Wills, trusts, and planning documents
Prepare documents that reflect family goals, decision-making authority, asset transfer, and protection needs.
Practice Area
Estate Planning & Probate
Planning and probate counsel for families and individuals protecting assets, legacy, and decision-making authority.
How Souwaidan Law Helps
Focused legal strategy for the decisions that matter most.
Planning and probate counsel for families and individuals protecting assets, legacy, and decision-making authority.
Probate administration and disputes
Guide families through court process, fiduciary duties, asset issues, notices, and disputes.
Asset protection and family transition planning
Coordinate legacy decisions around property, business interests, beneficiaries, and long-term risk.
Fiduciary and beneficiary guidance
Clarify duties, rights, timelines, accounting issues, and practical paths to resolution.
Estate planning answers three questions while you can still answer them: who receives what, who decides for you if you cannot decide for yourself, and who handles the administration when you are gone. Michigan law supplies answers by default if you do not. Those defaults are rarely what a person would have chosen, and they take no account of a blended family, a child with particular needs, a business, or a relationship that is close but not legal.
Two of the documents that matter most have nothing to do with death. A durable power of attorney lets someone you choose manage financial matters if you become unable to, and a patient advocate designation lets someone you choose make medical decisions and receive medical information. Without them, the alternative is a court proceeding, guardianship or conservatorship, which is slower, public, expensive, and decided by a judge who does not know your family.
Probate is the court-supervised process of settling what someone left behind: validating the will if there is one, appointing a personal representative, identifying assets, giving notice to creditors, paying valid debts and taxes, and distributing what remains. Michigan offers informal and simplified routes for many estates, and smaller estates may avoid full administration entirely. It is usually less arduous than its reputation suggests, but it is public, it follows statutory timelines, and it takes months rather than weeks.
What Probate Involves
Administering an estate, step by step.
The sequence below is what a personal representative is actually responsible for. Michigan offers informal and simplified routes that shorten parts of it.
- 01
Determining what is required
Not every estate needs full administration. What passes by beneficiary designation or joint ownership transfers outside probate, and Michigan provides simplified procedures for smaller estates. The first question is which route applies.
- 02
Opening the estate
An application or petition is filed with the probate court for the county where the decedent lived. The will, if any, is presented, and a personal representative is appointed and issued letters of authority.
- 03
Inventory of assets
The personal representative identifies and values estate property, secures it, and files an inventory with the court. Accounts, real estate, vehicles, business interests, and personal property are accounted for.
- 04
Notice to creditors
Known creditors are notified and notice is published. Creditors have a statutory period to present claims. Valid claims are paid from the estate; claims that are not presented within the period are generally barred.
- 05
Debts, expenses, and taxes
Funeral and administration expenses, valid creditor claims, and any final income or estate tax obligations are paid in the order Michigan law requires. Distributing to beneficiaries before this is completed can expose the personal representative personally.
- 06
Distribution and closing
Remaining assets are distributed under the will or, without one, under Michigan's intestacy statute. An accounting is provided, and the estate is closed. Straightforward estates commonly take several months to over a year.
The Core Instruments
What each document does, and what it does not.
Most plans combine several of these. They serve different purposes and take effect at different times.
Will
Last will and testament
Directs who receives the property that passes through your estate, names a personal representative to administer it, and, importantly for parents, nominates a guardian for minor children. A will takes effect only at death and only governs assets that do not already pass another way. It does not avoid probate; it directs how probate is conducted.
- Takes effect
- At death.
- Governs
- Probate assets only, not accounts with a named beneficiary.
- Often missed
- That it does not avoid probate, and does not cover jointly held property.
Trust
Revocable living trust
A structure that holds assets during life and distributes them afterward under its own terms. Because trust assets are not part of the probate estate, administration can proceed privately and without court supervision. A trust also allows distribution over time rather than in a lump sum, which matters for young beneficiaries or where circumstances warrant structure. Its benefit depends entirely on actually retitling assets into it.
- Takes effect
- When signed and funded; continues after death.
- Governs
- Only the assets actually transferred into the trust.
- Often missed
- Funding. An unfunded trust accomplishes very little.
Incapacity
Powers of attorney and advocate designation
A durable power of attorney authorizes someone to handle financial matters if you cannot. A patient advocate designation authorizes someone to make medical decisions and receive medical information under Michigan law. These operate during life and are frequently the documents a family needs first, long before anyone is thinking about an estate.
- Takes effect
- During life, on the terms the document sets.
- Governs
- Financial and medical decision-making authority.
- Without them
- A court guardianship or conservatorship proceeding is the alternative.
Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance, and the way real estate and bank accounts are titled, control those assets regardless of what a will says. Reviewing them is part of any plan that is meant to work.
What This Covers
The estate planning & probate work clients bring to the firm.
