Michigan Estate Planning & Probate Resources

Michigan Estate Planning Checklist

A free, printable PDF: the documents to gather, the decisions to make, and Michigan's key documents explained in plain language.

Cost, pros and cons, and how an enhanced life estate deed compares to a trust.

Why most Michigan families benefit from both — and the funding step people miss.

The main tools — trusts, Lady Bird deeds, beneficiary designations — and when each fits.

Durable financial POA, patient advocate designations, and Michigan's new Uniform POA Act.

Typical Michigan price ranges for wills and trust-based plans, and what affects the cost.

Why planning ahead with a POA can prevent the cost and complexity of a court-appointed guardian.

How MERP works, what assets are at risk, and planning tools like Lady Bird deeds that may help.

Why a simple estate runs six months to a year, and what makes it longer.

How Michigan intestate succession decides who inherits when there is no will.

Your rights as a beneficiary when a personal representative goes silent.

The $53,000 threshold, the affidavit shortcut, and when you still need full probate.

Grounds like undue influence and lack of capacity — and the deadlines that can run in months.

How to compel an accounting and the one-year deadline that can run against you.

Grounds for removal, the surcharge remedy, and what it takes to succeed.