Kuiper Kraemer

Estate Planning, Probate & Estate Litigation Attorneys in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Kuiper Kraemer PC combines estate planning and probate administration with a substantial probate and trust litigation practice. For families, that means the firm's work can begin while everyone agrees about the plan—or later, when relatives disagree about whether that plan was valid or properly carried out.

The Grand Rapids firm assists clients with wills, trusts, powers of attorney and other planning for death or incapacity. It also represents personal representatives and families during probate and helps trustees administer trusts.

When disputes develop, Kuiper Kraemer handles will contests, trust litigation, inheritance disputes and claims involving trustees and other fiduciaries. Those matters can involve deeply personal questions: Was a parent pressured into changing a will? Did Mom understand what she was signing? Is a trustee using money improperly? Why haven't beneficiaries received an accounting? The firm's combination of planning, administration and litigation allows its profile to address the full progression from creating an estate plan to resolving conflicts over what happens afterward.

When Parents Need to Protect Young Children

For parents, an estate plan may need to answer two separate questions: Who should raise the children if both parents die, and who should manage the money left for them?

Kuiper Kraemer addresses both issues. A will can identify the person parents want nominated as guardian, while a trust can establish how an inheritance should be managed for children who are not ready to handle substantial property themselves.

Those roles do not have to belong to the same person. Parents may believe one relative would provide the best home for their children while another person would be better suited to manage investments and financial decisions.

A trust can also provide instructions about when and how property should eventually be distributed. That gives parents more control than simply arranging for a young beneficiary to receive an inheritance outright.

When a Simple Estate Plan Is Not Enough

Some families have circumstances that require more than a basic will. Kuiper Kraemer prepares revocable and irrevocable trusts and addresses more complex planning involving asset protection, tax considerations and the needs of particular beneficiaries.

Blended families can present especially important questions. A parent may want to provide for a current spouse while also preserving property for children from another relationship. 

Without careful planning, assumptions about what will happen after a death may not match the client's intentions.

The firm also works with clients whose estates require more sophisticated planning because of the type or value of their assets. The objective is not simply to create documents, but to structure the plan around the property, beneficiaries and family circumstances involved.

Planning for Incapacity During Life

Estate planning also determines who can act if illness, injury or declining capacity leaves someone unable to manage important matters independently.

Kuiper Kraemer's planning services include powers of attorney and advance healthcare directives. These documents allow clients to make decisions about who should have authority to handle financial or healthcare matters if the client becomes unable to do so personally.

Trust planning can address incapacity as well. A properly structured trust can establish how trust property will continue to be managed and allow a successor trustee to assume responsibility when the circumstances specified in the plan occur.

For a family suddenly confronting a parent's incapacity, having those arrangements in place can make an enormous practical difference. Instead of first determining who has legal authority, the family can look to the plan the parent established while still able to make those decisions.

When a Beneficiary Has Special Needs

Leaving property to a person with disabilities can require additional planning when the beneficiary receives or may need means-tested government benefits.

Kuiper Kraemer addresses special-needs trusts as part of its trust practice. Rather than simply leaving an inheritance directly to the beneficiary, a properly structured trust can provide a mechanism for managing assets while taking the beneficiary's circumstances and benefit eligibility into account.

This is a situation in which an otherwise well-intentioned inheritance can create unintended consequences. Families may want to provide additional financial support without disrupting other resources on which the beneficiary depends.

Special-needs planning allows the estate plan to address that concern before an inheritance is received.

When Someone Dies and Probate Is Necessary

After a death, the focus changes from creating the plan to identifying property, satisfying legal obligations and transferring assets to the people entitled to receive them.

Kuiper Kraemer assists with probate administration, including opening an estate, identifying and valuing property, addressing creditors and debts, and distributing assets. The firm represents personal representatives as they work through these responsibilities.

For the person appointed to administer an estate, the job can be unfamiliar and time-consuming. A house may need attention, financial accounts have to be located, creditors may need to be addressed and beneficiaries may be waiting for information or distributions.

Probate administration provides the legal process for handling those matters when property must pass through the deceased person's estate.

A Successor Trustee Still Has Responsibilities After a Death

A trust may avoid probate for assets properly held in it, but the existence of a trust does not eliminate the work that follows a death.

The successor trustee assumes responsibility for administering trust property according to the document. That can involve identifying and valuing assets, managing property, dealing with financial matters and communicating with beneficiaries before distributions can be completed.

Kuiper Kraemer advises trustees in carrying out those responsibilities. Its trust practice also addresses the important decision of whom to choose as trustee in the first place, including whether a family member or professional fiduciary is appropriate for the circumstances.

Those decisions matter because the trustee may eventually be responsible for significant property while also dealing with beneficiaries who have their own expectations about the trust.

When You Suspect Mom or Dad Was Pressured to Change the Plan

Not every dispute after a death is simply a disagreement over who received what. Sometimes relatives question whether the estate plan itself truly represented the deceased person's wishes.

