Generation Trust Law Group

Estate Planning & Estate Settlement Attorneys in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Generation Trust Law Group is a Grand Rapids estate planning firm built around the idea that a family's legal needs change from one generation and stage of life to the next. Formed in 2024 through the merger of Alles Law and Strategic Counsel Law Group, the firm brings together practices with more than 40 years of combined focus on estate planning and estate settlement.

Its work reaches well beyond deciding who receives property after a death. Generation Trust helps parents plan for young children, advises families as children become legal adults, addresses the complications created by remarriage and blended families, and helps clients reconsider older plans after divorce, retirement or other major changes.

The firm also has a distinctive diagnosis-planning practice for families confronting Alzheimer's disease, dementia, Parkinson's disease and other conditions that may affect a person's ability to manage personal and financial affairs. When planning eventually gives way to administration, Generation Trust assists families with probate and trust settlement.

When Parents Need a Plan for Their Children

For parents with young children, an estate plan needs to answer questions that have little to do with taxes or sophisticated financial arrangements. If both parents died, who would raise the children? Who would manage the money left for them? Could the children remain in the family home?

Generation Trust works with parents on these decisions as part of the estate-planning process. Parents can identify the people they would want caring for their children and establish arrangements for managing inherited property rather than leaving those questions unanswered.

The financial and caregiving roles do not necessarily have to be handled by the same person. Planning allows parents to think separately about who would be best suited to raise their children and how money should be managed for them while they are still young.

When Your Child Turns 18

A child's eighteenth birthday creates a legal transition that families can easily overlook. Parents who have spent years making medical and financial decisions for a son or daughter no longer automatically have the same authority once that child becomes a legal adult.

Generation Trust specifically addresses planning for college-age and other young adult children. The firm discusses financial and medical powers of attorney as well as HIPAA authorization, allowing a young adult to decide who should have appropriate authority or access if an emergency occurs.

This can become especially relevant when a child leaves home for college. A parent may still be the person the young adult wants involved during a medical crisis, but the legal relationship is different from when the child was a minor. Advance planning can establish that authority before the family has to deal with it during an emergency.

Estate Plans Need to Change as Families Change

A plan that made sense when children were young may not fit the same family 15 or 20 years later. Generation Trust emphasizes estate planning as an ongoing process rather than a set of documents that should automatically remain unchanged for life.

Retirement, divorce, remarriage and significant health changes can all create reasons to reconsider an existing plan. The people originally selected to make decisions may no longer be appropriate, and the client's relationships, property and priorities may be substantially different.

Updating an older plan gives clients an opportunity to reconsider not only who should inherit, but also who should act under powers of attorney, manage trusts and carry out responsibilities after death.

Remarriage Can Change Who Needs Protection

Blended families can create competing estate-planning concerns. Someone entering a second marriage may want to provide for a new spouse while also protecting an inheritance intended for children from an earlier relationship.

Generation Trust includes remarriage and blended-family issues among the life changes its estate-planning practice addresses. These families may need to think carefully about how property should be managed and distributed rather than assuming that a plan designed for a first marriage will continue to produce the desired result.

Divorce can create the opposite problem. An estate plan created during a marriage may contain choices and arrangements that no longer reflect the client's relationships or intentions. Reviewing the plan after a major family change allows those issues to be addressed deliberately.

Wills, Trusts & Planning for Incapacity

Generation Trust prepares wills and trusts as part of estate plans tailored to the client's family and circumstances. These documents can establish how property should be managed and distributed and identify the people who will eventually be responsible for carrying out the plan.

Planning also addresses what happens before death. Powers of attorney can establish who has authority to handle financial or medical matters if illness or another condition prevents someone from managing those decisions independently.

The importance of those documents often becomes much clearer when a serious diagnosis occurs. A family that planned in advance may already have legal authority in place, while another family may discover during a health crisis that an older plan needs attention or that no adequate incapacity planning was completed.

When a Parent Receives a Dementia or Other Serious Diagnosis

Generation Trust's diagnosis-planning practice is one of the firm's most distinctive services. It works with families after diagnoses involving Alzheimer's disease, dementia, Parkinson's disease and other conditions that can affect decision-making and independence.

