Many families around the world have a canine, feline or other type of animal companion that’s in their lives. While there’s no biological relation, they’re often treated like family. When it comes to family, you always want to leave them protected. Through a comprehensive estate plan, you can protect your family and assure your assets [...]
“It’s not easy being green” is a famous quote that comes from the iconic Muppet, Kermit the Frog. Why is this quote being brought up? Because while it’s not easy being green for Kermit, it’s not easy being a probate lawyer. We often get asked what kind of law we do. So when we answer [...]
As you can tell by the name of our practice, probate is the field of law which we practice. Because of this, it’s up to us to educate you on the basics of probate. Let’s face it: it’s not pervasively known to people until they’re involved with it. You've probably needed to use Google to [...]
Let’s face it, not a lot of people are familiar with probate law. That being said, the Internet has served billions of people worldwide as the answer to the questions they have. If you want to learn how to repair a faucet on your own, but have no training in plumbing, what do you do? [...]
As a probate law firm, it's expected that we talk about how to probate an estate. When thinking about our laws, probate is often overlooked and more important, it's a field of law where you need to have someone guiding you through the process. After all, it's our job as probate attorneys to know the [...]
You’ve been appointed the personal representative of a deceased estate in the State of Michigan. Now, it is time to present the probate inventory. First, you need to complete the Estate Court Administrator form for the preparation of the required probate inventory. This form is required under both Michigan statute and Michigan Court Rule. We [...]
It’s an often-asked question, but to those of us in probate, it’s an age-old question. Does a will avoid probate? The answer to this question is no, a will does not clear way. A will is a document that guides you through the probate process. The only way to avoid probate is if there were [...]
There are two primary ways in which probate estate is opened in the State of Michigan. Why are there two different ones? Because there’s an informal process and a formal probate process. Each one has different steps and requirements. Which one you use is going to depend on your situation. Let’s cover the informal and [...]
Someone has died and you wish to open a probate estate through an application for informal probate. But how does that work? Let’s go over how to open a probate estate using the informal process. There are a variety of ways in which an estate can be opened. One of the ways is through the [...]
You’ve got a probate estate open and you’re the personal representative, but don’t know how to administer a probate estate. Plus, you must pay creditors, settle all the debts, pay all the exemptions, allowances and administrative expenses. Let’s go over on how to distribute an estate. Once you’ve liquidated all the estate assets and are [...]
