Whether someone left a will, a trust, both, or nothing at all, what comes next is rarely simple. Personal representatives have legal duties they didn't sign up for. Trustees have to balance competing interests. Beneficiaries are trying to understand whether what they're being told is right. We guide all of them through it.
When someone in Michigan dies owning assets in their individual name, those assets typically need to pass through probate before they can be retitled or distributed. Probate is a court-supervised process — and a deadline-driven one. The personal representative (sometimes called an executor) is a fiduciary, with legal duties to creditors, beneficiaries, and the court that go well beyond what most people realize when they accept the appointment.
We represent personal representatives through every stage of Michigan probate: filing the will and the petition for probate, securing letters of authority, providing required notices to interested persons, preparing the inventory, paying creditors and taxes, handling sales of estate property, preparing the accounting, and finalizing distributions. We handle both supervised and unsupervised administration depending on the matter.
A revocable trust avoids probate — but it does not avoid administration. When the settlor of a trust dies, the trustee (often a family member named in the document, sometimes a successor named after the original trustee can no longer serve) takes over a fiduciary role with real duties under the Michigan Trust Code: notifying beneficiaries, providing accountings, prudently managing assets, and distributing in accordance with the trust's terms.
We represent trustees through this process. That means notifying the beneficiaries, gathering and valuing the trust's assets, paying the settlor's debts and taxes, preparing the accounting, and making distributions correctly. Where the trust holds real estate, business interests, or accounts that need to be retitled or rolled over, we coordinate with the trustee's CPA and financial advisor on the right sequence.
Not every estate needs full probate. Michigan provides simplified procedures for small estates (currently those with limited probate assets, with thresholds adjusted for inflation) and several streamlined paths for transferring specific assets — vehicles, small bank accounts, and the like — without opening an estate at all. Where these procedures fit the situation, we use them. The right answer is often the simplest one.
"I have had the pleasure of using The Legacy Law Firm on numerous occasions." — Dassi Levine
If you're a beneficiary of an estate or trust and have questions about what's happening — or what's not happening — we represent beneficiaries too. This isn't litigation in most cases. It's making sure you receive the notices and accountings you're entitled to, that the inventory looks right, that distributions are made in the correct amounts and at the correct times, and that the fiduciary is meeting their duty to keep you reasonably informed.
Most beneficiary questions are resolved through a phone call with the personal representative or trustee, or with a clearly-worded letter. The smaller number that aren't resolved that way are where the line into litigation gets crossed — and we can have an honest conversation about whether that line is worth crossing in your situation.
Real estate held by a decedent presents specific issues that often slow administration: whether title was held individually, jointly, or through a trust; whether there's a Lady Bird deed or transfer-on-death recording; how the Michigan Principal Residence Exemption is handled during administration; whether the property needs to be sold to cover debts or distributions, or transferred to a beneficiary in kind. We coordinate the necessary deeds, court orders, and tax filings to clear title cleanly.
Most estates need a final personal income tax return for the decedent and a separate fiduciary income tax return (Form 1041) for the estate or trust. Larger estates may need a federal estate tax return (Form 706). We don't prepare these returns ourselves — that's the CPA's role — but we work closely with the family's tax advisor to ensure the legal and tax pieces are coordinated, and that no deadline is missed.
For administration matters, most engagements start with a complimentary 20-minute screening call to understand the basic facts: who passed, what documents exist, what assets are involved, who the interested persons are, and whether anything looks contested. That conversation is usually enough to recommend a sensible next step — whether that's full administration, a simplified procedure, or in some cases just sending you to the right institution with the right form.
Most administration engagements at the firm are flat-fee or capped-fee. The engagement letter spells out exactly what's covered and what isn't.
"He explained what was going on every step of the way."
— Dassi Levine, Google Review"Detail oriented, very honest, and knowledgeable."
— Susan Rivers, Google Review"I would hire him again."
— Susan Rivers, Google Review