Keenan & Austin

Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Attorneys in Redford, Michigan

Estate planning often comes down to practical family decisions.

 

Parents may want an inheritance managed for a child rather than distributed all at once. Someone supporting a family member with disabilities may need to consider government benefits before leaving that person money directly. Other families may be tempted to add a child's name to a house or bank account simply to avoid probate without considering the consequences.

Keenan & Austin assists individuals and families with estate planning and probate from its Redford office. The firm's services include wills, revocable living trusts, powers of attorney, patient advocate designations, educational trusts, special-needs trusts, pet trusts, and probate administration.

John Keenan handles wills, trusts, probate, and guardianship matters, while Jan Keenan drafts the firm's wills, trusts, and other estate-planning documents. The firm has served clients from Redford since 1982.

Deciding Between a Will and a Living Trust

A will and a revocable living trust can both be important estate-planning tools, but they accomplish different things.

Keenan & Austin prepares wills that establish how clients want probate property distributed after death. The firm also creates revocable living trusts for clients whose objectives include managing assets through a trust and keeping properly transferred trust property outside probate.

With a revocable trust, the person creating the trust can continue controlling the property during life. A successor trustee can be selected to manage the trust when the original trustee dies or can no longer serve.

The firm's trust work also includes transferring assets into the arrangement. Keenan & Austin prepares deeds to place real estate into trusts when appropriate, addressing the important distinction between merely signing a trust document and actually arranging ownership of property to work with the trust.

Before Putting a Child's Name on Your Property

Adding an adult child to a house, bank account, or other asset can look like an easy way to avoid probate. Keenan & Austin cautions families to consider what else happens when they make someone a joint owner.

The firm's estate-planning materials discuss the potential loss of control that can accompany joint ownership and the possibility that another owner's financial problems or creditors could affect the property.

There can also be consequences for the family's intended inheritance.

A parent might add one child to an account expecting that child to divide the money with siblings after the parent's death. But an informal family understanding is not necessarily the same as an enforceable estate plan, and the surviving owner may ultimately control what happens to the property.

Keenan & Austin advises clients to consider wills, trusts, and other planning arrangements rather than assuming joint ownership is always the simplest solution.

When You Don't Want an Inheritance Distributed All at Once

Leaving property to someone does not necessarily mean that person must receive everything immediately.

Keenan & Austin uses trusts to help clients establish how inherited property should be managed and distributed over time. This can be useful when parents or grandparents want to provide for younger beneficiaries without giving them unrestricted access to a substantial inheritance before they believe the beneficiary is ready.

The firm also prepares educational trusts. These trusts can restrict distributions to education-related expenses such as tuition, books, and room and board.

That gives families another option when their objective is specifically to provide resources for a child's or grandchild's education rather than making an unrestricted financial gift.

Trust planning can therefore address not only who receives property, but also the purpose of the inheritance and the circumstances under which money should become available.

Providing for a Loved One With Special Needs

An inheritance requires additional consideration when the intended beneficiary has a disability and receives means-tested government assistance.

Keenan & Austin prepares special-needs trusts for families who want to provide additional resources for a disabled beneficiary while taking government-benefit eligibility into account.

The firm's materials specifically discuss beneficiaries receiving Supplemental Security Income and other government benefits. Simply leaving a large inheritance directly to the beneficiary can create problems when eligibility depends on the person's financial resources.

A special-needs trust can instead provide a structure for assets to be managed and used to supplement the beneficiary's other resources.

For parents and other relatives, this changes the planning question from simply determining how much a loved one should inherit to determining how that inheritance can be structured around the beneficiary's continuing needs.

Planning for Financial and Medical Decisions During Life

Wills and inheritance are only part of Keenan & Austin's estate-planning work.

The firm also prepares powers of attorney and patient advocate designations. These documents allow clients to choose trusted people to handle important matters if illness or incapacity prevents them from acting personally.

A power of attorney can establish authority concerning financial affairs, while a patient advocate designation addresses medical decision-making.

Putting these arrangements in place before an emergency gives the individual an opportunity to decide who should have authority rather than waiting until the family is already dealing with an incapacity.

Keenan & Austin also handles guardianship matters, providing representation when court involvement is necessary to establish authority for someone who needs assistance with personal decisions.

Making Sure a Pet Has Somewhere to Go

Keenan & Austin also addresses a planning concern that is easily overlooked: what happens to a pet after its owner dies.

The firm prepares pet trusts that can establish arrangements for an animal's future care. Planning can identify a caregiver and provide funds to help meet the pet's expenses rather than leaving family members to determine what should happen after the owner's death.

For someone without close relatives—or someone whose pet is an especially important part of the household—this may be a meaningful component of the estate plan.

The firm's dedicated work with pet trusts allows clients to address that responsibility alongside planning for other property and beneficiaries.

When You Become Responsible for Administering an Estate

Keenan & Austin's work continues beyond advance estate planning. The firm represents clients through Michigan probate and estate administration.

A personal representative may be responsible for much more than distributing property according to a will. Keenan & Austin assists with opening the estate, required court filings, bonds when applicable, creditor claims, inventories and accountings, retitling property, distributions, and ultimately closing the estate.

The firm handles probate both when the deceased person left a will and when someone died intestate.

For a family member serving as personal representative for the first time, the process can involve unfamiliar deadlines and responsibilities at the same time the family is dealing with a death.

Keenan & Austin can handle the probate process from opening through final distribution rather than limiting its work to preparation of estate documents during life.

Estate Planning and Probate Experience in Redford

Keenan & Austin was established in 1982. John Keenan's practice includes wills, trusts, probate, and guardianships, and the firm describes him as having more than 30 years of experience in these areas. Jan Keenan prepares wills, trusts, and other estate-planning documents for the firm's clients.

Both John and Jan Keenan earned their undergraduate degrees from the University of Michigan and their law degrees from the University of Detroit.

In addition to estate planning and probate, the firm handles real estate and other legal matters. Its estate practice ranges from straightforward wills and incapacity documents to specialized trusts and the administration of estates after death.

Serving Redford and the Surrounding Area

Keenan & Austin is located at 25550 Five Mile Road in Redford, Michigan serving clients in Wayne and Oakland counties and  and throughout Southeastern Michigan.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills

• Revocable Living Trusts

• Educational Trusts

• Special-Needs Trusts

• Pet Trusts

• Powers of Attorney

• Patient Advocate Designations

• Probate

• Estate Administration

• Guardianships