Dykema

Estate Planning, Wealth Transfer & Trust Attorneys in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Some estate plans are relatively straightforward. Others involve a family business, substantial investments, a beneficiary with special needs, charitable goals, complicated tax considerations, or assets that cannot easily be divided among the next generation.

Dykema's Estate Planning and Administration practice works with individuals, families, business owners, fiduciaries, and beneficiaries on both traditional estate planning and more sophisticated wealth-transfer matters. The firm's services range from wills, revocable trusts, and financial and medical powers of attorney to irrevocable trusts, special-needs trusts, charitable planning, estate and gift tax strategies, and administration of complex estates and trusts.

Dykema maintains a Bloomfield Hills office with attorneys whose practices include estate planning, tax planning, probate and trust administration, and contested estate matters. The firm's broader platform also allows its estate attorneys to draw on tax, business, real estate, and litigation experience when those issues become part of a family's planning.

When an Estate Includes More Than Easily Divided Assets

An estate becomes more complicated when much of a family's wealth is tied to assets that cannot simply be divided into equal shares.

Dykema advises clients whose estates include closely held companies, significant real estate, investments, and other substantial or unusual assets. Planning can involve determining not only who should ultimately benefit from those assets, but how ownership and control should change over time.

That can be particularly important when different beneficiaries have different relationships to the property. One child may work in a family company while another does not. Some assets may generate income that the family wants to preserve, while others may eventually be sold.

Dykema's estate attorneys coordinate these concerns with the firm's tax and business capabilities, allowing the transfer of wealth to be considered alongside the practical issues associated with ownership and management.

Passing a Family Business to the Next Generation

For a business owner, deciding what happens to the company can be one of the most important parts of an estate plan.

Dykema advises owners of privately held businesses on estate and succession planning. The work can involve preparing for lifetime transfers, determining how business interests should pass at death, and considering the estate, gift, income, and generation-skipping transfer tax consequences of those decisions.

Succession planning can also require families to confront questions that have no simple answer. The person best suited to run a company may not be the only beneficiary of the owner's estate, and dividing ownership equally does not necessarily provide a workable plan for operating the business.

By combining estate planning with experience representing privately owned companies, Dykema can address the business interest as both a family asset and an operating enterprise.

Planning for Estate, Gift, and Generation-Skipping Transfer Taxes

Tax planning is a substantial part of Dykema's estate practice rather than a passing service mentioned on a general estate-planning page.

The firm advises clients concerning federal estate and gift taxes, generation-skipping transfer taxes, income taxes, and other tax consequences associated with transferring family wealth. Its attorneys use a range of trust and planning structures when appropriate to the client's assets and objectives.

Lifetime gifts may also be considered as part of a larger transfer strategy rather than waiting for all property to pass at death.

For families with substantial estates, these decisions can affect not only how much property eventually reaches beneficiaries but also when assets are transferred, who controls them, and whether wealth is intended to benefit children, grandchildren, or later generations.

Dykema's tax capabilities continue after death through estate and trust administration and tax matters involving fiduciaries.

Providing for a Family Member With Special Needs

Leaving an inheritance to a beneficiary with a disability can require planning beyond simply naming that person in a will.

Dykema prepares special-needs trusts and advises families on planning involving beneficiaries who receive or may need means-tested government benefits such as Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income.

A direct inheritance can create issues when eligibility for important benefits depends on the beneficiary's financial circumstances. Special-needs planning can instead establish a trust through which assets are managed for the beneficiary under terms designed around the person's circumstances and needs.

The choice of trustee can also be particularly important. The trustee may have continuing responsibility for managing and distributing property while considering both the trust terms and the beneficiary's benefit eligibility.

For parents or other relatives, the objective is often not merely transferring an inheritance, but creating a structure that can continue supporting a vulnerable family member after the people currently providing that support are gone.

Incorporating Charitable Giving Into an Estate Plan

Families with philanthropic goals may want an estate plan to benefit both individual heirs and organizations or causes that matter to them.

