Butzel Long

Estate & Succession Planning Attorneys in Detroit, Michigan

For families with significant assets, closely held businesses, charitable goals, or complicated trusts, estate planning can involve considerably more than preparing a will. Decisions about transferring wealth may intersect with tax planning, business succession, fiduciary responsibilities, and the long-term management of family assets.

Butzel provides estate and succession planning through a multidisciplinary practice that includes estate planning, administration of estates and trusts, charitable planning, business succession, and estate transfer tax planning. The firm also represents personal representatives, trustees, beneficiaries, and other interested parties when disputes arise during estate or trust administration.

Founded in Detroit in 1854, Butzel has grown into a multi-office law firm while maintaining its Detroit presence at 150 West Jefferson Avenue. Its estate attorneys work with individuals and families ranging from those needing traditional estate planning to clients with substantial or complex estates.

Creating a Plan for Property, Incapacity, and Future Generations

Butzel's estate practice includes the fundamental documents families use to put their affairs in order, including wills, trusts, deeds, and powers of attorney.

Planning can address how property should pass at death as well as who should have authority if someone becomes unable to manage financial or healthcare matters personally. Durable powers of attorney and patient advocate designations can establish that authority before incapacity creates an immediate family problem.

Trusts can provide additional flexibility when assets need to be managed beyond the lifetime of the person creating the plan. Depending on a family's circumstances, planning may involve not only the first generation receiving property, but how wealth will be preserved, managed, and ultimately transferred to children or later generations.

For clients with substantial holdings, the estate plan can also be coordinated with tax, business, and investment considerations rather than treating each concern separately.

When a Family Business Is a Major Part of the Estate

A closely held company can create estate planning questions that do not arise when a family's wealth consists primarily of homes and financial accounts.

An owner may need to determine who will control the business in the future, whether ownership will remain within the family, and how a transfer can occur without unnecessarily disrupting the company. The interests of family members involved in the business may also differ from those of relatives who have pursued other careers.

Butzel maintains a dedicated succession planning practice for closely held businesses. Its estate attorneys work with the firm's tax lawyers when succession decisions raise estate, gift, and income tax considerations.

This allows business succession to be considered as part of the owner's overall estate rather than as an isolated transaction. For a family whose company represents a substantial portion of its accumulated wealth, planning for what happens to that business can be one of the most consequential parts of the estate plan.

Transferring Significant Family Wealth

Larger estates can present tax and administrative issues beyond those involved in a straightforward transfer of property.

Butzel maintains a separate Estate Transfer Tax Planning practice and advises clients on strategies for transferring assets among generations. The firm's work includes federal estate and gift tax matters as well as the income tax considerations that can accompany trusts and estates.

This planning can become particularly important when an estate contains substantial investments, business interests, real estate, or other assets whose ownership and value need to be considered as part of a coordinated transfer strategy.

Butzel's experience extends into unusually large estates. The firm reports having administered several estates valued at more than $100 million and having participated in the administration of one of Michigan's largest estates.

That experience provides the estate practice with a foundation for handling the tax, fiduciary, valuation, and administrative issues that can accompany significant family wealth without limiting the firm's planning services exclusively to ultra-high-net-worth clients.

Administering an Estate With Complicated Assets and Tax Obligations

After a death, the responsibility for implementing an estate plan often falls to a personal representative or trustee.

Butzel represents fiduciaries through the administration of estates and trusts. Its work can include identifying and managing assets, addressing tax matters, carrying out distributions, and handling the other legal responsibilities associated with settling an estate or administering a trust.

The firm's tax capabilities are particularly relevant during this stage. Butzel handles fiduciary income tax returns, federal gift and estate tax returns, Michigan tax returns, and estate and fiduciary tax audits.

Those responsibilities can become more complicated when an estate includes multiple business or investment interests or substantial property rather than readily distributable assets.

Butzel also advises beneficiaries during estate and trust administration. This allows the firm to work not only with the people responsible for carrying out an estate plan, but also with individuals and families whose interests are affected by how that plan is administered.

