Farmington Hills is one of Oakland County's most established communities — a place where families build real wealth across generations through homeownership, professional careers, and closely-held businesses. Protecting that wealth requires an estate plan that accounts for what you actually own, who depends on you, and how Michigan law will treat your assets if you do nothing. Our Southfield office is ten minutes east on Grand River or the Lodge — close enough that Farmington Hills clients are some of the families we work with most often.
With roughly 83,000 residents and a median household income exceeding $100,000, Farmington Hills sits comfortably among the more affluent suburbs in southeastern Michigan. That prosperity shows up in estate planning conversations in predictable ways: homes that have appreciated significantly since purchase, retirement accounts and brokerage positions that have compounded over decades, and family-owned businesses that need a succession path.
These are not problems that a fill-in-the-blank online form can solve. A Farmington Hills family whose home is worth north of $350,000, who holds retirement accounts across multiple custodians, and who may own rental property or a professional practice needs a plan that actually coordinates those pieces — not a binder that sits on a shelf.
The households that reach out to us from Farmington Hills tend to share certain characteristics. Many are dual-income professional families whose net worth has quietly grown past the point where intestacy (dying without a plan) would produce an expensive, public, and slow probate proceeding. Others are retirees who settled in the area decades ago, when homes along Drake Road or near Heritage Park sold for a fraction of their current value, and who now face estate-tax and Medicaid-planning questions they never expected.
We also work regularly with Farmington Hills business owners — the city is home to roughly 3,000 businesses, including corporate offices for major automotive and technology firms — who need their operating agreements, buy-sell arrangements, and estate documents pulling in the same direction. And we see blended families navigating second marriages where children from prior relationships complicate the usual "everything to the surviving spouse" approach.
The core of what we build: revocable living trusts, pour-over wills, durable powers of attorney, and patient advocate designations. For most Farmington Hills families with meaningful assets, a trust-centered plan avoids probate, preserves privacy, and provides a clear roadmap for incapacity — all without court involvement. We draft these documents in clean, contemporary language that a successor trustee can actually follow. More detail is on our estate planning services page.
When a Farmington Hills resident passes away and leaves a funded trust, the successor trustee needs to administer that trust — marshaling assets, notifying beneficiaries, paying debts and taxes, and making distributions. We guide trustees through this process from start to finish, including the preparation of any required filings with the Oakland County Probate Court.
When a Farmington Hills resident dies without a trust — or with assets that were never transferred into one — those assets typically must pass through probate in Oakland County. We handle formal and informal probate proceedings, from petitioning for appointment as personal representative through final accounting and estate closure. We know how the Oakland County Probate Court operates, and we prepare filings to meet its expectations.
Disputes over wills, trusts, and estates land in the Oakland County Probate Court. We represent beneficiaries, personal representatives, and trustees in will contests, trust disputes, breach of fiduciary duty claims, and contested conservatorships and guardianships. These cases require a lawyer who is comfortable both drafting the underlying documents and litigating over them when something goes wrong.
"His expertise helped me secure my legacy." — Verified Client
Because Farmington Hills is in Oakland County, any probate proceeding for a Farmington Hills decedent is filed with the Oakland County Probate Court. Here is what you should know:
The shift to mandatory e-filing is significant. If you are a personal representative or successor trustee handling an estate for the first time, navigating MiFILE while also managing grief, family dynamics, and asset logistics is genuinely difficult. This is one of the practical reasons families retain counsel — not because the law is impenetrable, but because the procedural requirements take real time and attention to get right.
We file regularly with this court. We know its procedures, its judges, and the pace at which matters move through it. That familiarity translates into fewer rejected filings, more realistic timelines, and less wasted effort for our clients.
Our office is at 24361 Greenfield Road, Suite 310, Southfield, MI 48075 — roughly ten minutes east of most Farmington Hills neighborhoods. Clients coming from the Twelve Mile and Orchard Lake area, from the neighborhoods near Botsford Commons, or from the subdivisions south of Grand River typically reach us in under fifteen minutes via Northwestern Highway or 696.
We also work with clients by phone and video when an in-person meeting is not necessary, particularly for plan reviews, document-signing coordination, and trust administration check-ins. The initial consultation can be conducted either way.
Most engagements begin one of two ways. The first is a complimentary 20-minute screening call — a chance to describe your situation, hear an honest initial reaction, and decide whether there is a fit. The second is a $500 in-depth working session where we review any documents you already have, walk through the options that apply to your family, and leave you with concrete next steps. That fee is credited toward your engagement if you retain us.
If you are a Farmington Hills resident who has been meaning to get this done — or a family member trying to help a parent who needs to — we are here to talk when you are ready.
Or call us directly at (248) 629-0161.
"His expertise helped me secure my legacy."
— Verified Client, Google Review"He gets the job done promptly and efficiently."
— Mr. Cohen, Google Review"Professional, compassionate, and always available."
— Verified Client, Google Review