Estate Planning FAQs

Everyone who is 18 and older!  Certain individuals have more pronounced needs for proper estate planning. These include individuals who:

• are likely to die in the near future
• may need long-term care.
• have ever received Medicaid benefits.
• have preferences regarding distribution of their assets
• are parents with minor children
• part of a blended family
• wish to leave assets to persons with disabilities
• own real property, particularly if in multiple states
• have a family dynamic that might result in conflict
• own businesses
• want to protect their wealth from creditors and predators

A Durable Financial Power of Attorney is a written agreement where an individual, known as the principal, grants another person, referred to as their "agent" or "attorney-in-fact," the authority to exercise financial rights specified in the document.

Benefits:

• Can avoid the necessity of having a court-appointed conservator.
• A "Durable" power of attorney remains valid during incapacity but ceases upon death.
• The principal can opt for the power of attorney to take effect immediately or upon their incapacity or a designated date (referred to as a Springing Power of Attorney).

They cover different decisions.

• A financial power of attorney names an agent to handle the money and property matters described in the document. Under Michigan's Uniform Power of Attorney Act, a power of attorney takes effect when you sign it unless it says it starts later. One signed with the Act's formalities is "durable," meaning it keeps working if you become incapacitated, unless it says otherwise.
• A patient advocate designation names someone to make care, custody and medical-treatment decisions for you. Your patient advocate can act only when you can no longer take part in your own medical-treatment decisions, as determined in writing by your attending physician and another physician or a licensed psychologist.

One document doesn't replace the other.

Already have an older power of attorney? A power of attorney that was properly signed under the law in effect when it was signed is generally still valid in Michigan. It's still worth reviewing, because older documents may not include the specific authority your agent will need.

Learn more: Powers of Attorney · Patient Advocate Designations

Next step: We prepare both documents together and explain what each person you name can and can't do.

A will is a legal document that outlines an individual's preferences regarding the distribution of their property upon death, specifying who receives what asset.

A "Pour Over Will" is a will that designates the individual's Trust as the recipient of all assets. The purpose of this type of will is to ensure any assets that accidentally end up in a person's probate estate are transferred to that person's trust.

Benefits:

• A will is a foundational element of anyone's estate plan.
• A will can be changed so long as you have legal capacity.
• A will ensures that probate assets go to who you want them to go to.
• You can nominate a guardian and conservator for your minor children.

Limitations:

• Probating a will involves the government, specifically the court system.
• Probate is a public process, so anyone can access information about your probate estate.
• Notices of the proceedings will be given to multiple people, which may lead to legal challenges to your plan, including dissatisfied family members.
• Legal expenses are typically higher for a probate administration than a trust administration.  
• A will only controls assets after you pass away.
• Probate estates are subject to Medicaid estate recovery.

The Personal Representative is responsible for gathering and safeguarding the deceased's assets, settling estate taxes, debts, and expenses, and executing the appropriate distribution of any remaining assets.

A will says who receives the property that goes through probate after you die. A revocable living trust can hold your property during your lifetime, pass it to your beneficiaries without probate, and let a successor trustee step in to manage it if you can't. Many Michigan plans use both: a trust as the main plan, plus a "pour-over" will that sends any probate assets into the trust (we typically try to avoid this; however, the "pour-over" will is the back-up for funding probate assets to the trust).

The catch: a trust only controls property that is actually titled to it or payable to it (see "What does 'funding' a trust mean?"). The right choice depends on what you own, how it's titled, your family situation, and whether long-term care is a concern.

Learn more: Wills · Trusts

Next step: We'll review what you own and how it's titled, then recommend the simplest plan that does the job. Schedule a consultation.

Having a will does nothing to avoid probate. A will directs who receives property in your probate estate. Some assets pass outside probate because of how they're owned (for example, joint ownership with rights of survivorship), because of a beneficiary designation, or because they're held in a trust. Whether your family will need probate depends on how each asset is held when you die.

Learn more: Wills · Probate

Signing a trust creates it. Funding is what makes it work. Funding means putting assets into the trust's name, for example by recording a deed to your home or retitling a bank or investment account. It can also mean arranging for certain assets to pass to the trust at your death. Property left outside the trust may still have to go through probate.

The catch: not every asset should be retitled. Retirement accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s stay in your name, and who inherits them is controlled by the account's beneficiary designation, which has its own income-tax consequences. We help clients develop a comprehensive estate plan that guides appropriate funding decisions, streamlines trust administration, and achieves the client's goals.

Learn more: Trusts

Next step: Funding is part of our trust planning. We give you instructions for each asset, draft deeds, and draft some transfer-on-death designations.

A beneficiary is an individual or entity legally entitled to receive assets from a trust or a will. 

Michigan Estate Tax: There is currently no estate tax imposed by the state of Michigan.

Federal Estate Tax: In 2026, each individual may pass up to $15 million (including certain lifetime gifts) free of federal estate tax. For married couples, each spouse has a $15 million exemption, and with portability the surviving spouse can use any exemption left unused by the first spouse to die, for a combined total of up to $30 million. The exemption is adjusted for inflation in future years.

In the context of elder law, we are most often referring to Medicaid that helps provide long-term-care for seniors.  In Michigan there are three basic-types of Medicaid assistance for long-term care:

1. PACE
2. MI Choice Waiver
3. Nursing Home

There are three basic categories of requirements:

1. Medical - You have to have a high enough level of medical needs.
2. Your "countable" assets need to be below a threshold, which varies depending on a variety of factors.
3. For the PACE and MI Choice Waiver program, your individual income needs to be below a certain amount.

Yes.

• Planning ahead. Ideally this happens years before care is needed. It gives you the most options, because Medicaid reviews transfers made in the five years before you apply. Planning ahead usually means building your estate plan (wills, trusts, powers of attorney) so it works if one spouse later needs nursing-home or in-home care.
• When care is needed now. If a nursing home, MI Choice Waiver or PACE is already on the table, there are often still steps that can protect a spouse and help qualify sooner. The options are narrower, though, and timing matters.

We handle both. We primarily charge flat fees for services, so you know the cost of services up front.

Learn more: Medicaid Pre-Planning · Medicaid Qualification

Next step: Tell us which situation you're in when you schedule. If care is needed now, call us at (231) 714-4501.

Yes. When you apply for long-term-care Medicaid, MDHHS reviews transfers you or your spouse made during the 60 months (five years) before a baseline date. A gift or other transfer for less than fair market value during that period can cause a penalty period. During a penalty period, Medicaid won't pay for nursing-home care, MI Choice Waiver or PACE services, home help, or home health.

There are exceptions. For example, transfers to your spouse are not penalized. Whether a particular transfer is penalized depends on the facts.

Two common misunderstandings:

1. The federal gift-tax "annual exclusion" doesn't make a gift safe for Medicaid. They're separate rules.
2. Qualifying for Medicaid and estate recovery are also different. After a Medicaid recipient who received long-term care dies, MDHHS may seek repayment from assets that pass through probate. Our attorneys can assist in taking appropriate steps to protect assets from Medicaid Estate Recovery.

Learn more: Medicaid Pre-Planning · Medicaid Qualification

Next step: Please talk to us before transferring property to family or anyone else.