Colarossi & Colarossi

Estate Planning, Special Needs & Probate Attorneys in Dearborn, Michigan

Estate planning can become important long before a family has to settle an estate. A parent may want to decide who would care for minor children, an older adult may need to choose someone to manage finances if illness makes that impossible, or a family may need to plan an inheritance for a loved one with special needs. After a death, an entirely different set of responsibilities can fall on the person named to administer an estate or trust.

Colarossi & Colarossi, P.C. is a father-daughter law practice in Dearborn primarily devoted to estate planning, special needs planning, and probate administration. Attorneys Tom Colarossi and Michele Colarossi assist clients with planning during their lifetimes as well as the legal work required to administer property after death.

The firm's estate planning services include revocable living trusts, wills, durable powers of attorney, designations of patient advocate, special needs trusts, and pet trusts. Its administration practice includes representation involving both probate estates and trusts.

Preparing for a Time When You Cannot Handle Matters Yourself

An estate plan does more than provide instructions about an inheritance. It can also establish who will be able to act when illness, injury, or declining capacity prevents someone from managing important matters independently.

Colarossi & Colarossi prepares durable powers of attorney that allow clients to authorize another person to handle financial matters. The firm also prepares designations of patient advocate addressing medical decision-making when a person is unable to communicate those decisions.

Revocable living trusts can provide another layer of planning. A client creating a trust can establish how trust property will be managed during life, identify who will take over management when necessary, and provide instructions for what happens to that property after death.

These decisions can become particularly significant when an aging parent begins having difficulty handling bills, property, or other financial responsibilities. Making arrangements in advance gives the family written guidance about who has been selected to assume those responsibilities rather than leaving important questions unanswered when a health crisis occurs.

Deciding What Family Members Will Receive

Colarossi & Colarossi works with clients to establish how property should pass to family members and other beneficiaries. Depending on the circumstances, that planning may involve a will, revocable living trust, or a combination of documents.

The firm's trust planning includes the use of pour-over wills. A pour-over will can address property remaining outside a trust at death and direct probate assets into the trust for eventual distribution according to its terms. Wills can also address decisions that are particularly important to parents, including nominations of guardians and conservators for minor children.

Some inheritance decisions concern specific belongings rather than an entire estate. The firm provides clients with guidance concerning personal-property gift lists that can identify particular gifts for particular people. These may include items such as jewelry, furnishings, vehicles, money, stocks, or bonds.

For a family, putting these decisions in writing can address questions that might otherwise arise only after a death: Who should receive a treasured piece of jewelry? Should particular property go to one child rather than be divided among several beneficiaries? Who should be responsible for carrying out those instructions? Estate planning provides a framework for answering those questions while the person who owns the property can still make the decisions.

Planning an Inheritance for Someone With Special Needs

Leaving property to a family member with disabilities can require different planning from an ordinary inheritance.

Colarossi & Colarossi prepares special needs, or discretionary, trusts for families who want to provide resources for a beneficiary with special needs while taking government-benefit considerations into account. Instead of simply transferring an inheritance directly to the beneficiary, property can be placed under the management of a trustee.

The trustee is then responsible for managing the trust property and can use trust funds for supplemental needs in accordance with the trust's terms. The plan can also establish what happens to property remaining in the trust after the special needs beneficiary dies, including distribution to other beneficiaries.

This type of planning may be important for parents who are considering not only what they want to leave to a child with special needs, but also who will manage those resources when the parents are no longer available to provide that assistance themselves.

When You Have Been Named Personal Representative

Being named personal representative of an estate can sound straightforward until a death actually occurs. The person taking on that role may suddenly have responsibility for property, financial records, creditors, beneficiaries, court filings, taxes, and deadlines while also dealing with the loss of a family member.

Colarossi & Colarossi assists personal representatives with the probate administration process. The firm's probate work can include determining which assets belong to the probate estate, identifying heirs, opening the estate, providing required notices, and publishing notice to creditors.

Administration may also require maintaining records and accounts, dealing with real estate, preparing an inventory of estate property, addressing tax returns, and providing accountings. Once the appropriate obligations have been handled, assets can be distributed and the estate ultimately closed.

The firm's detailed attention to these responsibilities is particularly relevant for someone who has never served as a personal representative before. Being selected by a parent or other relative does not necessarily mean the individual already knows how to administer an estate. Legal assistance can help the personal representative understand what needs to happen and in what order.

Taking Over as Successor Trustee After a Death

A family can face a different administrative process when property has been placed in a trust. Although trust administration generally takes place outside the probate process for assets properly held in the trust, a successor trustee still assumes significant responsibilities.

Colarossi & Colarossi assists successor trustees with those duties. The firm's trust-administration material addresses accepting the trustee appointment, providing appropriate notices, determining which assets are actually held by the trust, establishing accounts and handling tax-identification requirements.

Trust administration can also involve paying expenses, handling real estate, preparing inventories and accountings, communicating with beneficiaries, and ultimately distributing trust property according to the governing documents.

This work can be especially important when someone discovers after a parent's death that being named successor trustee means considerably more than simply dividing property among siblings. The trustee is responsible for administering the trust and carrying out its instructions while accounting for the property under the trustee's control.

Making Arrangements for a Pet

For some people, an estate plan also needs to answer a very practical question: who will care for a pet if the owner dies?

Colarossi & Colarossi assists clients with pet trusts designed to provide resources for an animal's continuing care. A pet trust can identify a caregiver while assigning responsibility for managing the designated funds to a trustee.

The plan can address expenses associated with the animal's care, including veterinary costs, and establish what should happen to any trust property remaining after the pet dies.

For an owner who considers a pet part of the family, this provides a way to make arrangements in advance rather than relying solely on an informal understanding that a friend or relative will take the animal.

An Estate-Focused Father-Daughter Practice

Colarossi & Colarossi brings together attorneys from two generations of the same family. Tom Colarossi has practiced law since 1974, while Michele Colarossi has practiced since 1994.

Rather than maintaining a broad practice across numerous unrelated areas of law, the firm states that its work is primarily devoted to estate planning, special needs planning, and probate administration. That concentration encompasses both sides of the estate-planning process: preparing documents and establishing arrangements during a client's lifetime, and helping fiduciaries carry out legal responsibilities after a death.

The firm's current planning materials also provide information about what clients can expect when beginning the estate-planning process, including the documents and information that may be useful when preparing for an initial meeting.

Meeting With Clients in Dearborn and Beyond

Colarossi & Colarossi maintains its office on West Warren Avenue in Dearborn, where the attorneys meet with individuals and families regarding estate planning, special needs trusts, probate estates, and trust administration.

The firm also recognizes that traveling to a law office may not always be practical, particularly when age, illness, disability, or mobility limitations are involved. Colarossi & Colarossi states that when a client is unable to come to its Dearborn office, the attorneys can usually arrange to come to the client.

That flexibility can be particularly relevant in an estate-planning practice, where the need to put financial or healthcare arrangements in place sometimes becomes more pressing precisely when traveling has become difficult.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Revocable Living Trusts

• Wills

• Pour-Over Wills

• Durable Powers of Attorney

• Designations of Patient Advocate

• Special Needs Trusts

• Pet Trusts

• Probate Administration

• Trust Administration

• Personal Representative Assistance

• Successor Trustee Assistance