By Moshe B. Newman, Attorney · Published July 2026
Michigan homeowners researching how to keep the house out of probate quickly run into two candidates: the revocable living trust and the Lady Bird deed. Both work. Both are recognized under Michigan law. And both are regularly oversold as the answer to everything. The honest comparison is less about which tool is “better” and more about which problem you’re actually solving — because for the house alone, they perform almost identically, and for everything beyond the house, they aren’t even playing the same game.
For the single property it names, a correctly drafted and recorded Lady Bird deed keeps the home out of probate just as completely as a funded trust does. If your home is your only significant probate-exposed asset and your beneficiaries are adults who get along, the deed may be all the real-estate planning you need. But if you own more than the house, want someone to manage things if you become incapacitated, or want control over how your heirs receive their inheritance rather than just whether they do, the trust does work a deed simply cannot.
Framing this as trust versus deed misses how Michigan practitioners actually use these tools. A common structure keeps the home under a Lady Bird deed — preserving the Medicaid recovery protection — while a revocable trust holds or receives everything else. The deed can even name the trust as its default beneficiary, so at death the home flows into the trust and follows the same instructions as the rest of the estate: one set of rules, one successor trustee, no shared-title standoffs between siblings. Whether that structure fits you depends on your assets, your family, and your long-term-care outlook — which is exactly what a planning conversation is for.
Our trust-based estate plans are flat-fee: $4,000 for individuals and $5,000 for couples, for straightforward estates (no business interests) with assets up to roughly $2,000,000 — including the deeds that fund the trust with your real estate. A standalone Lady Bird deed is a much smaller engagement, and like everything we do, it is quoted as a flat fee before any work begins. If a deed is genuinely all you need, we will tell you so; selling a trust to someone who doesn’t need one is not how we practice.
For the one property it covers, yes — a properly drafted and recorded Lady Bird deed passes that home outside probate just as completely as a funded trust would. The difference is scope: the deed does nothing for bank accounts, vehicles, investments, or any other asset, while a funded revocable trust can keep the entire estate out of probate and also manage assets during incapacity.
Yes, and many Michigan plans do. One common structure keeps the home under a Lady Bird deed — preserving its Medicaid estate recovery advantage — while a revocable trust holds or receives everything else. A Lady Bird deed can even name the trust itself as the default beneficiary, so the home ultimately follows the trust’s instructions. The right combination depends on your assets, family, and long-term-care outlook.
Neither has to. Recording a Lady Bird deed does not uncap taxable value during your life because you retain full control, and under MCL 211.27a(7) the transfer at death to close family members does not uncap residential property that is not put to commercial use. Similarly, under MCL 211.27a(6)(c) a conveyance into your own revocable trust is not a transfer of ownership when you (or your spouse) remain the sole present beneficiary.
The decision usually turns on a handful of facts: what you own beyond the house, who your beneficiaries are, and whether long-term care is on the horizon. Those facts fit comfortably in a free 20-minute screening call — and if your situation warrants a full review, our $500 in-depth working session maps your assets and goals in detail, with the $500 credited toward your plan if you move forward. If probate has already begun for a loved one, our Michigan probate court directory and administration practice can help with that too.
This article is general information about Michigan law, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws and dollar thresholds change; figures current as of 2026. For advice on your specific situation, schedule a consultation.