore involves looking at the entire picture – not simply preparing a will and putting it in a drawer.

We can help you create a will that is understandable, thoughtfully drafted, and coordinated with the other parts of your estate plan.

Revocable Living Trusts

Is a Trust Right for You?

A trust is simply another estate planning tool. It is not something reserved for people with enormous estates, nor is it something that everyone needs.

For some individuals and families, a revocable living trust can provide significant practical benefits. Property that has been properly transferred to the trust can generally be managed according to the trust terms during your lifetime and distributed after your death without going through probate.

A trust can also provide continuity in the management of trust assets if you become unable to manage them yourself and can give you greater flexibility over how and when beneficiaries receive an inheritance.

During your lifetime, you generally remain in control of the assets in your revocable living trust. You can ordinarily amend or revoke the trust as your circumstances or wishes change.

A trust may be useful when someone owns real estate, wants to simplify the eventual administration of an estate, has beneficiaries who should not receive an inheritance all at once, or simply wants additional continuity and privacy in the handling of family assets.

But a trust is not automatically better than a will. For some clients, a well-designed will-based estate plan is entirely appropriate. For others, a trust provides benefits that make the additional planning worthwhile.

Our job is not to assume that everyone needs a trust. We begin with you. After learning about your family, your assets, and what you would like your estate plan to accomplish, we can help you decide whether a trust offers meaningful advantages in your particular situation.