Dykema advises clients regarding charitable trusts, private foundations, and other charitable giving arrangements. Its attorneys work with individuals and families on both lifetime philanthropy and charitable transfers incorporated into estate plans.

These decisions can intersect with broader tax and wealth-transfer planning, particularly when charitable goals involve significant assets or an ongoing family foundation rather than a single bequest in a will.

Planning can therefore address how much wealth should remain within the family, what portion should support charitable purposes, and how those objectives can be structured as part of the overall estate.

Administering a Complex Estate or Trust

Creating an estate plan is only the first stage. After a death, personal representatives and trustees may have significant responsibilities for putting that plan into effect.

Dykema represents fiduciaries in probate and trust administration. Its work includes administering estates and trusts, preparing individual and fiduciary income-tax returns, and addressing estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax matters.

Complex assets can make administration considerably more demanding. Business interests, investments, real estate, tax obligations, and trusts continuing for beneficiaries may all require attention before an estate can be completed.

Dykema also advises beneficiaries and other interested parties, allowing its attorneys to address questions from both those administering family wealth and those whose interests depend upon how the administration is carried out.

When a Will, Trust, or Fiduciary Decision Is Challenged

Not every estate plan is ultimately administered without disagreement.

Dykema handles probate and trust litigation involving challenges to wills and trusts, disputes over how estate planning documents should be interpreted, and claims concerning the conduct of fiduciaries.

Its contested estate work also includes intestacy and heirship disputes, spousal rights, jointly held property and accounts, creditor claims, and disagreements concerning estate-tax apportionment.

Fiduciary disputes can be especially consequential because trustees and personal representatives may control substantial property on behalf of other people. Questions about whether a fiduciary has fulfilled legal responsibilities can therefore affect both administration of the estate or trust and what beneficiaries ultimately receive.

The firm's combination of estate-planning and litigation capabilities allows it to handle these disputes with an understanding of the planning documents and fiduciary relationships underlying the conflict.

Planning for Incapacity as Well as Inheritance

Dykema's estate planning work also addresses circumstances that can arise long before property passes to the next generation.

Financial powers of attorney allow clients to designate someone to handle financial matters when authority is needed, while medical powers of attorney and patient advocate designations address healthcare decision-making.

Trust planning can also provide continuity in the management of trust assets when the person who created the trust can no longer handle those responsibilities personally.

These documents allow clients to select decision-makers in advance rather than focusing exclusively on beneficiaries and inheritance. For families creating more complicated wealth-transfer plans, incapacity planning can help ensure that someone has authority to manage the underlying property and financial arrangements if the original owner becomes unable to do so.

A Michigan Estate Practice With Broader Resources

Dykema's Estate Planning and Administration practice operates within a large law firm with offices in Michigan and elsewhere in the United States. That broader structure gives its estate attorneys access to lawyers working in tax, corporate law, litigation, real estate, and other disciplines that can overlap with private-client matters.

The Bloomfield Hills office includes attorneys handling sophisticated estate and gift planning, probate and trust administration, business succession, special-needs planning, and estate disputes.

This combination is particularly relevant when a family's estate cannot be addressed entirely through traditional wills and trusts and instead requires coordinated consideration of businesses, taxes, fiduciary responsibilities, charitable goals, or litigation.

Michigan Offices & Client Reach

Dykema maintains its Bloomfield Hills office at 39577 Woodward Avenue, Suite 300. The firm's Michigan presence also includes offices in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Lansing, and Grand Rapids, supporting a statewide Estate Planning and Administration practice.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills

• Revocable Living Trusts

• Irrevocable Trusts

• Financial Powers of Attorney

• Medical Powers of Attorney

• Special-Needs Trusts

• Generation-Skipping Trusts

• Insurance Trusts

• Charitable Trusts

• Estate Administration

• Trust Administration

• Probate

• Estate and Gift Tax Planning

• Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Planning

• Business Succession Planning

• Charitable Planning

• Private Foundations

• Probate Litigation

• Trust Litigation

• Will and Trust Contests

• Fiduciary Disputes

• Guardianships

• Conservatorships