Most estate plans are not complicated because the law is complicated. They are complicated because real lives are. Blended families, closely-held businesses, special-needs children, real estate spanning multiple LLCs, retirement accounts that need to be coordinated with the rest of the plan — these are the situations where a generic template fails. They're the situations we're built for.
Genuinely complex situations receive a custom flat-fee quote, in writing, before we start. But for most Michigan families, a complete estate plan fits one of the two packages below — and we believe you deserve to know the cost before you pick up the phone.
For clients whose primary goals are naming who inherits, appointing a personal representative, and designating guardians for minor children. Every document below is prepared for each person:
For families who want their estate handled privately, without court involvement. The fee is a complete package — not a starting point:
The trust packages are built for straightforward estates: no business interests, with total assets between roughly $1,000,000 and $2,000,000. If your situation involves a closely-held business, more complex holdings, or assets above that range, nothing changes about the way we bill — you will receive a custom flat-fee quote, in writing, before any work begins.
There are two ways to start. A free 20-minute screening call tells you whether a package fits and what your next step is. Or, if your situation calls for deeper analysis, a $500 in-depth working session — a working meeting where we review your assets, family situation, and goals in detail. That $500 is credited toward your plan if you move forward with us.
We accept a limited number of new estate planning clients each month, so every plan gets the attention it deserves.
Schedule your screening call →
Package fees are current as of 2026 and apply to the scopes described above; every engagement is confirmed in a written fee agreement before work begins. This page is general information about Michigan law, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice on your specific situation, schedule a consultation.
For most clients with meaningful assets, the foundation of a Michigan estate plan is a revocable living trust paired with a pour-over will, durable power of attorney, and patient advocate designation. Done correctly, this structure keeps your estate out of probate, preserves privacy, lets you address incapacity without court involvement, and gives the people you trust clear authority to act when they need to.
We draft these documents to do their actual job — not to fill a binder. That means clean, contemporary language; provisions tailored to the people involved (not the form template's defaults); and instructions that someone who has never read a trust before can follow without calling a lawyer first.
If you own a closely-held business, your estate plan and your business plan are the same plan. The wrong buy-sell provision, the wrong operating agreement, or the wrong trust structure can take a viable company and turn it into a litigation case.
We work with business-owner clients on succession planning that addresses the realistic scenarios — children who are in the business and children who aren't, key non-family employees, voting versus economic interests, life insurance funding, and the tax consequences of each path. Where appropriate, we coordinate with corporate counsel and tax advisors so the LLC operating agreement, the trust, the will, and any buy-sell are actually pulling in the same direction.
"He will work with you to plan for your future." — Mr. Cohen
Second marriages are where estate plans break most often. The standard template — everything to the surviving spouse, then to the kids — works fine when there's one set of kids. When there are two, it almost always produces an outcome no one actually wanted.
We design plans that protect a surviving spouse without disinheriting children from a prior marriage, using QTIP trusts, separate property planning, and clearly-drafted powers of appointment to balance competing legitimate interests. The goal is not to be clever. The goal is to make sure that ten years from now, the family is still talking.
For families with a child or relative who has a disability, the wrong inheritance can disqualify them from benefits they depend on for the rest of their lives. We draft third-party special needs trusts that supplement — rather than replace — public benefits, and we coordinate with the family's existing care plan and providers.
For incapacity, we draft durable powers of attorney and patient advocate designations that actually work when presented to a bank or a hospital — which is to say, they look the way the bank's compliance department expects them to look, and they say what the doctor needs them to say.
An unfunded trust is paper. We don't sign a plan and disappear. After execution, we work with you to retitle assets into the trust, update beneficiary designations, and produce a clean record of what is owned where and how it is held. Most plans should be reviewed every three to five years, or whenever there is a major life event — marriage, divorce, birth of a child, sale of a business, significant change in net worth, or relocation across state lines.
For deaths in 2026, the federal estate tax exclusion is $15 million per person, and current law indexes that amount for inflation going forward. Most Michigan families will never owe federal estate tax — but that doesn’t mean tax planning is irrelevant. For families with appreciated real estate, closely-held business interests, concentrated stock positions, or significant retirement accounts, the real levers today are income-tax basis planning, retirement-account distribution rules, and how assets are titled and transferred.
We work with our clients' CPAs and financial advisors to evaluate tools like:
We are not your tax advisor and we are not your investment advisor. We are the lawyer who makes the documents do what the team has decided they should do.
Most estate planning engagements at the firm begin one of two ways. The first is a complimentary 20-minute screening call — a chance to describe your situation in broad terms, hear a candid initial reaction, and decide whether to move forward. The second is a $500 in-depth consultation: a working session where we review documents you've already brought, talk through the realistic options, and leave you with concrete next steps. The fee is credited toward your engagement if you retain us.
If your situation is straightforward, it will usually fit one of the two flat-fee packages published above. If it isn't, you'll receive a custom flat-fee quote in writing before any work begins.
"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