Estate Planning

It is a very personal decision to determine whether to share your estate plan with your family. Except for the most extreme of circumstances, you will never be required to share the plan while you are alive. So, when the question of whether to share the plan is asked of me as an estate planner, […]

If you have worked with an estate planning attorney before, it goes without saying that your primary focus was on the documents themselves – a will, maybe a trust, powers of attorney, etc. And hopefully when you concluded the process and your estate planning documents were signed, you also received some instruction on the next

Terror is not a word regularly associated with a trust but there are times when the two terms meet. A “terror clause,” “in terrorem clause,” or “no-contest clause” can be used in both wills and trusts to warn someone to think twice about contesting the terms of a will or trust. The clause usually states

Over the last few years, if you have read any articles in this space about estate planning or have taken the steps to create your own estate plan, then you are probably aware of the importance of having a general durable power of attorney and a healthcare power of attorney in place. These are the

I am always relieved when I can explain to a grieving spouse that there may not be too many details to take care of after the loss of their spouse. Here are some of the key points that I always review in this situation. 1. Does the surviving spouse’s health care and financial power of

Only 42% of adults in the United States have a will or living trust according to a 2017 survey by caring.com. For parents of minor children, only 36% have a plan in place. Why are more than ½ of U.S. adults not planning for an inevitable life event? The survey gathered the following reasons from

QUESTION: I think that I might want to disinherit a family member in my estate planning documents – how do I go about doing that, and are there any limitations? ANSWER: Disinheriting someone is not easy, and I mean that both in an emotional sense as well as in a strict legal sense. I won’t

We live in a wonderfully philanthropically minded community. When I am doing an estate plan for a client who has a desire to leave a gift to charity, one of the things that I try to accomplish for the client is to make the gift in the most tax efficient way possible. Most people have

I have a will. Will my family avoid the cost and stress of having to go through probate when I pass? Most likely not. A will is actually used when assets have to be probated at your passing. So, a will does not allow your family to bypass the cost and hassle of probate. I

On December 8, 2016 Michigan’s Governor signed into law the Qualified Dispositions in Trust Act. The Act went into effect on March 8, 2017. This new law makes it possible for the first time for people to create a Domestic Asset Protection Trust (DAPT) in Michigan that benefits the person who created the trust. Michigan