Inhulsen Estate Planning & Business Law

Grand Rapids Estate Planning Attorneys for Families and Business Owners

Inhulsen Law helps individuals, families, and business owners prepare for death, incapacity, and changes that could affect the future of a family or closely held company. The Grand Rapids firm handles estate planning as a primary part of its practice, including wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, special-needs planning, business succession, and the administration of estates and trusts after a death.

Founder John Inhulsen has practiced law since 2006. His background includes business litigation as well as estate and business planning. That combination can be useful when a family’s financial life includes ownership in a company, agreements with business partners, real estate, or assets that cannot be addressed adequately through a simple will. The firm can coordinate a person’s estate-planning documents with beneficiary designations, business agreements, and plans for a future change in ownership or management.

Planning may begin with familiar questions about who should inherit a home or savings. It can also require decisions about who would raise minor children, who could manage finances during an illness, whether an inheritance should be distributed immediately, and what would happen to a business if its owner unexpectedly died or became unable to work. Inhulsen Law develops plans around the client’s family structure, property, responsibilities, and long-term objectives rather than treating every estate as though it presents the same problems.

Making Decisions Before Michigan Law Makes Them

When a Michigan resident dies without a valid will, state intestacy law determines which relatives inherit the probate estate. Those default rules cannot account for personal relationships, promises made within a family, charitable intentions, or the needs of particular beneficiaries.

This can create especially undesirable results for blended families. A surviving spouse and children from a previous relationship may have very different expectations about a house, family property, or financial accounts. An unmarried partner does not receive the protections that a legal spouse receives under intestacy law. Without written instructions and properly coordinated ownership arrangements, property may pass in a way the deceased person never intended.

A will allows someone to name beneficiaries, select a personal representative to administer the estate, and nominate a guardian for minor children. Parents can therefore address not only who should receive their property but also who should care for their children if neither parent is available. A will may also include gifts to relatives, friends, churches, charities, or other organizations that would not inherit under Michigan’s default rules.

Inhulsen Law also advises clients about the limits of a will. Retirement accounts, life insurance, pensions, and certain financial accounts commonly pass according to beneficiary designations rather than the instructions in a will. Jointly owned property may also transfer outside the probate estate. Reviewing these arrangements together helps identify conflicts, such as an outdated beneficiary designation naming a former spouse or an account that would pass directly to an adult child when the parent intended the inheritance to remain in trust.

Using Trusts to Address More Than Probate

A trust may be appropriate when a family wants to avoid probate for properly funded assets, maintain greater privacy, prepare for incapacity, or control how beneficiaries receive an inheritance. Inhulsen Law creates revocable living trusts and other trust arrangements based on the purpose the family is trying to accomplish.

A revocable living trust generally allows its creator to retain control and change the arrangement during life. If property is properly transferred to the trust, a successor trustee can manage it when the creator dies or becomes unable to handle financial affairs. This can reduce the need for court involvement and give the family a defined process for continuing to pay expenses, manage property, and eventually distribute assets.

Trust planning can be particularly important when beneficiaries should not receive everything at once. Parents may want funds held for a child’s education and support rather than distributed in a lump sum upon turning 18. A beneficiary may be financially inexperienced, struggling with addiction, vulnerable to creditors, or involved in an unstable marriage. A trust can establish who will manage the inheritance and the conditions under which money or property may be used.

Trusts can also help clarify expectations in a blended family. A plan might provide for a surviving spouse during life while preserving remaining property for the creator’s children. The exact arrangement must reflect the family’s circumstances, but addressing the competing concerns in advance can be far easier than leaving a spouse, stepchildren, and other relatives to resolve them after a death.

Creating the document is only part of the process. A trust that never receives the intended property may not accomplish its probate-avoidance purpose. Inhulsen Law assists with implementation, including trust funding and the coordination of asset ownership and beneficiary designations. The firm can also prepare a pour-over will to address property that remains outside the trust at death, although those assets may still need to pass through probate before entering the trust.

Planning for an Accident, Illness, or Loss of Capacity

Estate planning also determines who can act while a person is alive but unable to manage important decisions. An accident, stroke, dementia diagnosis, or other serious illness can leave relatives trying to pay bills, communicate with financial institutions, or authorize medical care without clear legal authority.

A durable financial power of attorney allows a trusted agent to handle the financial and legal matters described in the document. Depending on its terms, this might include accessing accounts, paying household expenses, managing real estate, dealing with insurance, or keeping a business operating. Without advance authorization, relatives may need to seek a court-appointed conservator before they can act.

