Gormley Law Offices

Estate Planning, Probate & Estate Litigation Attorneys in Fowlerville, Michigan

Estate planning can prevent difficult decisions from becoming court proceedings later. A parent can decide who should handle finances and healthcare before incapacity occurs. A homeowner can plan for what should happen to the family home. Parents can determine how children should receive an inheritance rather than simply leaving property outright.

But planning is only one side of estate law. After someone dies, a family member may have to administer an estate or trust. If relatives disagree about a will, question how a trustee is handling assets, or believe someone pressured an elderly parent into changing an estate plan, the matter can become a legal dispute.

Gormley Law Offices, PLC handles this full range of estate matters from its Fowlerville office. Attorney John L. Gormley has practiced since 1995, with estate planning, probate and trusts among his areas of practice. The firm assists clients with planning during life, administration after death, guardianships and conservatorships, and litigation when disputes arise over estates and trusts.

Giving Someone Authority Before a Crisis Happens

A serious illness, cognitive decline or other incapacity can leave a family trying to determine who has authority to help.

Gormley Law Offices prepares financial powers of attorney and healthcare directives that allow clients to make those choices beforehand.

A financial power of attorney can provide authority for a trusted person to handle financial matters when assistance is needed. Healthcare planning can establish who should make medical decisions when an individual cannot make or communicate those decisions personally.

The firm also addresses funeral directives as part of estate planning.

These documents become particularly important when families consider the alternative. If adequate arrangements have not been made before incapacity, relatives may have to seek authority through the probate court.

Planning ahead gives the individual an opportunity to decide who should be trusted with important responsibilities rather than leaving those questions to be resolved after a crisis has begun.

When an Aging Parent Can No Longer Manage Independently

Sometimes advance planning is no longer enough—or was never completed.

Gormley Law Offices handles guardianships and conservatorships involving adults who can no longer adequately manage aspects of their lives.

These proceedings can arise when an elderly parent develops significant cognitive problems or when illness, disability or another impairment leaves someone unable to make necessary decisions.

A guardianship generally concerns decisions involving the individual's personal welfare, while a conservatorship concerns financial affairs and property.

For adult children, the need for court intervention can mark a major change in the relationship with a parent. Someone who spent decades managing a household and finances independently may now need another person to take legal responsibility for important matters.

Gormley assists families with the probate-court process when that formal authority becomes necessary.

Protecting Children With More Than an Outright Inheritance

Parents creating an estate plan have to decide more than which children should inherit.

They can also consider how and when an inheritance should be received.

Gormley Law Offices prepares wills and trusts, including revocable and irrevocable trusts, and addresses customized distribution arrangements for beneficiaries.

For example, parents may not want a young beneficiary receiving an entire inheritance at once. A trust can establish a structure under which property is held and distributed according to the terms chosen for the beneficiary.

The firm's trust work also includes spendthrift provisions. These provisions can provide additional structure around a beneficiary's access to inherited assets rather than requiring an immediate outright distribution.

These decisions allow parents to think beyond simply dividing an estate into percentages. Planning can reflect concerns about age, maturity and how inherited property should be managed over time.

A Second Marriage Can Change the Estate-Planning Conversation

Estate planning can become more complicated when spouses bring property, children or significant financial histories from previous relationships into a marriage.

Gormley Law Offices addresses premarital agreements as part of its broader estate-planning work, including for people entering second or subsequent marriages.

In these families, planning may need to account for obligations and expectations involving both a spouse and children from an earlier relationship.

The issues can be substantially different from those faced by a young couple building their finances together for the first time. Each spouse may already own property and have existing family responsibilities.

Addressing those concerns before marriage can help the couple establish expectations about property rather than leaving potentially conflicting assumptions unresolved.

What Should Happen to the Family Home?

Real estate deserves particular attention in an estate plan because the family home may be one of the owner's largest assets.

Gormley Law Offices prepares Lady Bird deeds, also known as enhanced life estate deeds, as one potential planning tool for Michigan real estate.

A Lady Bird deed can allow an owner to retain control of property during life while providing for the property to transfer to designated beneficiaries after death. In appropriate circumstances, that can allow the real estate to pass without probate.

The firm also handles the transfer of real property into trusts.

For a homeowner, the practical question is straightforward: if something happens to me, what happens to this house?

Addressing the property during estate planning can help ensure that its ownership works consistently with the rest of the plan rather than leaving relatives to resolve the issue after death.

A Trust Needs More Than a Signature

Preparing a trust document is only part of establishing a trust-based estate plan.

Gormley Law Offices also addresses trust funding, including the transfer of personal and real property into trusts.

This is an important practical distinction. A family may believe a trust automatically controls everything someone owns simply because the document was signed. But the relationship between the trust and the client's actual assets matters.

