Danielle Streed & Assoc.

Estate Planning, Probate and Elder Law Attorney in Kalamazoo, Michigan

Danielle Streed & Associates, PLLC helps individuals and families prepare for the transfer of property, possible incapacity and the responsibilities that follow a death. Attorney Danielle Streed focuses on estate planning and probate law and has practiced in Michigan since 1991.

The practice includes wills, revocable living trusts, special-needs trusts, financial and healthcare powers of attorney, advance directives, charitable giving, business succession, probate administration and trust administration. Streed also advises clients about guardianships, conservatorships, domestic-partner planning, funeral-representative designations and access to digital assets.

The office is located in Kalamazoo and serves clients throughout Southwest Michigan. Its work encompasses straightforward plans for individuals beginning the process as well as more advanced arrangements involving disabilities, charitable goals, family businesses or complicated family relationships.

You Have Property but No Instructions for What Happens to It

An estate plan gives someone the opportunity to decide who should receive a home, financial accounts, vehicles, jewelry and other property. When a person dies without a will, Michigan law determines which relatives inherit property passing through the estate.

Danielle Streed prepares wills that identify beneficiaries and describe how estate property should be distributed. A will can also name the personal representative responsible for carrying out those instructions through probate.

The planning process is not reserved for people with substantial wealth. A family home or individually owned bank account can require legal administration after the owner’s death. Even personal belongings can become a source of disagreement when family members have different expectations.

A complete plan can coordinate the will with trusts, beneficiary designations, jointly owned property and documents that operate during incapacity. The purpose is to make the different parts work together around the client’s family and property.

Parents Need to Choose Who Would Care for Their Children

Parents of minor children face a question that cannot be answered by listing beneficiaries alone: who should care for the children if both parents die or become unavailable?

A will allows parents to nominate a guardian for their children. This records their preference instead of leaving the decision entirely to a court without the benefit of their written instructions.

Parents should also decide how a child’s inheritance will be managed. A minor generally cannot independently control inherited property. Without another arrangement, the court may need to appoint a conservator and supervise management of those assets during the child’s minority.

Trust planning can provide instructions for holding and using property for a child. Parents may be able to identify who will manage the funds and establish how the inheritance should support the child. The person raising the child and the person managing the property can be selected according to the family’s particular circumstances.

A Spouse or Parent Can No Longer Manage Finances

Illness, an accident or cognitive decline can leave someone unable to pay bills, manage accounts, file tax returns or address the family home. Relatives may assume that a spouse or adult child automatically has authority to take over, but family relationships alone do not necessarily provide the legal power to act.

Streed prepares durable financial powers of attorney through which clients appoint a trusted person to manage authorized financial matters. The document can define the agent’s authority according to the client’s needs.

Without an effective power of attorney, the family may have to ask the probate court to appoint a conservator. The court must determine whether the individual can manage property and whether intervention is necessary to prevent assets from being lost or wasted. A conservator may then have continuing reporting and accounting responsibilities.

Advance planning can identify the person whom the client trusts before a crisis develops. It can be especially important in second marriages, where a spouse and adult children from an earlier relationship may have different ideas about who should control accounts or property.

Your Family Is Unsure Who Can Make Medical Decisions

A healthcare crisis can force relatives to make difficult choices while they are frightened, grieving or uncertain about what their loved one wanted. If no one has been formally selected to act, disagreements may arise over medical treatment, long-term care or life-support decisions.

Danielle Streed prepares healthcare powers of attorney and patient-advocate designations. These documents allow clients to name a trusted person to make healthcare decisions when they cannot communicate or decide for themselves.

Advance directives can also provide guidance about treatment if the individual becomes terminally ill or permanently unconscious. Planning may address life-prolonging treatment, comfort care, respirators, feeding tubes and other medical interventions.

Related documents may include a do-not-resuscitate declaration, prepared in consultation with the individual’s physician, and a declaration of anatomical gift for someone who wants to document organ-donation wishes.

Putting these decisions in writing can give the selected advocate clearer authority and reduce the burden placed on family members. It also helps keep the focus on the patient’s choices rather than requiring relatives to reconstruct those wishes during an emergency.

You Are Deciding Between a Will and a Living Trust

A will and a revocable living trust can both direct the transfer of property, but they function differently. Having a will does not by itself prevent probate. Property owned individually at death may still need to pass through the probate court so ownership can be transferred.

A revocable living trust can hold property during the creator’s lifetime. The creator generally continues to control and manage the trust assets while competent. After death, the successor trustee administers and distributes trust property according to the written instructions.

Families may consider a living trust when they want trust-owned assets to pass without probate, prefer greater privacy or want a successor trustee to manage property during incapacity. Trusts can also help organize information about assets so that the person taking over knows what property exists and how it should be handled.

Danielle Streed advises clients about whether a will-based or trust-based plan fits their circumstances. That decision depends on how property is owned, the beneficiaries involved and what the client wants the arrangement to accomplish.

A Family Member With Special Needs May Receive an Inheritance

Leaving property directly to a person with a disability may affect eligibility for needs-based assistance. Families may want to provide additional support without unintentionally interfering with access to programs such as Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income.

