Estate Planning In Michigan

At our firm, estate planning is more than just preparing documents. Estate planning is about providing expertise and counseling from the beginning of our client engagement through the funding of the trust, if a trust based estate plan is used.

What is meant by “funding of the trust?” It is the process of putting assets into the newly created revocable living trust. In Michigan, this is accomplished through a few various strategies depending on what type of asset is being used. If a residence is going to be put into the trust, then a deed will be used. If life insurance is used to fund a trust, then a beneficiary designation form is used.

A good analogy that I use with my clients is that a trust is like a suitcase. Once we have executed the documents the suitcase (trust) is created. The next step is to put things (assets) into the suitcase (funding the trust). While this is not legal work per se, I still assist clients by providing explicit instructions on how to work with each asset along with opening myself for any questions regarding specific assets.

This is a key step that you will not know how to properly execute if you download your forms from the internet or buy a software program or, and this one was new to me this week, copy someone else trust and fill in your name. This is where you cannot put a price on the counseling and expertise of a Michigan estate planning lawyer. Otherwise you have an empty suitcase (trust) with nothing in it (not properly funded). You not only fail to utilize the trust to pass assets directly to beneficiaries, but you also fail to avoid Michigan probate.

So, make sure your trust, however it was created is properly funded and continues to be properly funded through annual meetings with an estate planning attorney.