Real estate and other property may need to be handled appropriately so that the trust can function as intended.

Including funding in the planning process helps connect the legal document to the property it was created to address.

When a Business Needs a Future Without Its Current Owner

For a business owner, an estate plan may also need to address what happens to the company.

Gormley Law Offices handles business succession planning as part of its estate-planning practice.

The need can be especially important when a business depends heavily on one person or when multiple family members have an interest in its future.

An owner may need to consider who is expected to take over, how ownership should transition and how the business fits with the owner's broader estate plan.

Without succession planning, the owner's death can create uncertainty for both the family and the business at the same time. Addressing those questions in advance provides an opportunity to establish a transition rather than leaving surviving relatives to determine the company's future during an already difficult period.

Being Named Personal Representative Comes With Real Work

After a death, someone may suddenly find that being named personal representative is much more than an honorary role.

Gormley Law Offices handles probate and estate administration, including the practical work required to move an estate toward completion.

The personal representative may need to identify and gather property, determine its value, address debts and expenses, and ultimately distribute remaining property to the appropriate beneficiaries.

Funeral and administration expenses may also need to be handled.

For someone who has never administered an estate, these responsibilities can be unfamiliar and time-consuming. They also arrive while the person may still be grieving the loss of a parent, spouse or other relative.

Legal assistance can help a personal representative understand the administration process and the responsibilities that accompany the appointment.

A Trustee's Responsibilities Continue After a Death

Trusts can reduce or change some of the issues a family encounters after death, but a trust does not administer itself.

Gormley Law Offices assists with trust administration as well as estate administration.

A trustee may need to identify and manage trust property, follow the terms established by the person who created the trust, and deal with beneficiaries while carrying out the trustee's responsibilities.

A family member chosen as trustee may have been selected because the person was trusted, not because the person had previous experience administering trusts.

Once the role becomes active, that individual can find himself or herself responsible for property belonging to a legal arrangement that must be administered according to its terms.

When Someone Challenges a Will or Trust

Some families encounter more than administrative questions after a death.

Gormley Law Offices handles will contests and trust disputes, including litigation involving questions about whether an estate-planning document should be enforced.

One potential dispute involves undue influence. Family members may believe someone pressured or manipulated an elderly or vulnerable person into changing a will or trust.

Another can involve capacity. A relative may question whether the person understood what was happening when a document was signed.

Allegations of fraud can also result in contested estate proceedings.

These disputes can place family relationships and significant property interests in direct conflict. Resolving them may require determining not merely what a document says, but whether the document itself should control.

Gormley handles contested probate and trust matters through negotiation and mediation when appropriate and through court proceedings when litigation is necessary.

When the Dispute Is About the Person Handling the Money

Estate disputes do not always concern the validity of a will or trust.

Sometimes the conflict is about what has happened to the assets.

Gormley Law Offices handles fiduciary disputes, including allegations involving mismanagement and missing estate assets.

A beneficiary may question whether a personal representative or trustee is properly handling property. Family members may disagree about what happened to particular assets or whether someone entrusted with estate or trust responsibilities is fulfilling those duties appropriately.

These disputes are different from ordinary administration because the conduct of the person managing the property has itself become an issue.

The firm's combination of estate administration and probate litigation allows it to work with the responsibilities involved in managing estates and trusts as well as disputes arising from those responsibilities.

Estate Law From Planning Through Litigation

Gormley Law Offices is located on East Grand River Avenue in Fowlerville and serves families throughout Livingston County.

Its estate practice covers a particularly broad range of situations. A family can seek assistance while everyone is healthy and capable, establishing wills, trusts, powers of attorney and healthcare directives. Planning can address the family home, children, a second marriage or the future of a business.

When circumstances change, the firm also handles guardianships and conservatorships for people who require court-authorized assistance.

After a death, Gormley assists with probate, estate administration and trust administration. And when relatives cannot agree—or when questions arise about undue influence, capacity, missing assets or the conduct of a fiduciary—the firm handles contested probate and trust proceedings.

That breadth makes the practice relevant at very different moments in a family's life: before a problem develops, after a loved one becomes incapacitated, following a death, and when an estate or trust dispute cannot be resolved informally.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills

• Revocable Trusts

• Irrevocable Trusts

• Pour-Over Wills

• Financial Powers of Attorney

• Healthcare Directives

• Funeral Directives

• Lady Bird Deeds

• Trust Funding

• Guardianships

• Conservatorships

• Probate

• Estate Administration

• Trust Administration

• Probate Litigation

• Will Contests

• Trust Disputes

• Fiduciary Disputes

• Business Succession Planning

• Premarital Agreements