Ladies in Law

Estate Planning for Families & Future Care in Detroit, Michigan

An estate plan may need to protect more than an inheritance. Parents may need to decide who would care for their children, a blended family may require more careful planning than an old will provides, and a family supporting someone with disabilities may need to consider how an inheritance could affect government benefits. Later in life, the possibility of nursing home or other long-term care can introduce an entirely different set of concerns.

LADIES IN LAW® is a Detroit firm devoted exclusively to estate planning. Co-founders Jazzy D. Rippy and Ameena R. Sheikh established the practice in 2019 after previously working together at a Detroit business law firm.

The firm's planning services include wills, living trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, special-needs trusts, long-term-care trusts, creditor-protection trusts, and deeds. Its approach emphasizes creating a plan around the client's family and property and then taking the additional steps needed to put that plan into effect.

When a Trust Was Created but the Assets Never Made It Into the Trust

Signing a living trust does not necessarily mean the estate plan has been fully implemented.

LADIES IN LAW specifically addresses the problem of trusts that were prepared but never properly funded. If property intended to be governed by a trust was never transferred into it, the family may discover after death that an asset still has to pass through probate.

The firm therefore treats implementation as part of estate planning. Depending on the client's property and plan, that can involve deeds, assignments of business interests, beneficiary arrangements, and other steps needed to coordinate ownership with the estate documents.

This distinction is important for someone who already has an estate-planning binder sitting at home. The question is not simply whether a trust exists, but whether the person's major assets have actually been arranged to work with it.

Choosing Who Would Care for Minor Children

For parents, estate planning can involve decisions that are much more personal than deciding who receives financial accounts.

LADIES IN LAW works with parents on naming guardians for minor children if the parents are no longer able to care for them. Planning can also address who should manage property left for children and how those assets should be handled while the children are still young.

A trust can provide continuing management rather than requiring an inheritance to pass outright before a parent believes the child is prepared to control it.

These concerns can make estate planning important even for relatively young parents who do not consider themselves wealthy. The central issue may be less about the size of the estate than making deliberate decisions about the children's care and financial support.

When an Old Estate Plan No Longer Fits a Blended Family

Marriage, remarriage, divorce, and children from previous relationships can substantially change what a family needs from an estate plan.

LADIES IN LAW specifically identifies blended families as a group for whom careful planning can be important. The firm discusses the potential for conflict when an outdated estate plan no longer reflects a person's current marriage and family relationships.

An old will or beneficiary arrangement may have been created when the family looked very different. After remarriage, a person may want to provide for a current spouse while also making sure children from an earlier relationship ultimately receive particular property.

Reviewing the plan after major family changes provides an opportunity to determine whether the documents and asset arrangements still reflect those intentions rather than leaving a surviving spouse and children to resolve uncertainty after death.

Leaving an Inheritance to a Loved One With Special Needs

An outright inheritance may create additional concerns when the beneficiary has a disability and relies on government assistance.

Special-needs planning is a distinct part of the LADIES IN LAW practice. The firm helps families establish trusts intended to provide resources for a loved one while taking into account eligibility for means-tested government benefits.

This can be particularly important for parents thinking about who will support a child with disabilities after the parents are no longer alive. The planning question is not simply how much property to leave, but how that property should be managed and made available for the beneficiary's needs.

Ameena Sheikh's interest in this area is also personal. The firm's biography describes how concerns about future care for her own brother with special needs, including preserving the government assistance on which he depended, influenced her work in estate planning.

Planning Ahead for the Possibility of Long-Term Care

A family may spend years accumulating savings and property only to confront substantial care expenses later in life.

LADIES IN LAW provides long-term-care planning for clients concerned about future nursing home, assisted-living, or in-home care. Its practice includes irrevocable long-term-care trusts and planning involving potential eligibility for Medicaid and veterans benefits.

The firm emphasizes advance planning because Medicaid rules can make timing relevant to the strategies available. Someone planning years before care becomes necessary may have different options from a family seeking assistance after a loved one already needs nursing home placement.

This is another area with a personal connection for the firm. Sheikh has described her family's experience when her father required long-term care without having established this type of advance plan.

Rather than promising that any particular strategy will preserve assets or establish benefits eligibility, the firm's work focuses on evaluating long-term-care concerns before they become an immediate crisis.

Making Sure Someone Can Act During an Incapacity

Estate planning also addresses decisions that may need to be made while a person is still alive.

LADIES IN LAW prepares durable powers of attorney and healthcare powers of attorney so clients can designate trusted people to handle financial and medical matters when necessary.

The firm's examples include situations in which someone becomes seriously ill or unconscious and cannot make healthcare decisions, as well as circumstances in which another person needs authority to handle financial matters.

Making those choices in advance can provide clearer authority during an emergency. It also gives the individual the opportunity to select the people who should act rather than leaving the family to address decision-making only after incapacity has occurred.

For this reason, lifetime financial and healthcare planning is incorporated alongside wills, trusts, and decisions about inheritance.

When Avoiding Probate Is Part of the Goal

LADIES IN LAW frequently addresses probate from the perspective of planning ahead to keep appropriate property outside the court process.

Living trusts are one tool the firm uses for this purpose when they fit the client's circumstances and are properly implemented. The practice also includes real estate documents such as quitclaim deeds and Lady Bird deeds when appropriate to the estate plan.

The firm's emphasis on implementation matters here as well. A plan intended to avoid probate depends on how property is actually owned and transferred, not merely on the existence of estate documents.

LADIES IN LAW also offers irrevocable trust planning intended to address creditor exposure in appropriate circumstances. Because asset-protection results depend on the structure, timing, assets, and individual circumstances involved, these trusts are considered as part of a broader planning strategy rather than as a guarantee that property can never be reached.

An Estate Planning-Only Practice

Jazzy D. Rippy and Ameena R. Sheikh founded LADIES IN LAW in January 2019 after working together at a Detroit business law firm.

Rippy graduated magna cum laude and in the top 10% of her class from the University of Toledo College of Law. Sheikh graduated magna cum laude and in the top 10% of her class from Wayne State University Law School.

Unlike firms that handle estate planning as one component of a general legal practice, LADIES IN LAW states that estate planning is its exclusive focus. Its work ranges from wills and basic incapacity documents to trust planning involving minor children, blended families, beneficiaries with special needs, long-term care, creditor concerns, and probate avoidance.

Detroit Office & Southeast Michigan Reach

LADIES IN LAW is based at 1442 Brush Street, 2nd Floor in Detroit. The firm also maintains a satellite office by appointment at 2360 Orchard Lake Road in Sylvan Lake, Michigan.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills

• Living Trusts

• Powers of Attorney

• Durable Powers of Attorney

• Healthcare Powers of Attorney

• Healthcare Directives

• Special-Needs Trusts

• Long-Term-Care Trusts

• Irrevocable Trusts

• Creditor-Protection Trust Planning

• Lady Bird Deeds

• Quitclaim Deeds

• Trust Funding

• Business Assignments

• Probate Avoidance Planning