Whether you grew up in Northville, Michigan, chose the community to raise your kids, or retired here, you picked a wonderful town to live in. Now it’s time to plan for the future – and a knowledgeable estate planning attorney can help.
Bingham Legal Group PC is an estate planning law firm serving Northville, Michigan. We know how hard you worked to build wealth for your family. We are here to help you protect your assets and pass them down to your chosen beneficiaries.
A comprehensive estate plan can reduce taxes, avoid probate, and allow you to provide for the people you love. You can also use your estate plan to make sure you can afford end-of-life care without losing your eligibility for benefits. If you need help with estate planning in Northville, Michigan, contact Bingham Legal Group PC today.
Estate Planning Services We Provide
Our Northville, MI, Estate Planning Attorneys provide many different estate planning services at Bingham Legal Group PC, including:
- Medicare and nursing home planning services
- Planning for nontraditional families and individuals
- Power of attorney or designation of patient advocate
- Wills and trusts
There are many complex issues involved in every aspect of estate planning. An experienced estate planning lawyer can help you understand what you need to do to protect your assets and pass them down as intended.
Medicare and Nursing Home Planning
People don’t usually want to think about long-term care until they need to, but the fact is that planning ahead makes it far easier to cover the cost of care. A stay in a nursing home can cost several thousand dollars a month, an expense that can quickly drain the wealth you’ve spent decades building.
Unfortunately, Medicare does not cover the cost of long-term care, and Medicaid has strict asset limits that can prevent you from getting the care you need without losing everything you’ve built. If you can’t afford to pay for nursing home care, what options do you have?
Our Northville, MI, Estate Planning Attorneys have experience in nursing home planning can help you spend down certain assets and move others into trusts that Medicaid will not count when assessing your eligibility. With the help of a skilled estate planning lawyer, you can protect your assets while still qualifying for Medicaid to cover the costs of your long-term care.
Planning for Nontraditional Families and Individuals
Most inheritance laws were written with one type of family in mind – the traditional nuclear family consisting of a straight married couple with kids. However, there are many families that don’t fit this mold, such as:
- Grandparents raising their grandkids
- Aunts and uncles raising their nieces or nephews
- Unmarried couples
- Families with adopted kids
- Families with an adult adoptee
- Same-sex couples with kids
When the law wasn’t written with your type of family in mind, you need the help of an estate planning attorney who understands your unique legal needs. Careful estate planning is important for everyone, but it’s even more important for nontraditional families and individuals. An experienced estate planning lawyer can help you craft an estate plan designed for your family.
Power of Attorney or Designation of Patient Advocate
In Michigan, a power of attorney for healthcare is known as a designation of patient advocate form. This form allows you to name a trusted person as your patient advocate, giving them the authority to make medical decisions for you if you become incapacitated and cannot communicate your wishes.
Your patient advocate’s decision-making authority doesn’t go into effect until two doctors or one doctor and one psychologist certify in writing that you are not able to make medical decisions on your own. This could happen due to a medical condition that leaves you permanently unconscious, such as a severe accident, a stroke, or an illness.
If your doctors determine that you can no longer make your own medical decisions, your patient advocate would then have:
- Access to your medical records
- The authority to hire and fire doctors, nurses, and therapists for you
- The authority to make all major medical decisions for you
When you fill out a designation of patient advocate form, you can also specify what types of end-of-life care you do and don’t want to receive based on your personal beliefs and preferences. For instance, you can state that you wish to refuse life-sustaining treatment if you have an irreversible condition or end-stage illness.
An estate planning lawyer can help you fill out a designation of patient advocate form to ensure that your doctors understand your wishes for your medical care if you become incapacitated.
Wills and Trusts
Wills and trusts are two of the most important aspects of any estate plan. A will is a legally-binding document that specifies who your beneficiaries are and what you want them to receive after your death. Your will also names an executor, who will have the duty of administering your estate, paying your debts, and ensuring that your beneficiaries receive their inheritance.
If you fail to make a legally valid will before your death, the Michigan probate court will distribute your assets according to the rules for intestate succession. Most people would rather select their beneficiaries themselves rather than allowing the state to decide for them.
If you only have a will but no comprehensive estate plan, then your assets will most likely have to pass through probate before your heirs can receive them. Probate is the process of validating a will in court, and it has several disadvantages. For example:
- Probate is a public process, so it does not protect your privacy or the privacy of your heirs.
- Probate can take months or even years to complete. Your beneficiaries cannot inherit anything from you until probate is complete.
Transferring assets into a trust can keep them out of probate and allow your beneficiaries to benefit from them immediately after your death. An estate planning law firm can help you write a legally valid will and create any trusts you need to protect your assets, keep them out of probate, and use them to benefit both yourself and your heirs.
Contact an Estate Planning Lawyer Serving Northville, Michigan Today
An estate planning lawyer serving Northville, Michigan, can help you with any estate planning issue you have, from writing a will to protecting your assets to planning how you will afford long-term care.
Our Northville, MI, Estate Planning Attorneys at Bingham Legal Group PC provides estate planning services for every stage of life. Our attorneys have over 60 years of combined experience in this field and have seen just about every situation that can arise.
We can help you write your will in such a way as to avoid disputes and problems in the family after your death, but if problems do arise, then we are ready for them. Most estate planning issues can be resolved without going to court, but we are not afraid to take a case to trial when you need us to.
Whether or not your family is a traditional one, it’s important to get the help of an experienced estate planning attorney to protect your assets and ensure your wishes are respected. If you’re a Northville, Michigan, resident in need of help with any aspect of estate planning, contact our Northville, MI, Estate Planning Attorneys at Bingham Legal Group PC today to get started.