When a Trustee or Personal Representative Is Accused of Mishandling an Estate

Sometimes the principal problem is not creating an estate plan or completing routine administration. It is a disagreement over whether the person entrusted with the estate or trust is doing the job properly.

Butzel represents clients in trust and estate disputes, including matters involving allegations of fiduciary negligence. A trustee, personal representative, or other fiduciary can have substantial control over property that ultimately belongs to or benefits other people, making disputes over management and decision-making particularly consequential.

The firm's work also includes will contests and trust litigation. These cases can place beneficiaries, fiduciaries, or other interested parties on opposing sides of a dispute over an estate plan or its administration.

Because Butzel's estate practice includes both planning and administration as well as contested matters, the firm can address disputes involving the responsibilities imposed by wills, trusts, estates, guardianships, and conservatorships.

When an Estate or Trust Leads to a Tax Dispute

Tax questions do not always end when a return is filed.

Butzel represents clients in IRS controversies and estate and fiduciary tax audits as part of its estate administration practice. This can become relevant when federal or state tax authorities question a return, valuation, deduction, or other aspect of an estate or trust.

The firm's combination of estate and tax experience allows these disputes to be handled in the context of the underlying estate plan and administration rather than viewing the tax controversy in isolation.

For families dealing with significant estates, that continuity can matter because decisions made during planning, lifetime transfers, administration, and tax reporting may all be connected.

Leaving Part of an Estate to Charitable Purposes

Not every estate planning objective involves transferring as much property as possible to individual family members.

Some individuals and families want accumulated wealth to continue supporting charitable organizations, educational institutions, community causes, or other philanthropic goals after death. Butzel maintains a dedicated charitable planning practice for clients who want philanthropy incorporated into their broader estate plans.

The firm's experience includes establishing private charitable foundations and assisting with their administration. Butzel reports having created numerous private foundations, including one with assets exceeding $20 million.

Charitable planning can also intersect with tax and family wealth-transfer decisions. Butzel's broader estate and tax practice allows philanthropic objectives to be considered alongside what will pass to children or other beneficiaries and how the overall estate is structured.

Guardianships, Conservatorships, and Lifetime Fiduciary Matters

Butzel's probate-related work is not limited to administering property after someone dies.

The firm also represents clients in guardianship and conservatorship proceedings. These matters can arise when someone is unable to manage personal or financial affairs independently and court involvement becomes necessary.

Butzel represents fiduciaries and other interested parties in these proceedings and also handles disputes associated with fiduciary responsibilities.

These services complement the firm's advance planning work involving powers of attorney and patient advocate designations. Advance documents can establish chosen decision-makers before incapacity, while guardianship and conservatorship proceedings address situations in which authority must instead be established or supervised through the probate court.

A Detroit Firm With a Statewide Estate Planning Platform

Butzel was founded in Detroit in 1854 and has developed from its Detroit roots into a multi-office law firm serving individuals, families, businesses, and institutions.

Its Estate & Succession Planning practice draws on attorneys working across the firm's offices rather than operating solely from one location. That broader platform is particularly relevant to estate matters involving businesses, taxation, litigation, real estate, or other legal disciplines that overlap with the transfer and administration of family wealth.

For estate clients, the practice spans traditional wills and trusts, incapacity planning, sophisticated wealth transfer, closely held business succession, charitable planning, estate and trust administration, tax matters, and contested fiduciary proceedings.

Serving Clients Across Michigan

Butzel's Detroit office is located at 150 West Jefferson Avenue, Suite 100 in downtown Detroit. The firm also maintains Michigan offices in Troy, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Niles, St. Joseph, and South Haven, giving its Estate & Succession Planning practice a broad statewide presence.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Succession Planning

• Wills

• Trusts

• Powers of Attorney

• Patient Advocate Designations

• Estate Administration

• Trust Administration

• Estate Transfer Tax Planning

• Federal Estate Tax Matters

• Federal Gift Tax Matters

• Fiduciary Income Tax Matters

• Estate and Fiduciary Tax Audits

• Succession Planning for Closely Held Businesses

• Charitable Planning

• Private Foundations

• Will Contests

• Trust Litigation

• Fiduciary Litigation

• Guardianships

• Conservatorships

• IRS Controversies