Castle Wealth Group Legal

Estate Planning & Elder Law Attorneys in Brighton, Michigan

Estate planning becomes more complicated when families have to think beyond who receives property after a death. A parent may be concerned about who would care for minor children. Someone approaching retirement may be worried about the cost of future nursing-home care. A family may need to provide for a child with disabilities without disrupting important government benefits. Others may have created a trust but never completed the work necessary to transfer their property into it.

Castle Wealth Group Legal helps Brighton-area families address these issues through a practice focused on estate planning, elder law and retirement planning. Founded by attorney Christopher J. Berry, the firm works with clients on wills and trusts, incapacity planning, Medicaid and nursing-home planning, special needs planning, asset protection and related strategies.

The firm's approach also reflects the connection between legal and financial decisions. Berry is both an attorney and a Certified Financial Planner™, and Castle Wealth Group's team includes professionals with financial and tax backgrounds. This allows estate planning to be considered alongside retirement, taxes, investments and potential long-term-care expenses rather than as an isolated set of legal documents.

Building an Estate Plan Around the Family

A useful estate plan needs to account for the people and responsibilities that will remain if someone dies or becomes incapacitated.

Castle Wealth Group Legal prepares wills and revocable living trusts as part of its estate-planning practice. For parents with minor children, a will can also address the important question of whom they want to serve as guardian if both parents are gone.

Trust planning can provide additional control over how property is managed and eventually distributed. Depending on the family's circumstances, a trust may be used to hold property for beneficiaries and establish instructions for its future management.

The appropriate plan can change over time. Marriage, children, retirement, changes in wealth and other developments may create reasons to reconsider documents prepared during an earlier stage of life.

Making Sure a Trust Actually Holds the Intended Property

Creating a trust is only part of trust-based estate planning. Castle Wealth Group Legal places specific emphasis on trust funding—the process of properly connecting assets to the estate plan.

That distinction can become important for someone who has signed a trust and assumes the planning is finished. Property may still need to be retitled, beneficiary arrangements may need attention, and real estate may need to be transferred appropriately.

Castle assists clients with these steps, including real-estate transfers and other aspects of funding a trust. Addressing ownership as part of the planning process helps ensure that the legal documents and the client's actual assets work together as intended.

Deciding Who Can Act During an Incapacity

A serious accident, illness or cognitive decline can create immediate questions about who has authority to make decisions.

Castle Wealth Group Legal prepares durable powers of attorney that allow clients to designate someone to handle financial matters when necessary. The firm also prepares patient advocate designations addressing healthcare decision-making.

These documents can be important at virtually any adult age. A person may be unable to pay bills, manage accounts or communicate medical wishes even though they are still alive. 

Establishing decision-making authority beforehand can give family members clearer direction if an unexpected crisis occurs.

For older adults, incapacity planning can also become part of a larger conversation about retirement, long-term care and preserving financial resources.

Protecting a Loved One with Special Needs

Leaving an inheritance directly to a beneficiary with disabilities can create concerns when that person relies on needs-based government assistance.

Castle Wealth Group Legal prepares special needs and supplemental needs trusts designed to provide additional resources for a person with disabilities while helping preserve eligibility for applicable benefits.

This type of planning can be especially important for parents and other relatives who want to provide long-term financial support but recognize that an ordinary inheritance may not fit the beneficiary's circumstances.

Rather than focusing solely on the amount being inherited, special needs planning considers how those assets will be held and managed for the beneficiary over time.

Planning Before Nursing-Home Care Becomes Necessary

The possibility of needing long-term care can create significant financial uncertainty for older adults and their families. Nursing-home costs may threaten savings that took decades to accumulate, while Medicaid eligibility rules can be difficult for families to navigate without advance planning.

Castle Wealth Group Legal works with clients on Medicaid and nursing-home protection strategies as part of its elder-law practice.

Planning before care is needed can provide more time to evaluate available options and coordinate long-term-care concerns with the rest of an estate and retirement plan. This may be particularly relevant for someone approaching retirement who wants to understand how future care expenses could affect a spouse, savings, property or the inheritance intended for children.

Medicaid Planning After a Long-Term-Care Crisis Has Already Started

Families do not always have the opportunity to plan years in advance. Sometimes the issue becomes urgent after a parent or spouse has already entered a nursing home.

Castle Wealth Group Legal specifically handles Medicaid crisis planning for these situations. The firm's materials emphasize that families should not automatically assume all available assets must be exhausted before anything can be done.

Instead, the firm evaluates available planning strategies under Medicaid rules with the goal of protecting assets when legally possible while addressing eligibility for long-term-care assistance.

This can be particularly important when one spouse requires institutional care while the other remains at home. Decisions made during this period can affect not only the person receiving care but also the financial security of the spouse who is still living independently.

Asset Protection for Families with Additional Risks

Some clients face concerns that go beyond ordinary estate distribution. Business ownership, professional liability, lawsuits, creditors and potential long-term-care expenses can all create questions about protecting accumulated wealth.

Castle Wealth Group Legal's estate-planning work includes irrevocable trusts and asset-protection strategies. The firm also works with structures that can include family limited partnerships, family LLCs and other limited liability company planning.

These strategies are not necessary for every estate. For clients with circumstances that create greater financial exposure, however, asset protection can become part of a broader discussion about how property is owned, managed and ultimately transferred.

Estate Planning, Retirement and Tax Decisions Under One Roof

One of Castle Wealth Group Legal's distinguishing characteristics is its combination of estate, elder-law and retirement planning.

Christopher Berry has worked in legal and financial planning since 1998 and holds both legal and Certified Financial Planner™ credentials. The firm's professional team also includes tax expertise.

That combination can be useful because retirement decisions rarely occur in isolation. Someone preparing to retire may simultaneously be deciding how to structure an estate plan, how assets should be owned, what tax issues need consideration and how a future need for long-term care could affect accumulated savings.

Coordinating these subjects can help identify situations in which a decision made for one purpose has consequences elsewhere in the family's financial or estate plan.

Planning for Veterans Who Need Long-Term Care

Castle Wealth Group Legal also assists veterans with benefit issues, including Aid and Attendance benefits.

For qualifying veterans, Aid and Attendance may provide additional financial assistance when help is needed with care at home, in assisted living or in a nursing-home setting. This can make veterans-benefit planning relevant to the same long-term-care concerns addressed through the firm's elder-law practice.

The firm also handles VA disability claims and appeals.

A Brighton-Based Estate and Elder Law Practice

Castle Wealth Group Legal's main office is in Brighton, with additional Michigan offices in Ann Arbor, Bloomfield Hills, East Lansing, Livonia and Novi.

Its focused estate and elder-law practice allows the firm to address planning at several different stages of a family's life: parents creating an estate plan, adults preparing for possible incapacity, families protecting a beneficiary with special needs, retirees concerned about preserving assets, and older adults confronting the financial realities of long-term care.

For families facing several of these issues at once, the firm's combination of legal, financial, retirement and tax planning provides a framework for considering how those decisions interact rather than treating each problem separately.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills

• Revocable Living Trusts

• Irrevocable Trusts

• Trust Funding

• Powers of Attorney

• Patient Advocate Designations

• Special Needs Trusts

• Supplemental Needs Trusts

• Elder Law

• Medicaid Planning

• Medicaid Crisis Planning

• Nursing-Home Asset Protection

• Long-Term-Care Planning

• Asset Protection

• Family Limited Partnerships

• Family LLCs

• Limited Liability Company Planning

• Veterans Benefits

• Aid and Attendance Benefits

• VA Disability Claims and Appeals