Estate Planning
Estate planning is a great way to leave a positive and lasting legacy to your loved ones by determining your wishes for providing for yourself and your loved ones both during your lifetime and after you are gone. Our role in the process is to work with you and your other advisers to develop the best estate plan possible through the use of wills, trusts, and other estate planning services.
Everyone has a story and most of us have a good idea of how we want to be remembered by those who are important to us. Estate planning is a great way to leave a positive and lasting legacy to your loved ones by determining your wishes for providing for yourself and your loved ones both during your lifetime and after you are gone. Our role in the process is to work with you and your other advisers to develop the best estate plan possible through the use of wills, trusts, and other estate planning services. We specialize in Estate Planning services in Grandville, Grand Rapids and Muskegon, Michigan.
Choosing Your Legacy
We have a strong desire to help people work through these difficult and important decisions, and we hope the estate planning information provided here will help you understand the process a little better. We like to arm our clients with as much information as possible before they make these decisions concerning the legacy they want to leave.
No matter how or what you want to happen with your assets or who you want to care for your children or other dependents, we will make sure your estate plan clearly provides instructions to carry out your wishes. A lot of folks want to be sure that all of their possessions get to the right people quickly (or slowly – your choice) or that their children have the skills or education to succeed in life. For others it might mean carrying out their desire to give everything to charity or establish their own foundation or charity. Some people have simple means and just want to be sure that they are not a burden on the next generation.
We provide only legal services and receive fees only from our clients to ensure that the advice we provide is not influenced by outside financial considerations. We will work with your other advisers to ensure that the estate planning process takes inventory of what you have and make suggestions about various supplemental or replacement financial products or services that have helped other clients. However, to ensure our impartiality, we leave the sale and associated commissions from insurance, annuities, and investment products to your other advisers.
We Are Concerned about Your Concerns
Your concerns are our concerns, and we will work through them with you until they are addressed in your estate plan to your satisfaction. Our Flat Fees for Estate Planning work in your favor here, so please take the time needed for us to help you get it right.
Whether you want to build a lasting family dynasty or you have the attitude that “you can’t take it with you,” we can assist you with estate planning that covers future events like death, disability, or incapacity in the way that suits you, your family, and your lifestyle. The lack of proper estate planning exacerbates this already tense situation and can result in life-long arguments between parents, children, or siblings, or wasted resources that were not properly protected. These unresolved issues can be easily avoided with proper estate planning. Please let us help you leave a positive and lasting mark on those you care about through careful planning and thoughtful giving.
Everyone knows that something will happen to your assets when you pass away. Things like retirement accounts, real estate, and family heirlooms need to be divided. For that reason, having an estate plan is crucial, and most people know that.
However, estate plans are more complicated than they look, and it’s easy to make mistakes that you don’t even know you’re making. Read on to learn about three of the most common ones.
1. Relying on your married status to protect your estate. Simple wills are often called “I love you” wills. This is because a simple will often just says you leave everything to your spouse, and they leave everything to you. But, this doesn’t account for so many possibilities, and can leave your spouse in a huge mess. Simply being married does not protect your estate at all.
2. Not reviewing your estate plan at least annually. Once you’ve created an estate plan, it’s easy to think it’s done and you don’t need to worry about it. However, not only does estate law change frequently, but your assets will likely change throughout your life. Reviewing your estate plan is therefore an important step to take each year or so. This can be simple – a quick meeting or phone call with your attorney and it can save your family huge trouble.
3. Using overly simple documents. Yes, creating an estate plan has up-front cost associated with it. But a DIY solution is not the answer. Using documents you got online, or trying to write your own estate plan, is often worse than no plan at all.
Interested in reviewing your plan with a member of our team and making sure it’s up to snuff? Contact us today! Or call us at 800-667-5291.
There are many buzzwords with estate planning. Perhaps the two most common are “will” and “trust.” A lot of people have these as a primary part of their estate plan, yet might not understand the nuances between the two. Here’s the basic difference:
A will goes through probate court, while a trust generally allows you to bypass probate court altogether.
When people use a trust, it’s generally to avoid probate. It allows you to skip probate because while probate is required when a person passes away, a trust is its own legal entity with its own rules, so it doesn’t pass away and therefore never needs probate. However, it needs to be correctly funded and set up in order to work that way. Watch the video for more information on the difference between a will and a trust or ensuring that your assets are properly funded or aligned with trust.
Unsure whether you have a trust, or whether it’s set up right to achieve its function? Contact us today! Or call us at 800-667-5291.
A “living will” is actually not the correct term in Michigan, though it’s used colloquially. When people say a living will, what they mean is a healthcare directive.
The point of this document is to outline what kind of healthcare you want if you’re incapacitated, and to name a person that can discuss your care with doctors. HIPAA regulations generally prohibit doctors from discussing patients’ care with unauthorized individuals, meaning that even if you’re married, if you lack a healthcare directive naming your spouse as an authorized person, doctors might refuse to discuss their care with you.
In the video, Attorney Shawn Eyestone provides a detailed discussion of choosing a health care advocate and empowering him or her to make end of life decisions for you based on your wishes. This video is keyed to our Strategy Session Planning Form, which you can download by clicking here.
Healthcare directives and the concept of a living will can be confusing. Contact us today or call us at 800-667-5291 with your questions and we will schedule a free strategy session with an experienced estate planning attorney where we will take the time to understand your situation fully answer your questions.
