Grand Rapids Trust Attorneys

Qualified Trust and Estate Counsel Representing Clients as They Seek to Protect Their Estate

While many individuals understand the importance of having a last will as part of their estate plan, depending on your personal goals and estate planning needs, you may also benefit from creating different types of trusts. Along with wills, trusts are the foundation for comprehensive estate planning. Several legal options exist for individuals interested in creating and administering trusts, each uniquely tailored to benefit designated beneficiaries and distribute property according to your wishes.

At Stuart Law, PLC, our Michigan lawyers are well-versed in the creation of trusts and trust administration matters, as well as other related practice areas in estate law. Whether you are concerned with gift planning, charitable giving, estate taxation, long-term care planning, or other matters relevant to the duties of trustees and the trust’s creators, our legal professionals would be proud to help provide peace of mind to you and your family members throughout the legal process.

Our highly accomplished legal practice includes estate planning strategies to assist clients as they create, dispute, close, and administer trusts. We represent clients across the Grand Rapids area and attempt to serve their best interests throughout estate administration legal matters. When engaging in estate planning and creating trusts, it is highly recommended that you retain proper guidance from experienced estate planning lawyers. To learn more about how we can act on your behalf and determine the right trust for you and your loved ones, please contact our trust lawyers to schedule your initial consultation today.

Do You Need the Legal Services of an Estate Planning Law Firm?

One of the most important goals should be looking after your legacy and the future of your loved ones after you are gone. This can all be accomplished with thorough estate planning. There is a common misconception that estate planning is reserved only for high-net-worth clients and that those with smaller estates need not apply. However, this is not the case. Everyone would benefit from having an estate plan of some kind. While we typically recommend that you begin by drafting a last will, many of our clients also benefit from creating trusts to help avoid probate, provide instructions for business succession planning, protect assets from creditors, and more.

Our Grand Rapids estate planning lawyers can assist you with the following legal services and practice areas:

Wills
Living trusts
Testamentary trusts
Special needs trusts
Durable powers of attorney documents
Advanced healthcare directives
Family limited partnerships and limited liability companies
Asset protection strategies
Probate litigation
Elder law and long-term care planning
Estate dispute resolution

When you create a thorough and well-documented estate plan, you look after every loved one that depends on you. It is in your best interest and your family’s best interest that you create an estate plan under the guidance of experienced attorneys.

Do not let your assets be distributed according to Michigan’s intestate laws. Protect your bank accounts and other personal valuables by drawing up a comprehensive estate plan that looks after your personal goals and the future of your loved ones. Our Grand Rapids law firm would be proud to assist you in these and other related practice areas as you draft an estate plan capable of anticipating the future and avoiding potential pitfalls that may come along. Please contact our law office to schedule a case review today.

What Different Types of Trusts Exist in Grand Rapids, MI?

There are several different types of trusts available for estate plans in Michigan.

These include the following:

Charitable Trusts: these types of trusts enable you to support your charitable causes while also providing tax benefits
Special needs trust: this type of trust ensures that a loved one with special needs receives the proper care and guidance without negatively affecting their eligibility for certain government benefits
Revocable living trusts: a revocable living trust allows you to retain legal ownership of your assets during your lifetime and make alterations to the trust as needed
Irrevocable trusts: these types of trusts remove assets from your estate, which provides greater asset protection and allows for potential tax benefits
Testamentary trust: this type of trust is created in conjunction with your last will to provide for your beneficiaries after your passing

Other types of trusts available include life insurance trusts, IRA trusts, asset protection trusts, and more.

Not every type of trust is suitable for every situation. To ensure that you are selecting the proper type of trust for your personal needs, you are strongly encouraged to work alongside knowledgeable estate planning attorneys. Please contact our Grand Rapids law office today to discuss your questions and concerns with our legal team.

What Are the Responsibilities of Trustees?

One of the biggest, if not the biggest, responsibilities in estate planning is the duties of trustees. When managing state assets, trustees must fulfill specific duties and obligations. Once a trustee accepts their fiduciary role of trust administration, they must follow the language of the trust document and act in the best interest of all beneficiaries.

It does not matter how the trustee feels about the terms of the trust document. The trustee must follow the language of the document unless there is reason to believe that it was created under duress or undue influence.