Private Client Services, Trusts & Estates
High-net-worth individuals, business owners, and families often face complex legal and financial decisions when planning for the future. Private client services offer personalized strategies that protect assets, reduce tax exposure, and ensure seamless intergenerational wealth transfers. Comprehensive estate planning includes more than just drafting wills and trusts, it involves evaluating family dynamics, succession plans for businesses, charitable giving strategies, and long-term healthcare directives. In addition to planning, estate attorneys assist with administration, probate avoidance, and dispute resolution among heirs. By ensuring full compliance with state and federal tax laws, and anticipating potential conflicts, attorneys help clients secure legacies that reflect their values and priorities while preserving wealth for generations to come.
What Determines the Outcome
Why some estates settle quietly and others do not.
Disputes and delays trace back to a small number of recurring issues.
Whether documents were executed properly
Michigan has formal requirements for signing a will. A document that does not meet them may not be admitted, leaving the estate to pass under the intestacy statute instead of the decedent's actual wishes.
Beneficiary designations
Retirement accounts and life insurance pass to the named beneficiary regardless of the will. An outdated designation naming a former spouse is among the most common and most painful planning failures.
How title is held
Jointly held property with rights of survivorship passes to the survivor outside probate. How an account or a deed is titled can override an entire estate plan.
Whether a trust was funded
A trust controls only what was transferred into it. Trusts signed but never funded leave the assets in probate anyway, defeating the reason for creating one.
Capacity and influence
Will contests typically allege that the decedent lacked capacity or was unduly influenced. Contemporaneous circumstances of execution, and the presence of independent counsel, matter considerably if a document is later challenged.
Clarity about the personal representative
Who serves, whether they are willing and able, and whether the family agrees. Conflict over who administers an estate delays everything else and is largely preventable by naming successors clearly.
Typical Matters
Estate Planning & Probate work is handled with structure, urgency, and commercial judgment.
01
Wills, trusts, and powers of attorney
02
Probate administration
03
Family and fiduciary disputes
04
Asset transition and legacy planning
Common Questions
Estate Planning & Probate questions clients ask first.
What happens if I die without a will in Michigan?
Michigan's intestacy statute decides who inherits, in a fixed order based on your surviving relatives. The court also appoints the personal representative and, if you have minor children, decides guardianship.
The statute does not account for your intentions, a blended family, a long-term partner you never married, or a child with particular needs. It applies the same formula to everyone, which is the main reason to have a will.
Do I need a trust, or is a will enough?
For many families a well-drafted will plus powers of attorney and correct beneficiary designations is sufficient. A trust becomes worth considering when you want to avoid probate for privacy or efficiency, when you own real estate in more than one state, when beneficiaries should receive distributions over time rather than at once, or when a beneficiary has particular needs.
A trust only works if it is funded: assets actually retitled into it. An unfunded trust leaves the estate in probate anyway.
How long does probate take in Michigan?
Commonly several months to over a year for a straightforward estate. The timeline is driven by statutory requirements rather than by court congestion, particularly the period creditors have to present claims.
Estates take longer when real estate must be sold, when a business interest must be valued, when heirs cannot be located, or when someone contests the will. Michigan's informal and simplified procedures can shorten the process considerably for smaller or uncontested estates.
Can probate be avoided?
Partly or entirely, depending on how assets are arranged. Property held jointly with rights of survivorship, accounts with a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation, retirement accounts and life insurance with named beneficiaries, and assets properly titled in a trust all pass outside probate.
Michigan also provides simplified procedures for smaller estates. Avoiding probate is not automatically the right goal. It is one consideration among several, and the arrangements used to avoid it carry their own consequences.
What does a personal representative actually have to do?
Identify and secure assets, file an inventory, notify creditors and evaluate their claims, pay valid debts, expenses, and taxes in the order Michigan law requires, and then distribute what remains and account for it.
It is a fiduciary role, which means the representative is legally accountable for handling it properly. Distributing to beneficiaries before creditors and taxes are resolved is a common mistake that can create personal liability.
What is a patient advocate designation?
The Michigan document that lets you name someone to make medical decisions for you and receive your medical information if you become unable to decide for yourself. It is the medical counterpart to a durable power of attorney for finances.
Without it, a family facing a medical crisis may need to petition for guardianship: a court proceeding that takes time your family may not have and hands the decision to a judge rather than to the person you would have chosen.
How often should an estate plan be reviewed?
After any significant life change, and otherwise every few years. Marriage, divorce, a birth, a death, buying or selling a business, acquiring property in another state, and a substantial change in assets all warrant a review.
The item most worth checking is also the easiest to overlook: beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance. Those control regardless of what your will says, and they are frequently left unchanged for decades.
Contact
Bring the facts. Leave with a plan.
Schedule a confidential consultation to assess the pressure points, legal options, and strongest next move.
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