Eyestone Law Offices, Estate Planning & Business Council

Estate Planning & Business Succession Attorneys in Grandville, Michigan

Eyestone Law Offices helps individuals, families and business owners plan for the transfer and management of property during life and after death. From its Grandville office, the firm handles estate planning, probate and trust administration, guardianships and conservatorships, business planning and succession, and planning for family cottages and other vacation property.

The firm's estate work extends beyond deciding who receives property after someone dies. Families may need to choose guardians for young children, decide who can make financial or healthcare decisions during incapacity, provide for dependents, prepare a business for the next generation or figure out how several siblings can realistically share a family cottage.

Shawn P. Eyestone's background includes estate-planning and business-law work with West Michigan and Detroit-area firms before establishing his own practice. Kristina "Kristy" Gibney also practices in estate planning, probate and business law and has practiced in Grandville since 2007.

Estate Planning as a Family Changes

An estate plan that works for a young single adult may be very different from one needed after marriage, the birth of children, the purchase of property or the creation of a business.

Eyestone Law Offices works with wills, trusts and other estate-planning tools while considering the client's stage of life and family circumstances. For parents of young children, planning can include choosing the people they would want to care for their children and deciding how property should be managed for children who are not yet ready to handle an inheritance themselves.

Later, the focus may shift toward preserving and transferring accumulated assets, providing for dependents and determining how property should pass among children or other beneficiaries.

The firm also emphasizes keeping estate plans current. Changes involving family members, finances, property or other circumstances can affect whether an older plan still reflects what the client intends.

Who Will Make Decisions If You Cannot?

Estate planning also addresses what happens while someone is alive but unable to make decisions independently.

Illness, injury or declining capacity can leave family members trying to determine who has authority to act. Planning ahead can establish who should handle financial matters and who should participate in healthcare decisions if the client becomes unable to do so.

These documents can become important long before an inheritance is at issue. A spouse, adult child or other trusted person may need authority to deal with accounts, property or medical decisions during a period of incapacity.

Making those choices while the client can still participate allows the family to know who was selected rather than having to resolve the issue after a crisis occurs.

When Mom and Dad Want the Cottage to Stay in the Family

A family cottage can be one of the most meaningful assets in an estate—and one of the most difficult for several children to inherit together.

Eyestone Law Offices has substantial material devoted specifically to succession planning for cottages and vacation property. The firm's work recognizes that simply leaving a cottage equally to the children does not resolve the practical problems that can follow.

One child may use the property constantly while another lives far away. One may be able to afford repairs and taxes while another cannot. Someone may want to sell their interest and receive cash. Siblings may disagree about renovations, maintenance or how the property should be used. Divorce, creditors and changes in the next generation can further complicate ownership.

Planning can establish rules for ownership, management, expenses and future transfers before the parents who held the family together are gone.

Who Pays for the Roof — and Who Gets Fourth of July Weekend?

Keeping a cottage in the family involves more than putting several names on a deed.

Eyestone Law Offices addresses the use of Michigan limited liability companies and related agreements to structure ownership of family cottages and vacation properties. Those arrangements can address how decisions are made, how ownership interests may change and what happens when someone no longer wants to participate.

Families can also consider how ongoing costs will be handled. Taxes, insurance, utilities, routine maintenance and major repairs do not disappear when a property passes to the next generation. A plan that ignores those expenses can leave siblings arguing over money even when everyone initially wanted to preserve the cottage.

Use of the property can raise equally practical questions. A family may need a process for scheduling popular weekends, deciding who may bring guests, approving improvements and resolving disagreements.

The firm's cottage-planning work also considers Michigan property-tax uncapping issues associated with transfers. That makes the legal structure of a transfer important alongside the family's personal goals for the property.

When the Family Business Is Part of the Family's Future

A business owner may have much more to plan for than a house, retirement accounts and personal belongings.

Eyestone Law Offices advises businesses from formation and acquisition through operational matters and eventual succession. Its estate and business work can intersect when a company, rental property or other closely held asset is intended to remain in the family.

An owner may need to decide whether a child will eventually operate the company, how ownership should transfer and what happens if some children are involved in the business while others are not. A plan may also need to address what happens if the owner dies or becomes unable to participate sooner than expected.

These questions can affect both the future of the company and the owner's estate. Addressing succession before a crisis gives the owner an opportunity to establish a structure rather than leaving family members to determine the future of the business after the person who ran it is no longer available.

When Children or Incapacitated Adults Need Someone to Act for Them

Sometimes advance planning cannot solve the problem because legal authority must be established through the court.

Eyestone Law Offices handles guardianships and conservatorships. These proceedings can arise when an adult can no longer manage personal or financial affairs or when a child needs someone legally authorized to provide care or manage property.

The firm's materials also address difficult circumstances in which children under 18 lose parental care because of a parent's death or incarceration. In those situations, another adult may need legal authority to make decisions for the child.

A conservatorship carries responsibilities after the appointment is made. Depending on the circumstances, those duties can include inventories, notices, accountings and other continuing requirements involving the protected person's property.

For families suddenly placed in these roles, the issue is therefore not simply obtaining an appointment. The person appointed must also understand the responsibilities that come with managing someone else's affairs.

After a Death, Someone Has to Carry Out the Plan

A will or trust does not administer itself after its creator dies.

Eyestone Law Offices handles probate and trust administration under Michigan law. The work can involve helping the people responsible for an estate or trust understand their duties while accounting for the interests of heirs and beneficiaries.

A personal representative administering a probate estate may face unfamiliar responsibilities at the same time the family is dealing with a death. Property has to be identified and handled, legal requirements must be followed and assets ultimately have to reach the appropriate people.

Trustees can likewise inherit significant responsibilities. A trust may avoid some of the procedures associated with probate, but the trustee still has to administer the trust according to its terms and applicable law.

For someone who agreed years earlier to serve as personal representative or trustee, the actual job can be considerably more involved than simply distributing property among family members.

Planning for Property That Needs More Than a Simple Will

Some family assets create problems that cannot be solved merely by naming a beneficiary.

A closely held business needs someone to own or operate it. A cottage shared by several siblings needs rules and funding. Property intended for a young child needs someone to manage it. A person who becomes incapacitated may need someone with authority to act during life.

Eyestone Law Offices' combination of estate, probate, business and real-estate-related planning allows these issues to be considered as connected parts of a family's circumstances.

The objective can therefore extend beyond determining who receives an asset. Families can also consider how that asset will be owned, managed and maintained when the current owner is no longer the person making the decisions.

A Grandville Firm With a Muskegon Office

Eyestone Law Offices' Grand Rapids-area office is located at 3083 Washington Avenue, Suite A, in Grandville, Michigan. The firm also maintains an office at 800 East Ellis Road, #511, in Muskegon and identifies Grandville, Grand Rapids and Muskegon among the communities where it provides estate-planning services.

For West Michigan families, the practice combines conventional estate planning with issues that can become especially complicated when significant property must survive a transition between generations.

That includes preparing wills and trusts, planning for incapacity, administering estates and trusts after death, establishing guardianships and conservatorships when necessary, and working through the practical problems created by family businesses and shared vacation property.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills & Trusts

• Probate Administration

• Trust Administration

• Guardianships & Conservatorships

• Business Planning

• Business Succession Planning

• Family Cottage & Vacation Property Planning