What Is a “Pour Over” Will and Does It Avoid Probate in Michigan?

Pour-over wills are a common estate-planning tool in Michigan. A pour-over will is a will that directs all your assets into a living trust after your death. If you’ve established a living trust but you haven’t moved all your assets into it by the time you pass away, a pour-over will can ensure that all your remaining assets transfer to the trust.

One of the main benefits of setting up a living trust is to avoid probate. However, Michigan law only allows you to avoid probate for assets already in the trust at the time of death. While your pour-over will can transfer your remaining assets into your living trust, it cannot fully avoid probate.

Living Trusts in Michigan

A living trust is a revocable trust created during the grantor’s lifetime. The grantor transfers assets into the trust, which becomes the legal owner of those assets. Because the grantor no longer owns the assets in the trust, they don’t need to go through probate after death with the rest of the grantor’s estate. Instead, they simply transfer to the successor trustee and benefit whoever you have named as the beneficiary.

While you are still alive, you are allowed to function as the trustee or administrator of the trust and the beneficiary. You can use a living trust to keep your assets out of probate while still controlling and benefiting from those assets. However, people often forget to transfer all their assets to their trust before they die. What happens to assets left out of your living trust?

Probate in Michigan

Probate is the legal process of validating and administering a will after a person’s death. Michigan’s probate courts handle this process, which has two big disadvantages:

• Probate is public, so anyone who wants to can learn much about your family’s finances
• Probate takes time, and your heirs can’t inherit anything until probate is complete

Any assets left out of your living trust must go through probate. However, a pour-over will can simplify this process.

Pour-Over Wills in Michigan

No Michigan statute addresses pour-over wills specifically, but Michigan courts have acknowledged their validity. If you have any assets outside your living trust at your death, they will transfer automatically to the trust if you have a pour-over will. While the assets still must go through probate, the terms of a pour-over will make this a relatively quick and simple process. You can’t use a pour-over will to avoid probate completely in Michigan, but you can use one to simplify probate for any assets you haven’t yet transferred into your living trust.

Contact a Michigan Estate Planning Lawyer About a Pour-Over Will and Living Trust

A pour-over will and a living trust work together to ensure that all your assets end up in the living trust. Our estate planning lawyers at Bingham Legal Group PC can help you establish a living trust and a pour-over will to simplify your estate plan and spare your heirs as much trouble and complexity as possible. Contact us today to get started on setting up a living trust and a pour-over will.