Probate
Estates
When your loved one dies with only a Will or with nothing at all, their assets generally have to go through Probate Court to be retitled into the names of the heirs.
We will handle the probating of your loved one's Will, or the Intestate Estate if there was no Will. We follow the case from the opening of the Estate through the final disbursement of the property. We prepare and file all of the required documents with the Probate Court, obtain the bond, correspond with the heirs, handle claims of creditors, take care of retitling the property, prepare the inventory and accountings and meet with court analysts to approve the accountings and close the Estate.
Probate can be tedious, confusing, time-consuming and exasperating if you are not familiar with the process. Having an attorney takes the burden of making sure you have complied with the law off your shoulders and facilitates a smooth transfer of assets to the heirs.
Guardianship & Conservatorship
Sometimes an individual is in need of a Guardianship and/or Conservatorship. This happens when parents are unable to care for a minor child or when an adult becomes mentally or physically incapacitated.
When this occurs, the Court appoints a Guardian to make decisions for the individual's care and a Conservator, if necessary, to handle that person's financial affairs.
Again, an attorney can help you navigate through the system to appoint you, or someone who meets with your approval, quickly and smoothly.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Probate?
- Probate is the legal process of transferring ownership of assets from the estate of the deceased person to his or her heirs. Most assets cannot be transferred without these proceedings if they were held only in the decedent's name.
- How long does it take?
- Every case is different. If there is a valid Will and the heirs are not contesting the Will or fighting among themselves, Probate can go relatively quickly. If one or more heirs do contest the Will, or assert claims in excess of their statutory shares if there is no Will, it takes much longer to go through Probate. How long it takes depends on how much litigation takes place before the matter is settled.
- In a normal, uncontested situation, you must file the case and give notice to all known creditors that the Estate has been opened. The creditors then have four months to file any claims against the Estate. Any claims not filed within that time are usually waived.
- Once the initial four months have passed, it is just a matter of gathering all of the assets and either selling them or retitling them to the heirs. If there is a house to sell, that can delay things. Sometimes it is difficult to find all of the assets. You want to make sure that all of the assets are accounted for before the case is closed. If you discover an asset after the case has been closed, you have to reopen the Estate in order to retitle the asset.
- So, a typical, uncontested Estate where all of the assets are known can usually be completed within a year. Contested cases or cases where the assets are hard to determine can take much longer.
- How much does it cost?
- Some attorneys charge an hourly rate, billing the Estate for the amount of time they spend on it; others charge a percentage of the value of the Estate. At an hourly rate, an average, modest, uncontested estate probate will cost approximately $2,000.00 to $4,000.00 in attorney fees. Contested or difficult cases can cost much more.
- In addition to attorney fees, there are filing fees, court costs, and other fees charged by the Probate Court and State of Michigan.
- Can't I just put everything into my children's names and avoid Probate altogether?
- Yes, but there are many consequences of taking that action. Anything that is in your children's names belongs to those children and is fair game for their creditors. If a creditor gets a judgment against them, that creditor could try to take that asset to satisfy the judgment. In addition, if one of your children is involved in a motor vehicle accident, or other injury causing incident, and the victim obtains a judgment against him, your property is again up for grabs if it is in that child's name.
- Once you put an asset in your child's name, you lose sole control over that asset. If you put your house in your son's name and he decides that he would like to sell it, he can do so. You can also lose your homestead exemption. Even if you put the house into your name and your son's name, he can still force you to sell the house if he wants to. Let's say he decides that you should move to an assisted living facility. He can take you to court to partition the property which will usually result in its being sold and the proceeds of the sale being divided between you.
- Another problem is that you can't change your mind. Once you have recorded a deed giving your home to your son, you can't take it back. If you decide later that you would rather leave it to your daughter, or equally to all of your children, you will not be able to do so. The house no longer belongs to you.
- If you hold your bank account as a joint account with your son, he has the same access you have to that account. If he gets into financial difficulty, that may be too much temptation to resist. Further, if he doesn't approve of how you are spending your money, he could clean out the account and put it into an account in his name alone.
- Guardianship and Conservatorship
- What are Guardianship and Conservatorship?
- A Guardianship grants you authority over another person with regard to their welfare. Once you are appointed Guardian, you then have the authority to make medical decisions, education decisions and living arrangement decisions for that person. Guardianships are generally sought for minor children when a competent parent is not available to care for them, and for an adult when that adult is not able to make such decisions for himself due to disability or illness.
- A Conservatorship grants you authority over an individual's financial affairs when that person is not competent to handle these matters on their own.
- How long do these proceedings take?
- You can be appointed in anywhere from a few days, to a few weeks. The Guardianship and/or Conservatorship remains under court supervision until it terminates.
- What are the duties of a Guardian and Conservator?
- A Guardian and/or Conservator must act in the best interests of the person for whom they are acting. They also are required to file annual reports and accounts with the Probate Court.
- What is the cost for obtaining a Guardianship or Conservatorship?
- The attorney fees for filing a Guardianship or Conservatorship will generally be less than $1,000.00. Whether or not it is more than that will be affected by whether it is contested or uncontested.
- In addition, the Court charges filling fees and other costs
Convenient Appointments Available
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