A diagnosis can suddenly change estate planning from a future concern into an immediate family problem. Existing powers of attorney and trusts may need to be reviewed. The family may need to determine who has authority to handle finances or healthcare decisions and whether the documents already in place are sufficient for what lies ahead.

Timing can also matter when a condition is progressive. Addressing planning while the person can still participate in decisions may provide options that become more difficult as capacity declines.

When an Adult Child Suddenly Becomes the Caregiver

A serious diagnosis often changes the lives of other family members as well. An adult son or daughter may find that being named in a parent's documents is very different from actually having to use them.

Generation Trust specifically addresses the responsibilities of people serving under powers of attorney. A child who suddenly needs to help a parent may face questions about finances, property, bills and other decisions without having previously understood what the legal role would involve.

The firm helps families examine the authority already provided by estate-planning documents and determine what additional legal steps may be appropriate as the parent's needs change.

This combination of estate planning and diagnosis planning allows Generation Trust to address the transition from an independent parent managing everything personally to a family in which someone else increasingly needs to help.

When Guardianship or Conservatorship Becomes Necessary

Not every incapacity situation can be resolved through documents prepared in advance. Generation Trust also handles guardianships and conservatorships when court involvement becomes necessary.

Guardianship generally concerns responsibility for personal decisions, while conservatorship concerns management of another person's finances and property. These proceedings can become relevant when an individual can no longer manage important matters independently and adequate authority has not otherwise been established.

For families dealing with declining capacity, this can mean moving from private estate planning into a court-supervised process. Generation Trust's work in both areas allows the firm to advise families about planning before incapacity as well as legal proceedings that may become necessary later.

When an Estate Plan Has to Become an Estate Settlement

Eventually, an estate plan stops being a set of instructions for the future and becomes something another person must carry out. Generation Trust handles estate settlement after death, including both probate and trust administration.

The practical questions can arrive immediately. Family members may need to determine who has authority to deal with banks, what should happen to the deceased person's home, which assets are controlled by a trust and whether a probate proceeding is necessary.

Those questions can be difficult for someone who has never administered an estate before. Generation Trust helps families determine what type of administration is required and what responsibilities need to be handled.

A Trust Still Has to Be Settled After a Death

Having a trust does not mean everything happens automatically when the person who created it dies. A successor trustee still has to take control of trust property and carry out the instructions contained in the document.

Generation Trust assists trustees with the settlement process. Depending on the circumstances, that can mean dealing with financial institutions, handling property, communicating with family members and beneficiaries, and making distributions according to the trust.

A family home can present particularly practical questions. Someone may need authority to maintain or sell the property while other aspects of the trust are being settled. Financial accounts and other assets also need to be identified and handled appropriately.

For a family member who was named successor trustee years earlier, these responsibilities can become real very quickly after a death.

When Probate Is Required

Generation Trust also represents families when assets must be administered through probate. Whether probate is necessary depends on the deceased person's property and how that property was owned or designated to transfer.

A personal representative may need authority to deal with banks and other institutions, manage or transfer property and complete the steps required to settle the estate. These responsibilities can fall on a spouse or adult child who has little previous experience with the probate system.

The firm's estate-settlement work helps families determine which assets require probate and guides the personal representative through the administration that follows.

Grand Rapids & Florida Offices

Generation Trust Law Group's Michigan office is located at 5360 Cascade Road SE in Grand Rapids. The firm also maintains an office serving the Greater Tampa Bay area in Florida and offers virtual appointments for clients in Michigan and Florida.

The firm was created through the 2024 merger of Alles Law and Strategic Counsel Law Group. Tim Alles, founder of Alles Law, serves as managing partner. The attorney team also includes Colleen O'Rourke, Bill Bereza, Ellie Curran and Courtney Castro.

Generation Trust's concentration on estate planning, diagnosis planning and estate settlement gives the practice a particular role for families whose needs are changing over time—from raising children and planning for adulthood to dealing with a parent's declining capacity and eventually carrying out a loved one's estate plan.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills

• Trusts

• Powers of Attorney

• Healthcare Planning

• Planning for Minor Children

• Planning for College-Age Children

• Blended Family Estate Planning

• Diagnosis Planning

• Alzheimer's and Dementia Planning

• Parkinson's Disease Planning

• Guardianships

• Conservatorships

• Probate

• Estate Settlement

• Trust Settlement