Corriveau Law: Family, Estate Planning & Elder Law

Estate Planning & Elder Law Attorneys in Northville, Michigan

Estate planning often becomes most important when life changes unexpectedly. A parent begins showing signs of dementia, a second marriage brings together two families with different financial expectations, or an adult child suddenly finds themselves responsible for helping an aging parent make healthcare and financial decisions. Corriveau Law focuses on helping Michigan families prepare for these moments through estate planning, elder law, and related legal services that address both immediate concerns and long-term goals.

Rather than treating estate planning as a collection of documents, the firm works with clients to develop plans that reflect their family structure, financial circumstances, and future care needs. Its practice includes traditional estate planning tools such as wills, trusts, and powers of attorney, while also addressing issues involving long-term care, Medicaid planning, probate, and changing family relationships.

Planning Before Long-Term Care Becomes a Crisis

Many families first seek legal advice after learning that a parent may soon require assisted living or nursing home care. At that point, questions about paying for care, protecting savings, and understanding Medicaid eligibility often become urgent.

Corriveau Law assists clients with both advance planning and situations that require more immediate action. By evaluating available planning strategies before a crisis occurs whenever possible, families may have more options than they would if they waited until long-term care became unavoidable. When care is already needed, the firm also helps clients navigate Medicaid applications and the legal issues that frequently accompany long-term care decisions.

Protecting Loved Ones in Blended Families

Second marriages and blended families often require more thoughtful estate planning than a simple will can provide. Many parents want to ensure that a surviving spouse remains financially secure while also preserving an inheritance for children from a previous relationship.

Corriveau Law helps clients develop estate plans that reflect these competing priorities. Depending on a family's circumstances, this may involve trusts, updated beneficiary designations, or other planning tools designed to reduce uncertainty and clarify how assets should be managed and distributed after death.

A Trust Is Only Part of the Plan

Creating a trust is an important step, but it is only effective when assets are properly transferred into it. Families sometimes discover after a loved one's death that real estate, bank accounts, or other property remained outside the trust, resulting in probate that they believed they had avoided.

In addition to preparing estate planning documents, Corriveau Law assists clients with trust funding and transferring appropriate assets into their trust so that the overall estate plan functions as intended.

Planning for Adults with Disabilities and Special Family Circumstances

Some estate plans must address concerns that extend beyond the transfer of property. Parents of a child with disabilities, for example, often want to provide long-term financial support while considering how that support may affect eligibility for government benefit programs.

The firm also recognizes that estate planning is not limited to traditional family structures. Single individuals, unmarried couples, LGBTQ families, and pet owners may all have planning needs that differ from those addressed by standard estate planning documents. Developing a personalized plan helps ensure that healthcare decisions, financial authority, and property distribution reflect each client's wishes rather than relying on default provisions of Michigan law.

Updating an Estate Plan After Divorce or Remarriage

Major life events can quickly make an existing estate plan outdated. Divorce, remarriage, the birth of grandchildren, or significant changes in family relationships may require revisions to wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations.

Because Corriveau Law also practices family law, the firm is familiar with how divorce, marital agreements, and changing family dynamics can affect estate planning decisions. Reviewing an estate plan after these events can help ensure that it continues to reflect a client's current intentions.

Probate and Estate Administration

Following the death of a loved one, families are often responsible for settling financial affairs while coping with grief. Personal representatives and trustees may need guidance regarding probate procedures, creditor issues, asset transfers, and their legal responsibilities throughout the administration process.

Corriveau Law assists clients with probate and trust administration, helping fiduciaries understand their obligations while working toward an orderly distribution of estate assets in accordance with Michigan law and the decedent's wishes.

Why Families Choose Corriveau Law

Corriveau Law combines estate planning with elder law and family law, allowing the firm to address legal issues that often overlap rather than treating them as separate matters. This integrated approach can be particularly valuable for clients facing aging-related concerns, blended family planning, disability planning, or major life transitions that require updates to an existing estate plan.

Instead of focusing solely on documents, the firm emphasizes planning that reflects the practical realities families face as circumstances change over time.

Serving Northville and Surrounding Michigan Communities

Located in Northville, Corriveau Law serves individuals and families throughout western Wayne County, Oakland County, Livingston County, and surrounding Southeast Michigan communities. The firm assists clients with estate planning, elder law, probate, Medicaid planning, and related legal matters designed to help families prepare for the future while navigating life's most significant transitions.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Elder Law

• Wills

• Revocable Trusts

• Irrevocable Trusts

• Trust Funding

• Probate Administration

• Trust Administration

• Medicaid Planning

• Long-Term Care Planning

• Asset Protection Planning

• Special Needs Planning

• Powers of Attorney

• Advance Healthcare Directives

• Family Law

• Divorce

• Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements