Contact Us
Here’s a scenario that plays out across Southeast Michigan more often than most families expect: Mom lived her whole life in Macomb County, but she bought a condo in Florida fifteen years ago for the winters. She has three adult children, one still in Shelby Township, one in Texas, and one in California. She passes … Read more
You’re 65 or older, you’ve found someone worth building the next chapter with, and you want to get married again. But one thought keeps surfacing: What happens to my kids’ inheritance if something goes wrong? It’s not a hypothetical. It’s the central tension of late-in-life remarriage in Michigan, and it catches more families off guard … Read more
Nobody plans to die without a will. But roughly 60% of American adults don’t have one – and Michigan families deal with the consequences of that gap every day in probate courts across the state. When a Michigan resident dies without a valid will, they die “intestate.” That doesn’t mean the state takes everything, a … Read more
Losing a loved one is overwhelming. Between grief, family dynamics, and the immediate demands of funeral arrangements, the last thing most people want to think about is legal paperwork. But if the person who passed owned property, held bank accounts, or left behind debts, their estate will likely need to go through probate – the … Read more
The phone call comes, and everything changes. A parent, spouse, or loved one has passed away, and somewhere in the grief, you learn that you’ve been named successor trustee of their revocable living trust. Most people don’t fully grasp what that means until they’re already in it. Being named successor trustee isn’t an honorary title. … Read more
If you own Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any other cryptocurrency, here is what you need to know: your digital assets can vanish permanently if your estate plan does not account for them. Unlike a bank account or brokerage portfolio, no institution will contact your family after your death to say, “Here are the crypto holdings you’re … Read more
Most Michigan families don’t set out to put their loved ones through probate. But that’s exactly what happens when assets aren’t structured to transfer outside the court system, and it happens far more often than people expect. Probate is Michigan’s court-supervised process for settling an estate after someone dies. It’s public, it takes time, it … Read more
Don’t Let a Probate Judge Decide Who Runs Your Company You built your business through years of decisions, risks, and relentless effort. But if you die or become incapacitated without a coordinated plan, a Michigan probate judge, someone who has never set foot in your office, could end up deciding who runs your company, whether … Read more
There’s a moment that catches most families off guard. A parent is hospitalized after a stroke or a fall. Decisions about ventilators, feeding tubes, surgery, and long-term care need to be made immediately, and nobody in the family has legal authority to make them. The doctors ask questions. The siblings disagree. And the person whose … Read more
Your divorce is final. The paperwork is signed, the assets are divided, and you’re ready to move forward with your life. But there’s one critical step most people forget: updating your estate plan. Here’s the uncomfortable truth, if you die tomorrow with your old documents in place, your ex-spouse might still inherit your retirement accounts. … Read more