Healthcare documents address a different set of decisions. A patient advocate designation can name someone to make medical choices if the individual cannot communicate or make those decisions independently. Written instructions can also help the advocate understand the person’s preferences concerning life-sustaining treatment, artificial nutrition and hydration, resuscitation, pain management, and comfort-focused care.

These conversations can spare relatives from having to guess during a medical crisis. They may also reduce conflict when family members hold different beliefs about treatment. Inhulsen Law helps clients consider practical scenarios and coordinate their healthcare documents with the rest of the estate plan.

Protecting a Family Member with Disabilities

Families caring for a child or adult with disabilities often need to plan beyond a conventional inheritance. Leaving money directly to someone receiving means-tested assistance may affect eligibility for programs such as Supplemental Security Income or Medicaid. At the same time, parents may be worried about who will oversee care, manage funds, and understand their family member’s daily needs after the parents are gone.

Inhulsen Law provides special-needs planning that may include first-party or third-party special-needs trusts, government-benefit coordination, trustee selection, ABLE accounts, guardianship or conservatorship considerations, healthcare directives, and a letter of intent for future caregivers.

The appropriate trust depends partly on whose money will fund it. A first-party trust holds assets belonging to the person with disabilities, which might include proceeds from a settlement or an inheritance already received. A third-party trust can be funded by parents or other relatives for the beneficiary’s benefit. These arrangements have different rules, including potential Medicaid repayment consequences, so the source of the property matters.

The firm can also help families think through the human side of the plan: who is capable of serving as trustee, who can advocate for the beneficiary’s care, and what information future caregivers will need. A letter of intent is not a binding estate-planning document, but it can record routines, medical information, preferences, relationships, and personal goals that may not fit naturally into a trust.

Connecting an Estate Plan to a Family Business

Business owners face planning questions that extend beyond distributing personal property. If an owner dies or becomes incapacitated, someone may need immediate authority to meet payroll, communicate with customers, exercise voting rights, or decide whether the company should continue, be transferred to a family member, or be sold.

Inhulsen Law works with owners on succession strategies involving ownership transfers, leadership changes, buy-sell agreements, operating agreements, shareholder arrangements, trusts, beneficiary designations, and life insurance funding. The firm’s business-law practice also includes entity formation, contracts, general business counsel, and business purchases and sales.

Succession can become difficult when only one child works in the company but several children are expected to share equally in their parents’ estate. Dividing ownership equally may create conflict or place decision-making power in the hands of family members who are not involved in the business. Giving the company entirely to the participating child, however, may leave too little property for the other children. Addressing valuation, control, and sources of equalization while the owner is available can help prevent those issues from becoming a family dispute.

The owner’s personal estate plan and company documents should support the same outcome. A trust cannot reliably direct the transfer of a business interest if an operating agreement imposes conflicting restrictions. Similarly, a buy-sell agreement, life insurance policy, will, and beneficiary designation may produce unintended results if each was prepared at a different time without coordination.

Guidance After a Death

Inhulsen Law also assists personal representatives, trustees, and beneficiaries after someone dies. Estate administration may require locating and valuing property, notifying interested parties, addressing creditor claims, paying taxes and expenses, completing probate filings, and distributing the remaining assets. The person placed in charge may be grieving while also assuming responsibilities they have never handled before.

Trustees have their own duties. They may need to interpret trust language, safeguard and invest assets, maintain records, communicate with beneficiaries, manage real estate or a family cottage, and make distributions according to the trust’s instructions. Because trustees and personal representatives can face liability for mistakes, informal family expectations are not always a safe substitute for understanding the governing documents and Michigan law.

The firm can also advise beneficiaries who need help understanding an estate or trust and their rights to information. When disagreements arise, early clarification about the documents, fiduciary duties, and required procedures may keep confusion from escalating into a more serious dispute.

Grand Rapids Office and West Michigan Service

Inhulsen Law is located at 3351 Claystone Street SE, Suite 104, in Grand Rapids. The firm describes its clientele as including individuals, families, entrepreneurs, and established businesses in Grand Rapids and Forest Hills, with additional references to serving clients throughout West Michigan.

John Inhulsen has received recognition from Michigan Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, Grand Rapids Magazine, and other professional and community organizations. He has also participated in a number of West Michigan civic and nonprofit organizations. Consultations are available for people seeking assistance with estate planning, estate or trust administration, special-needs planning, business succession, or related business matters.

Practice Areas

• Wills and beneficiary planning

• Revocable living trusts and other trusts

• Powers of attorney

• Advance healthcare directives

• Special-needs planning

• Asset-protection planning

• Business succession planning

• Estate and trust administration

• Business formation, contracts, and general counsel

• Business purchases, sales, and ownership transitions