Evans & Davis

Estate Planning & Business Succession Attorneys in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Evans & Davis is an estate and business planning firm with a Grand Rapids office serving individuals, families and business owners. Its work looks beyond the preparation of a will to questions about who will care for children, who can make decisions during incapacity, how property will reach the intended beneficiaries and what happens to a business when an owner can no longer run it.

Those questions often overlap. A business owner may need to provide for a spouse and children while also deciding who should control the company. Parents with young children need to consider both guardianship and who should manage an inheritance until the children are ready to handle it themselves. A homeowner creating a trust needs to consider whether the home and other assets have actually been coordinated with that plan.

Evans & Davis also works with families after a death. The firm handles probate and trust administration, including situations where a family member has been named personal representative or successor trustee and must take responsibility for assets, debts, beneficiaries and other administrative obligations.

When Parents Have Young Children

For parents, estate planning can answer two very different questions: who should care for the children if both parents die, and who should manage the property left for them?

Evans & Davis addresses guardianship as part of planning for young families. Naming a guardian allows parents to express their choice about who should assume responsibility for their children rather than leaving that decision entirely unresolved.

The financial side requires separate planning. Parents may not want a child receiving control of an inheritance simply because the child reaches a particular age. A trust can instead establish who will manage the property and provide instructions for how assets should be used or distributed for the child's benefit.

A Trust Needs to Work With the Assets You Own

Creating a trust is only one part of trust-based estate planning. Evans & Davis addresses how assets are owned and whether property has actually been coordinated with the estate plan.

A home is a common example. The firm specifically discusses placing a house in a trust and the role that ownership plays in determining how the property will be handled after death. Other assets may transfer through beneficiary designations or other arrangements.

This distinction matters because signing a trust document does not necessarily mean every asset someone owns will automatically become part of the trust. Coordinating the plan with real estate, financial accounts and other property can help make sure the intended method of transfer matches the documents that were created.

Planning for Incapacity, Not Just Death

A family's legal problems can begin before anyone dies. An accident, serious illness or declining capacity can leave someone unable to manage finances, property or other important decisions.

Evans & Davis incorporates incapacity into its estate-planning work. Advance planning can identify who should have authority to act rather than leaving the family to confront those questions for the first time during a crisis.

For a business owner, incapacity can have consequences beyond the household. Someone may need authority to address both personal financial matters and responsibilities connected with the company. Planning for that possibility can be particularly important when the owner remains central to the operation of the business.

When the Family's Wealth Includes a Business

Business ownership can make an estate plan considerably more complicated. The value of the company may represent a substantial part of the owner's estate, but simply determining who inherits that value does not answer who should operate or control the business.

Evans & Davis works with business owners on succession planning alongside their personal estate plans. An owner may need to decide whether children will eventually become involved, whether ownership and management should remain together, and how a spouse or other family members fit into the plan.

Without a coordinated succession plan, death or incapacity can leave relatives confronting business decisions they were never expected or prepared to make. The people an owner wants to benefit financially are not necessarily the same people the owner would choose to manage the company.

When Children Inherit a Family Business

Passing a business to the next generation can raise issues that do not exist with cash or other easily divided property. One child may work in the company while another has built an entirely different career. A surviving spouse may depend on the value or income of the business without having any desire to participate in its operation.

Evans & Davis's combination of estate and business planning allows these issues to be considered together. The objective is not simply to decide who receives an ownership interest, but to coordinate the future of the company with the owner's plans for family members and other beneficiaries.

Planning before a transition occurs can also clarify what should happen if an owner becomes incapacitated rather than dies. For a closely held company, the absence of someone with clear authority can create immediate practical problems.

Estate Planning as Family Circumstances Change

An estate plan reflects a person's family, assets and priorities at a particular point in time. Those circumstances do not necessarily remain the same.

Marriage, children, changing property ownership, business growth and other developments can affect how an existing plan operates. A plan created when a couple was starting a family may not address the same concerns years later when the children are adults or the family owns significantly different assets.

Evans & Davis's planning process considers the client's current circumstances and objectives rather than treating estate planning as simply producing a standard set of documents.

When a Loved One's Estate Goes Through Probate

After a death, Evans & Davis assists families with probate administration. Probate may be required for property that does not pass through a trust, beneficiary designation, joint ownership or another non-probate arrangement.

The administration process can involve identifying and gathering assets, evaluating debts and liabilities, making required court filings and addressing other matters before property can ultimately be distributed.

For the personal representative, these responsibilities may be completely unfamiliar. Being named in a will does not mean someone has previously dealt with probate court or knows which tasks need to be completed and in what order.

Evans & Davis represents personal representatives through the administration process as they work toward settling the estate and distributing the remaining property.

Becoming a Successor Trustee Is a Real Job

A trust can change how property is administered after death, but it does not eliminate the need for someone to do the work. That responsibility often falls to a family member named as successor trustee.

Evans & Davis assists trustees with the legal and practical responsibilities of trust administration. Depending on the trust and assets involved, a trustee may need to identify and evaluate property, communicate with beneficiaries, address tax and legal requirements, arrange for assets to be valued or sold and ultimately make distributions.

The trustee also has fiduciary responsibilities to the beneficiaries. That can become particularly important when several family members have interests in the same trust or disagree about how quickly property should be distributed.

The firm can tailor its involvement to the amount of assistance a trustee and family need rather than assuming every trust administration requires exactly the same approach.

When Estate Planning and Administration Meet

The connection between planning and administration is important because the decisions made during life eventually become instructions that someone else must carry out.

A trust may identify a successor trustee, but that person still needs to understand the document and administer the property. A will may nominate a personal representative, but the representative may still have to navigate probate. A business succession plan may identify future ownership, but a death or incapacity can turn those plans into immediate responsibilities.

Evans & Davis works on both sides of that transition. Its estate and business planning practice helps clients establish arrangements during life, while its probate and trust-administration work assists families when those arrangements have to be implemented.

Grand Rapids Office

Evans & Davis maintains its Grand Rapids office at 250 Monroe Avenue NW, Suite 400, in downtown Grand Rapids. The firm has a broader multi-state practice, with Grand Rapids serving as its Michigan location.

Partner John D. Weaver is part of the Grand Rapids team. The office's services include estate planning, business planning and trust administration, giving families and business owners access to planning as well as assistance carrying out an estate or trust after death.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills

• Trusts

• Incapacity Planning

• Planning for Young Families

• Guardianship Planning for Minor Children

• Estate Planning for Business Owners

• Business Succession Planning

• Real Estate and Trust Planning

• Probate

• Probate Administration

• Trust Administration