Doyle Law

Estate Planning & Estate Settlement Attorneys in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Doyle Law PC is a Grand Rapids estate planning firm whose work extends from creating an estate plan to helping the next generation carry it out. The firm focuses on the practical details that can determine whether a plan actually works: keeping documents current as families change, coordinating trusts and beneficiary arrangements, preparing for incapacity, and making sure the people eventually responsible for an estate or trust understand what they are expected to do.

That practical focus also reaches parts of an estate that are easy to overlook. Doyle Law advises clients about digital property and online accounts that family members may otherwise struggle to locate or access. It also offers specific planning for the future care of pets.

After a death, the firm works with personal representatives and successor trustees who suddenly find themselves responsible for settling another person's financial affairs. With Thomas Doyle's more than four decades of estate-planning experience, the practice combines long-term planning with the problems families encounter when those plans eventually have to be put into action.

When an Older Estate Plan No Longer Fits

An estate plan can remain legally important long after the circumstances that shaped it have disappeared. Someone named as a personal representative or trustee years ago may no longer be the right choice. Children who were minors when a will was written may now have families of their own, and people originally named as beneficiaries may have died or become estranged from the family.

Doyle Law specifically encourages clients to reconsider their plans after significant life changes. Marriage or divorce can change whom someone wants to benefit or entrust with important responsibilities. The birth of a child or grandchild may introduce new beneficiaries, while a death in the family can remove someone who had been assigned an important role.

Moving, acquiring new property or experiencing other financial changes can also leave an older plan out of step with a client's present circumstances.

Reviewing a plan involves more than checking the names in a will. Trusts, powers of attorney and other planning documents may also need attention, along with beneficiary designations and the way assets are owned. The objective is to make sure the different pieces of the estate plan continue to reflect what the client actually intends.

Wills, Trusts & Coordinating How Property Will Pass

Doyle Law prepares wills and trusts based on how clients want their property managed and eventually distributed. The firm also counsels clients about revocable living trusts and whether trust-based planning is appropriate for their circumstances.

An important part of that process is understanding that a will does not necessarily control every asset someone owns. Property may pass through a trust, beneficiary designation, joint ownership or other arrangement rather than under the terms of a will. As a result, an estate plan can produce unintended results when those arrangements have not been considered together.

For example, changing a will does not automatically change the beneficiary named on an account. Similarly, creating a living trust does not by itself mean that every asset will ultimately be governed by that trust. Doyle Law's planning approach considers how these different components fit together rather than treating the preparation of individual documents as the entire estate-planning process.

Planning for Incapacity During Life

Estate planning also determines who can step in when someone is still alive but can no longer handle important decisions independently. A serious illness, accident or decline in capacity can leave a family needing to manage financial or healthcare matters with little warning.

Doyle Law prepares powers of attorney and patient advocate designations as part of its estate planning work. These documents allow clients to identify the people they want making financial or healthcare decisions if they become unable to act for themselves.

Choosing those individuals can be as important as deciding who will eventually inherit property. The person trusted to handle financial affairs may need to pay bills, deal with accounts or manage property. A patient advocate may be called upon to make healthcare decisions at a difficult time.

Addressing those responsibilities before a crisis gives the family a clearer plan for who has been selected to act.

Settling an Estate After a Death

Doyle Law's work continues after estate planning documents have to be put into effect. The firm assists with probate and estate settlement when a loved one dies.

For a family member named as personal representative, the responsibility can be unfamiliar and time-consuming. That person may need to determine what property the deceased owned, identify accounts and other assets, address debts and expenses, communicate with beneficiaries and ultimately distribute property.

Whether probate is necessary depends in part on how the deceased person's assets were owned and how they were intended to transfer. Some property may pass outside probate, while other assets may require administration through the probate court.

Doyle Law helps personal representatives work through these responsibilities rather than leaving a family member to determine the process alone at a time when the family is also dealing with a death.

When a Successor Trustee Takes Over

Families can face a different set of responsibilities when assets have been placed in a living trust. After the person who created the trust dies, a successor trustee may suddenly become responsible for administering property for other family members or beneficiaries.

Doyle Law assists successor trustees with trust settlement and the responsibilities that arise when a revocable trust becomes irrevocable following a death.

The trustee may need to identify and manage trust property, deal with financial accounts and expenses, communicate with beneficiaries and eventually make distributions according to the trust. Being selected as trustee years earlier does not necessarily mean someone understands everything the position will require when the time comes.

Doyle Law's estate-settlement practice addresses this transition from estate planning on paper to the actual administration of a family's assets.

Planning for Digital Assets & Online Accounts

Modern estates increasingly contain assets and information that cannot be found by looking through a desk drawer or filing cabinet. Doyle Law specifically addresses digital assets as part of its estate planning services.

Someone may receive bank and investment statements only electronically, maintain online financial or payment accounts, or have recurring expenses automatically charged through accounts that relatives do not know exist. Email accounts can contain information needed to identify other assets or financial relationships.

The problem is not limited to money. Family photographs, documents and other personally important material may exist only electronically.

Without advance planning, family members may not know what digital property exists, where it is located or how it was intended to be handled. Doyle Law helps clients consider digital assets and online accounts as part of the broader estate plan, including who should have appropriate authority to address them after incapacity or death.

Making Sure a Pet Has Somewhere to Go

Doyle Law also offers estate planning specifically for pets. For someone who considers a pet part of the family, simply leaving money or property to human beneficiaries does not answer who will take responsibility for the animal if the owner dies or can no longer provide care.

The firm's planning materials encourage owners to consider who would be willing and able to become the pet's caregiver and whether financial resources should be provided for its continuing needs.

Depending on the circumstances, Doyle Law discusses options that include a Pet Guardian Agreement or Pet Trust. This type of planning can be particularly important for someone who lives alone, owns a pet requiring significant care or does not have an obvious relative who could immediately take the animal into their home.

Special Needs & Business Succession Planning

Doyle Law's estate planning services also include planning for beneficiaries with special needs and succession issues involving businesses.

Families providing for a person with special needs may need to consider how inherited assets will be managed rather than simply providing an outright inheritance. Business owners face a different planning problem: their personal estate plan may need to account for what happens to ownership and control of a company after retirement, incapacity or death.

These situations can require planning tailored to the particular beneficiary, family or business rather than relying on a standard distribution of assets.

Two Grand Rapids Offices & a Lansing Location

Doyle Law maintains two offices in Grand Rapids. Its downtown office is located at 300 Ottawa Avenue NW, Suite 500, while its Grand Rapids–East office is located at 3940 Peninsular Drive NE, Suite 230. The firm also has an office in Lansing.

Thomas Doyle has practiced law for more than four decades and concentrates his work on estate planning and related matters. Amanda Betush also works with clients on estate planning and estate settlement. 

The firm's focused practice allows it to work with families both before planning documents are needed and later, when trustees and personal representatives must put those plans into effect.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills

• Trusts

• Revocable Living Trusts

• Powers of Attorney

• Patient Advocate Designations

• Probate Administration

• Estate Settlement

• Trust Settlement

• Digital Asset Planning

• Pet Planning

• Pet Trusts

• Special Needs Planning

• Business Succession Planning