Cunningham Dalman

Most people, whether or not they have done estate planning, are aware of how beneficiary designations work. After all, beneficiary designations can be used on bank accounts, life insurance policies, retirement accounts, and many other types of financial and investment assets to automatically transfer those assets on death. However, I have found that very few […]

Families that help a loved one apply for Medicaid benefits aren’t usually aware of the existence of a manual containing Medicaid eligibility rules. The Bridge’s Eligibility Manual contains pages and pages of policy that impact a person filing for Medicaid. When talking about Medicaid benefits for older persons, an October 1, 2015 update impacts persons

A question that often comes up with clients who conduct their business through a limited liability company (which is most of our business clients, these days) is how to most efficiently add money to the business. By default, many people assume that making a capital contribution to their LLC is the “normal” method to add

A question that often comes up with clients who conduct their business through a limited liability company is how to most efficiently add money to the business. By default, many business owners assume that making a cash “contribution” to their LLC is the normal and most efficient way of doing it. Under Michigan law, each

Reviewing a commercial lease can be a daunting task for anyone who has not done it before. From the numerous pages of dense text to the typical overuse of legalese, these documents tend to be some of the least user-friendly that I come across as a business attorney. Yet, reviewing them is something that most

Estate planning is not exactly the best “get-together” conversation topic when you are with friends or family. For me and my wife, many of our friends and acquaintances have just started a family within the last few years or are getting close, and when my job comes up, the conversation shifts to “oh, you do

PART II In Part I of this blog post, I covered the general considerations for all estate planning clients in deciding what to tell their children in advance. In the second installment of this blog post, I wanted to cover the additional considerations when your estate plan includes more complex planning items such as high-value

PART I Deciding what to tell your adult children regarding your estate plan brings to mind one word: AWKWARD Without question, this is a bothersome issue for our clients. However, don’t let yourself worry too much. This is not a black-and-white issue and there really isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach to making this

Who do we need to call first? Where would he want to be buried? Where did he leave his important documents and valuables? A few months ago, my wife forwarded me a Wall Street Journal article that highlighted some of the unique “personal details” that become important when a loved one dies. The questions above

Late Tuesday night, news crossed the wire that the Senate passed the “Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014” (the “Act”) by a supermajority-exceeding vote of 76-16. The Act, which is predicted to be signed into law by President Obama within the next few days, provides a wide-ranging extension of tax breaks for individuals and businesses.