Kuiper Kraemer handles challenges involving undue influence and questions about mental capacity. These disputes can arise when a will or trust was created or changed while an older or vulnerable person was increasingly dependent on someone else.

A child may learn after a parent's death that a longstanding estate plan was changed late in life. One beneficiary may suddenly receive substantially more property while another receives less or nothing. The issue can then become whether the parent independently intended that result or whether someone improperly influenced the decision.

Capacity disputes raise a related but different question: whether the person understood the nature and consequences of the document when it was executed. Kuiper Kraemer represents clients in litigation over these kinds of contested estate-planning decisions.

When Brothers and Sisters Remember Their Parent's Wishes Differently

Estate disputes can become particularly difficult when the people on opposite sides are members of the same family.

Siblings may have different understandings of what a parent intended. One may rely on conversations that occurred during the parent's life, while another points to the language of a will or trust. Disagreements can also develop over property, distributions or how the person administering the estate is handling the process.

Kuiper Kraemer's probate and estate litigation practice addresses inheritance disputes and contested wills and trusts when those disagreements cannot be resolved through ordinary administration.

These cases can involve both legal and factual questions about the estate plan, the circumstances in which documents were signed and the conduct of the people responsible for carrying them out.

When a Trustee Won't Explain Where the Money Went

Beneficiaries depend on trustees to manage trust property for the purposes established by the person who created the trust. When beneficiaries believe that responsibility is not being fulfilled, the dispute can move beyond ordinary trust administration.

Kuiper Kraemer represents beneficiaries in claims involving trustee and fiduciary conduct. Issues can include failure to provide information or accountings, improper use of trust assets, conflicts involving distributions and allegations that a trustee has mismanaged property.

The firm's litigation materials also address situations involving reckless investments or a trustee using trust property for personal purposes.

A beneficiary who suspects something is wrong may need more than a disagreement with the trustee; the underlying records and fiduciary obligations have to be examined. Depending on the circumstances, litigation can involve demands for information, challenges to particular actions or efforts to remove a trustee.

Trustees Can Need a Defense Too

An accusation of misconduct does not establish that a trustee actually violated a fiduciary duty. Kuiper Kraemer represents trustees as well as beneficiaries in trust disputes.

Trust administration can require judgment calls about investments, property management, expenses and distributions. Beneficiaries may disagree with those decisions or believe the trustee has taken too long to act.

A trustee facing allegations of misconduct may therefore need to demonstrate what decisions were made, why they were made and how trust property has been handled.

The firm's work on both sides of fiduciary disputes gives it a broader role than a practice limited to bringing claims against trustees. It can also defend fiduciaries whose administration is being challenged.

When Guardianship or Conservatorship Becomes a Family Dispute

Conflict over decision-making does not always wait until someone dies. Kuiper Kraemer's probate litigation practice also includes guardianship and conservatorship disputes.

These cases can arise when an adult is no longer able to handle personal or financial matters independently and family members disagree about what should happen next. Relatives may dispute whether court intervention is necessary, who should be appointed or how the person's affairs should be managed.

Because these proceedings involve decisions affecting someone who is still alive, the stakes are different from a dispute over an inheritance. The questions can involve personal care, finances, independence and which family member or other person should have legal authority.

Kuiper Kraemer represents clients when those issues require resolution through the probate court.

From Planning Ahead to Resolving a Family Estate Dispute

Kuiper Kraemer's estate practice is distinctive because it covers both preventive planning and contested matters. A client may come to the firm to create a will, establish a trust, choose agents for incapacity or provide for children. Years later, a personal representative or successor trustee may need help carrying out that plan.

And sometimes the problem is that relatives no longer agree about what should happen.

The firm's probate and trust litigation practice extends its role into will contests, trust disputes, fiduciary claims and contested guardianship or conservatorship matters. That combination allows Kuiper Kraemer to work with estate issues at very different stages—from making decisions while a client can still express them clearly to litigating over those decisions or the conduct of a fiduciary later.

A West Michigan Practice With a Florida Connection

Kuiper Kraemer PC has served clients since 2005 and maintains its Michigan office at 6660 Old 28th Street SE in Grand Rapids. The firm also has an office in Port Charlotte, Florida.

Estate planning, probate and estate litigation are part of a broader practice that also includes business law, real estate, family law and general litigation. For Grand Rapids-area families, however, the depth of the firm's probate work is significant: Kuiper Kraemer handles not only the documents used to establish an estate plan, but also administration after death and litigation when beneficiaries, fiduciaries or family members end up in conflict.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills

• Revocable Trusts

• Irrevocable Trusts

• Powers of Attorney

• Advance Healthcare Directives

• Incapacity Planning

• Planning for Minor Children

• Special Needs Trusts

• Asset Protection Planning

• Estate Tax Planning

• Probate

• Probate Administration

• Trust Administration

• Probate Litigation

• Will Contests

• Trust Litigation

• Undue Influence Claims

• Testamentary Capacity Disputes

• Inheritance Disputes

• Fiduciary Litigation

• Trustee Misconduct Claims

• Trustee Removal

• Guardianship Disputes

• Conservatorship Disputes