Streed prepares trusts containing special-needs provisions. Rather than transferring the inheritance outright, an appropriate trust can hold property for the beneficiary and establish how it will be managed.

This planning may be important for parents worried about who will support an adult son or daughter after they die. It can also apply when a grandparent or another relative wants to include a person with disabilities in an estate plan.

The work involves more than naming a beneficiary. The plan must consider who will serve as trustee, what resources may be available and how the inheritance fits with the beneficiary’s existing support.

A Second Marriage Creates Competing Family Concerns

Blended families often need to balance the security of a surviving spouse with the expectation that children from an earlier relationship will eventually inherit. If property passes without a coordinated plan, the result may differ from what either spouse expected.

One spouse may want the other to have income or access to resources for health and support while preserving remaining property for children or grandchildren. A trust can establish those directions and identify who will manage the assets.

Powers of attorney are also important in a second marriage. Separately owned accounts may become inaccessible if the owner becomes incapacitated and has not authorized the spouse or another trusted person to act. Adult children and a stepparent may then disagree about who should control the finances or make care decisions.

Danielle Streed’s planning resources address divorced and remarried families as well as prenuptial, postnuptial and domestic-partner agreements. These services can help couples define property rights during life and coordinate those arrangements with their estate plans.

Your Family Business Needs a Plan for the Next Generation

A closely held or family business may represent both a substantial asset and a source of income for several people. The owner’s retirement, incapacity or death can create uncertainty about who will operate the business, who will own it and how family members who are not involved in the company will be treated.

Streed advises clients on business-succession planning and the transfer or disposition of business interests. Planning may address a future sale, retirement of a family member or transfer to the next generation.

Available structures may include limited liability companies and family limited partnerships. The arrangement should account for continuity of the business, taxes and the financial needs of heirs.

Business succession also needs to be coordinated with the owner’s personal estate plan. A will, trust or beneficiary arrangement that ignores the company’s ownership structure may create difficulties for relatives, employees and other owners when a transition occurs.

You Want Part of Your Estate to Support a Charity

Charitable planning allows individuals to support organizations or causes that have been important during their lives. A charitable gift can be incorporated into a will, living trust, retirement-account beneficiary designation or another planned-giving arrangement.

Danielle Streed advises clients about charitable lead trusts, charitable remainder trusts, charitable gift annuities, community foundations and other giving vehicles. The appropriate method depends on the donor’s goals, property and intended timing.

A client may need to choose between leaving a fixed dollar amount and a percentage of the estate. A percentage adjusts with the eventual value of the property, while a stated amount provides greater certainty about the size of the gift. Donors may also need to decide whether a charity can use the gift immediately or whether the principal should be preserved to produce continuing income.

Planning can also account for the possibility that a particular organization or charitable purpose will change or cease to exist. Clear alternative instructions can help preserve the donor’s broader intent.

You Have Been Chosen to Administer a Trust or Estate

Serving as a personal representative or successor trustee can bring extensive responsibilities at a time when the family is still coping with a death.

Probate administration may require opening the estate, notifying creditors, identifying and valuing assets, paying valid debts and taxes, resolving claims and distributing the remaining property. Real estate or personal belongings may require appraisal, sale or transfer. Property located in another state can create an additional probate proceeding there.

Trust administration may involve locating the trust and related records, securing assets, obtaining date-of-death values, reviewing ownership and beneficiary designations, paying expenses and making distributions under the trust’s instructions.

Danielle Streed assists families with probate, trust administration and related estate-settlement responsibilities. Her materials include guidelines and a checklist for successor trustees, addressing the practical work that follows the creator’s death or incapacity.

Your Online Accounts and Funeral Wishes Also Need Attention

Modern estate planning can include property and decisions that are easily overlooked. Email accounts, social-media profiles, cloud storage, online financial records and digital photographs may be inaccessible unless the plan authorizes someone to handle them.

Streed addresses access to digital assets as part of estate planning. Instructions can authorize a selected agent, personal representative or successor trustee to access, manage, preserve, transfer or close appropriate digital property and accounts.

Clients can also designate a funeral representative to make decisions concerning funeral and burial arrangements. Recording that choice may be important when relatives disagree or when the person the client trusts would not otherwise have priority under Michigan law.

These issues may appear secondary to a will or trust, but they can become immediate practical problems for a family after death.

Estate Planning and Elder Law in Southwest Michigan

Danielle Streed & Associates serves Kalamazoo and the surrounding Southwest Michigan region. Its focused practice addresses the estate-planning timeline from preparing wills, trusts and incapacity documents through probate, trust administration and the practical responsibilities that arise after a death.

The breadth of the practice allows planning to account for young children, aging parents, blended families, beneficiaries with disabilities, charitable interests, domestic partners and family-business ownership.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills and Revocable Living Trusts

• Special-Needs Trusts

• Financial Powers of Attorney

• Healthcare Powers of Attorney

• Advance Directives

• Guardianship and Conservatorship

• Probate and Estate Administration

• Trust Administration

• Charitable Giving

• Business-Succession Planning

• Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements

• Domestic-Partner Planning

• Funeral-Representative Designations

• Digital-Asset Planning