The duties and responsibilities of trustees, according to Michigan law, include the following:

Notifying creditors and paying off all outstanding debts
Locating and notifying all beneficiaries
Managing trust property
Inventorying and valuing estate assets
Pay estate taxes and file all tax returns
Get several copies of death certificates if the trust creator has passed away
Distribute assets and finances to beneficiaries
Distribute property
Resolving disputes and legal issues
Preparing annual trust accounts
And more

Whether you are looking to select the proper trustee for your trust or you are the trustee and you require legal guidance, our law firm would be proud to assist you. Please contact our Grand Rapids law offices to schedule a case evaluation with our legal team today.

Can Our Michigan Lawyers Help Develop Asset Protection Strategies?

Guarding your hard-earned wealth and other assets from litigation, leisure, creditors, and taxes is a vital part of the estate planning process. Our highly skilled legal team can help you with asset protection planning, which involves legally separating you from the property you wish to protect. In many cases, this usually involves placing eligible assets into a protected form of legal ownership.

Our Michigan law firm can assist you with the creation of various asset protection strategies, including the following:

Asset protection trusts
Family limited partnerships
Limited liability companies
Tenancy by the entirety

Assets placed into a trust are not subject to the probate court process because the trust document outlines how estate assets should be distributed upon your passing. By avoiding probate, the transfer of assets to your beneficiaries is quicker, cheaper, and more private.

What is Estate Tax Planning?

Estate plans can impact and influence your tax obligations. Our legal team will coordinate your estate and income tax planning with an eye on reducing liability, minimizing taxes, and arriving at the most satisfactory outcome possible. With our legal guidance, we will ensure that you meet all the reporting requirements and can advise you on personal and business tax returns.

Our Michigan attorneys can help minimize estate and gift taxes, reduce tax burdens on your surviving loved ones and beneficiaries, and work to avoid generation-skipping transfers.

Depending on your unique personal goals, you may need multiple types of trusts to protect assets, minimize tax liabilities, look after your beneficiaries, and more. We would be proud to lend legal assistance in income tax counseling, gift planning, and other related practice areas. To learn more about how we may assist you during this challenging scenario, please contact our Grand Rapids, MI, law firm to schedule your consultation with our legal team today.

Can an Estate Planning Lawyer Assist with Trust Litigation?

There are several causes for estate and trust litigation. Most involve questioning the legal validity of the trust document or accusing the trustee of some breach of fiduciary duty owed to the beneficiaries. Sometimes, these disputes can be avoided, provided the trust document is not vaguely worded. However, even sometimes, with the most well-written trust document, there may be cause for beneficiaries and trustees to clash, leading to a legal dispute.

In some situations, trustees may be held personally liable for mishandling estate and trust assets. However, not all trust litigation cases result in trustees being held legally accountable.

Common trust legal issues that may lead to estate litigation include the following:

Concern and questions about mental competence, undue influence, or duress at the time of the creation or execution of the trust
Accusations of wasteful spending and improper asset administration
Legal conflicts between the beneficiaries and the trustee
Claims of misappropriation of assets, fraud, or self-dealing against the trustee
Failure to properly or completely transfer title to assets into the trust during the lifetime of the trust creator
Seeking to remove a trustee and the belief that they have breached their fiduciary duty

There may be alternatives to trust litigation worth considering. Please contact our Michigan law firm to discuss the alternatives to going to court and learn the many benefits of having legal representation in your corner looking after your interests.

Schedule a Consultation with Our Michigan Trust and Estate Attorneys Today

Proper estate planning is vital to looking after our legacies and safeguarding the future of our families. With the proper guidance, it is possible to create an estate plan that includes a well-written trust that can provide a certain level of asset protection, charitable giving, gift planning, and more.

To learn more about the many benefits of including different types of trusts in your estate plan, please contact our Michigan law firm to schedule a consultation with our legal staff. In your consultation, we will review your legal options and help you determine the type of trust that most suits your needs, how to fund it, selecting the proper trustee, and more. While trusts are valuable to every Michigan estate plan, they are also complicated and highly nuanced. You are not recommended to attempt to create trusts without professional legal guidance.

Our Michigan legal professionals would be happy to help you with all aspects of your estate planning and trust administration. Our legal team will also gladly assist you if you have legal concerns about probate or trust litigation.

Please contact our Grand Rapids estate planning law firm to schedule your case consultation with our legal staff today. You can reach us at 616-747-8638.