Braun Kendrick, Attorneys at Law

Estate Planning, Elder Law & Probate Attorneys in Saginaw, Michigan

Braun Kendrick assists individuals and families with estate planning, probate, trust administration, tax planning, and related legal concerns. Established in 1874, the firm maintains offices in Saginaw, Midland, and Mt. Pleasant and serves clients throughout Michigan.

Estate planning often involves more than deciding who should receive property after a death. Families may need to determine who can manage financial matters during an incapacity, document healthcare preferences, provide for children or other beneficiaries, and decide how a home, business, or family cottage should pass to the next generation. Braun Kendrick prepares wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, and healthcare directives to address these decisions.

The firm’s broader business, real estate, tax, and litigation capabilities may also be relevant when an estate includes complex assets or unresolved disputes. Its estate-related work ranges from preparing planning documents to administering estates and trusts after death.

Planning for Property, Family, and Incapacity

A basic estate plan can establish who receives a person’s property and who will be responsible for carrying out those instructions. It can also prepare for circumstances in which illness, injury, or declining health prevents someone from making or communicating important decisions.

Braun Kendrick prepares wills and individual or joint trusts based on a client’s circumstances. A will can nominate a personal representative, provide instructions for distributing probate property, and address other matters that must be handled after death. A trust may offer another way to manage property during life and transfer it to beneficiaries afterward.

Durable powers of attorney allow a chosen person to handle financial and legal matters if the individual creating the document cannot act independently. Healthcare directives identify who may participate in medical decisions and help document the person’s wishes. Together, these documents can give relatives clearer guidance during a medical emergency or extended period of incapacity.

Estate plans may need to change following a marriage, divorce, birth, death in the family, substantial change in assets, or move to another state. A plan created years earlier may no longer reflect current relationships, property, or priorities. Reviewing beneficiary designations and ownership arrangements can be just as important as updating the will or trust itself.

Transferring a Family Business or Cottage

Some families must plan for property that is difficult to divide or manage. A closely held company, farm, income-producing property, or family cottage may carry both financial value and emotional importance. Passing these assets to the next generation can require more detailed planning than dividing bank accounts or personal belongings.

Braun Kendrick advises business owners and families on succession planning and the transfer of closely held businesses. That work can address who will own the company, who will manage it, and how the interests of participating and nonparticipating family members will be handled. Buy-sell arrangements and related business planning may help establish a process for ownership changes caused by retirement, incapacity, or death.

The firm also prepares cottage trusts. Families who want to retain a vacation property may need rules covering use, expenses, maintenance, decision-making, and the eventual transfer of ownership. Addressing those matters in advance can reduce uncertainty when several relatives share an interest in the property.

These plans may involve estate, income, or business tax considerations. Braun Kendrick’s estate practice includes tax planning and strategies intended to facilitate an orderly transfer of property while considering the overall tax burden.

Trust and Estate Administration After a Death

Even when a person leaves detailed instructions, someone must collect the assets, determine which property is governed by a will or trust, address valid debts and expenses, complete required filings, and distribute the remaining property. Personal representatives and trustees may be undertaking these responsibilities for the first time while also coping with the death of a relative.

Braun Kendrick assists with formal and informal probate proceedings and with the administration of trusts. Probate may be necessary when property remains titled in the deceased person’s name without another legally effective transfer method. The appropriate process depends on the nature of the assets, the estate-planning documents, and whether disagreements or unusual issues arise.

Trust administration involves following the terms of the trust, managing its assets, communicating with beneficiaries, and making authorized distributions. Depending on the trust and the property involved, administration may also require accounting, tax, business, or real estate work.

Professional guidance can help a fiduciary understand deadlines and distinguish estate or trust property from assets that pass through joint ownership, beneficiary designations, or other arrangements. It can also help beneficiaries understand how the administration process affects their interests without assuming that every delay or difficult decision reflects wrongdoing.

Estate Taxes and Planning for Complex Assets

Tax considerations become especially important when an estate includes a business, significant investments, life insurance, or property held in several forms of ownership. Braun Kendrick handles estate and tax planning, tax compliance, and planning connected to closely held companies.

The firm’s work includes irrevocable life insurance trusts. When appropriate, these trusts may be used to hold life insurance and provide liquidity for expenses or potential estate-tax obligations. Because an irrevocable trust can limit the creator’s ability to change or control transferred property, it requires more careful consideration than a basic revocable estate-planning arrangement.

Business entities, trusts, real estate holdings, and beneficiary designations must also work together. A plan may not function as intended if a will directs property one way while the ownership documents or beneficiary designations transfer it another. Coordinating these components can be particularly important for business owners and families with substantial or complicated assets.

When a Will or Estate Is Contested

Disagreements sometimes arise over whether a will is valid, what a provision means, how a fiduciary has handled property, or whether a claim against an estate should be paid. Braun Kendrick represents beneficiaries and personal representatives in adversarial probate proceedings, including will contests and cases involving the interpretation of wills.

The firm also handles tax disputes before the Internal Revenue Service and the courts. This may be relevant when an estate, trust, beneficiary, or fiduciary faces a contested tax issue that cannot be resolved through routine administration.

Estate litigation can affect family relationships as well as property rights. Questions may involve a person’s capacity when documents were signed, allegations of improper influence, competing interpretations of written instructions, or concerns about a personal representative’s decisions. Resolving the legal issue requires attention to the governing documents, applicable Michigan law, and the available evidence rather than assumptions about what the deceased person might have wanted.

Three Mid-Michigan Offices, Statewide Reach

Braun Kendrick’s principal Saginaw office is located on Fashion Square Boulevard. The firm also has offices in downtown Midland and Mt. Pleasant. It identifies Saginaw, Bay City, Midland, and Mt. Pleasant as communities where it has a substantial client base.

These locations place the firm within the Great Lakes Bay Region and other parts of mid-Michigan. Braun Kendrick also represents clients elsewhere in Michigan, allowing families with property, business interests, fiduciaries, or beneficiaries in different parts of the state to work with one firm on connected estate matters.

Practice Areas

• Wills and trusts

• Durable powers of attorney

• Healthcare directives

• Estate and tax planning

• Elder law

• Probate administration

• Trust administration

• Business-succession planning

• Cottage trusts

• Irrevocable life insurance trusts

• Will contests and will interpretation

• Estate-related tax disputes