Krupp Law Offices

Estate Planning & Probate Attorneys in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Krupp Law Offices, P.C. is a Grand Rapids law firm with a practice that includes wills, trusts, incapacity planning and probate alongside its substantial family-law work. The firm's roots in Grand Rapids extend back decades, and attorneys George Krupp and Christian G. Krupp II assist families with estate administration in Kent County and several surrounding West Michigan counties.

For estate-planning clients, the issues can be straightforward but important: Who should receive property? Who should care for minor children? Who should handle financial or medical decisions if the person becomes unable to do so personally? And who should be responsible for settling the estate after death?

Krupp Law Offices also represents personal representatives and families after someone dies. That work includes probate estates involving a will as well as situations in which someone dies without one.

When Parents Need to Choose a Guardian for Their Children

For parents of minor children, a will can address much more than the distribution of money and property. It provides an opportunity to state whom the parents want to care for their children if the parents die while the children are still young.

Krupp Law Offices includes the selection of guardians among the issues it addresses when preparing wills. Making that choice in advance allows parents to put their wishes into their estate plan rather than leaving the question entirely unresolved until a family crisis occurs.

A will can also identify the person who should serve as personal representative and carry out the responsibilities associated with the estate. For parents, these decisions are part of creating a plan for both the people and property they would leave behind.

Wills & Trusts for Transferring Property

Krupp Law Offices prepares wills and trusts for clients who want to establish how their property should be handled after death.

A will can identify beneficiaries, name a personal representative and address guardianship wishes for minor children. Without a valid will, the distribution of probate property is instead governed by Michigan's intestacy laws.

Trusts provide another estate-planning option. Depending on the family's circumstances and objectives, a trust can be used to hold and manage property and establish instructions for its eventual distribution.

The appropriate documents depend on what the client owns, whom the client wants to provide for and how the client wants those arrangements handled.

Who Can Act If You Become Unable to Make Decisions?

An estate plan also needs to consider the possibility that someone may become unable to manage personal affairs while still living.

Krupp Law Offices prepares financial and medical powers of attorney as part of its planning services. These documents allow clients to designate people to handle specified responsibilities if assistance becomes necessary.

Financial authority may become important when someone cannot manage bills, accounts or other property matters personally. Healthcare planning addresses a different concern: who should be involved in medical decisions when the individual can no longer make or communicate those decisions.

Making these choices in advance gives the client the opportunity to select the people they trust rather than waiting until illness or incapacity creates an immediate problem for the family.

When Someone Dies Without a Will

Families sometimes discover after a death that their relative never completed an estate plan. The absence of a will does not eliminate the need to administer the person's estate.

Instead, Michigan law determines who inherits probate property when someone dies intestate. A personal representative may still need to be appointed and the estate may still need to proceed through probate.

For surviving family members, this can create responsibilities they did not anticipate. Someone must determine what property belongs to the estate, address outstanding obligations and ultimately distribute the remaining property to the people entitled to receive it.

Krupp Law Offices handles probate matters involving people who died without wills as well as estates in which planning documents were completed.

When You Are Named Personal Representative

Being selected as personal representative can sound like an honor when a will is signed. After a death, it becomes an actual administrative responsibility.

The personal representative is responsible for carrying out the estate administration process. Krupp Law Offices describes responsibilities that include dealing with the deceased person's bills and distributing property to the appropriate beneficiaries or heirs.

For someone who has never administered an estate, even relatively ordinary tasks can raise questions. Property may need to be identified, financial obligations addressed and distributions made while the personal representative follows Michigan probate requirements.

Krupp Law Offices represents personal representatives through this process rather than leaving the family member named in the will to determine the required steps alone.

Supervised & Unsupervised Probate Administration

Not every Michigan probate estate proceeds in exactly the same manner. Krupp Law Offices handles both supervised and unsupervised estate administration.

Unsupervised administration generally allows the personal representative to handle estate matters with less ongoing court involvement. Supervised administration involves greater probate-court oversight.

Which procedure applies can affect how the personal representative carries out the estate and the extent of court involvement along the way. The firm's probate practice includes helping families navigate the appropriate administration process and complete the responsibilities associated with settling the estate.

Estate Issues Within a Broader Family-Law Practice

Estate planning and probate are only part of Krupp Law Offices' work. The firm has a substantial family-law practice involving divorce, child custody, child support, spousal support and other domestic-relations matters.

Its divorce work can involve homes, retirement benefits, businesses, other assets and debts. The firm also handles prenuptial agreements.

That broader practice means Krupp regularly works with families when relationships, financial arrangements and responsibilities are changing. Its estate-planning work addresses a different set of decisions—how clients want property handled after death and whom they trust to act for them during incapacity or administer their estates afterward.

A Grand Rapids Legal Practice With Decades of Local Roots

Krupp Law Offices is located at 161 Ottawa Avenue NW in downtown Grand Rapids. The firm's connection to the area extends considerably further back than the current practice.

George Krupp was born in Grand Rapids and began practicing law in the city in the early 1960s, including service with the Kent County Prosecutor's Office before entering private practice. Christian G. Krupp II was also born and raised in Grand Rapids. After practicing with Dykema and working in the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office, he formed Krupp Law Offices P.C. with his parents in 1992.

The firm's probate work extends beyond Grand Rapids. Its website identifies George and Christian Krupp as handling estate administration in Kent, Ottawa, Allegan, Barry, Newaygo, Montcalm and Ionia counties, giving the practice a broader West Michigan reach while retaining its longstanding Grand Rapids base.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills

• Trusts

• Financial Powers of Attorney

• Medical Powers of Attorney

• Living Wills

• Probate

• Estate Administration

• Intestate Estates

• Supervised Probate Administration

• Unsupervised Probate Administration

• Family Law

• Divorce

• Child Custody

• Child Support

• Spousal Support

• Prenuptial Agreements