Reeder Murphy, Attorneys & Counselors

Estate Planning, Elder Law & Probate Attorneys in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Reeder Murphy P.C. helps Grand Rapids and West Michigan families with estate planning as well as many of the legal and financial problems that emerge as parents grow older and begin to need more assistance. Its practice includes wills and trusts, incapacity planning, elder law, Medicaid and long-term-care planning, guardianships and conservatorships, and probate and trust administration.

That combination can become particularly valuable when a family's needs change gradually. Parents may begin with an estate plan designed to protect young children. Decades later, the concern may be an aging parent who needs help at home, an adult child sacrificing work to provide that care, or a spouse entering a nursing home while the other spouse remains at home.

Reeder Murphy's work addresses both sides of that progression: planning ahead while someone can still make decisions independently and helping families respond when caregiving, incapacity or long-term-care costs become immediate problems.

When Parents Need to Plan for Their Children

For parents with minor children, an estate plan needs to address more than who eventually receives property. Reeder Murphy helps parents make decisions about guardianship and how children should be provided for if a parent dies.

Wills and trusts can serve different roles in that planning. A will can document important choices, including whom parents want nominated to care for minor children, while trusts can establish how property will be held and managed for beneficiaries.

Parents also need to consider what happens if they become incapacitated rather than die. Financial powers of attorney and healthcare directives can establish who should handle important decisions when a parent cannot act personally.

Together, these documents provide a framework for both unexpected incapacity during life and the transfer of property after death.

Estate Plans Need to Change When Families Change

An estate plan created years ago may no longer fit the family that exists today. Reeder Murphy specifically identifies marriage or remarriage, having a child, divorce, retirement and the death of a loved one as events that can justify reviewing an existing plan.

Those changes can affect both beneficiaries and the people selected to carry out important responsibilities. Someone chosen years earlier to handle financial matters, make healthcare decisions or administer an estate may no longer be the client's preferred choice.

Remarriage can introduce additional considerations when spouses bring children or property from earlier relationships into a new marriage. Divorce can make older planning choices equally important to reconsider.

Reviewing a plan after significant changes allows clients to determine whether their wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare documents and beneficiary arrangements still work together and reflect their current intentions.

Single Adults Need Incapacity Planning Too

Estate planning is sometimes treated primarily as a concern for married couples and parents, but Reeder Murphy specifically addresses planning for single adults.

The issue becomes particularly important during incapacity. A married person may expect a spouse to be involved when financial or healthcare decisions need to be made, while a single person may need to think more deliberately about who should have those responsibilities.

Financial powers of attorney and healthcare directives allow clients to select trusted people rather than leaving important questions unresolved until an emergency occurs.

Estate planning also determines what happens to property after death. A single client may want to provide for relatives, friends or other beneficiaries in ways that would not necessarily occur without a plan.

When Mom or Dad Starts Needing More Help

Aging can change an estate-planning problem into an elder-law problem. A parent who once managed finances, healthcare and daily life independently may gradually begin relying on children or other relatives for assistance.

Reeder Murphy's elder-law practice addresses this transition. The firm's work includes long-term-care planning, Medicaid planning and legal arrangements intended to help families manage caregiving responsibilities.

Planning can involve evaluating how care will be provided and paid for, whether government benefits may become relevant and what legal authority family members have to assist an older adult.

The earlier these questions are considered, the more opportunity the family may have to evaluate available planning options rather than making every decision during a crisis.

When One Child Is Doing Most of the Work Caring for Mom or Dad

Caregiving responsibilities are rarely divided perfectly evenly among adult children. One son or daughter may live nearby, have a more flexible schedule or simply become the person everyone relies upon.

Over time, that child may spend substantial hours taking a parent to appointments, preparing meals, handling errands or providing other assistance. Work hours and income can be affected while siblings who live farther away contribute differently.

Reeder Murphy specifically works with families on caregiver contracts. These agreements can document what care will be provided, how the caregiver will be compensated and who can serve as a backup.

The firm's materials also address communication among siblings and how disagreements concerning a parent's care will be handled.

Putting those expectations into an agreement can address financial and family concerns before resentment develops. Compensation for caregiving does not have to be treated as an informal arrangement that everyone remembers differently later.

Reeder Murphy also discusses estate-planning provisions that can recognize a child's caregiving contributions, depending on the family's circumstances.

When Long-Term Care Becomes More Than the Family Can Handle

A family may initially expect to care for an aging parent at home. As medical and personal-care needs increase, that arrangement may become difficult or impossible to maintain.

Reeder Murphy advises families about long-term-care options and the financial planning associated with them. Its materials address long-term-care insurance, government benefits, trusts and other planning considerations.

The firm's Elder Law Solutions approach also draws on resources beyond traditional legal representation. Reeder Murphy says its team includes a family advocate, medical social worker and government-benefits specialist in addition to attorneys.

That broader approach reflects the reality that an aging parent's problems do not fall neatly into one category. The family may simultaneously be dealing with healthcare needs, housing decisions, government-benefit rules, legal authority and the financial cost of care.

When One Spouse Needs Nursing-Home Care and the Other Remains at Home

Long-term-care planning can be especially difficult for married couples when their needs suddenly become very different.

One spouse may require nursing-home care while the other continues living independently. The family then has to consider not only how care will be paid for, but how the spouse remaining at home will continue meeting ordinary living expenses.

Reeder Murphy's Medicaid planning addresses eligibility requirements and the financial rules that apply when long-term care becomes necessary. Its elder-law work includes planning intended to protect appropriate resources for the spouse who remains in the community while addressing the care needs of the institutionalized spouse.

These decisions can involve income, assets and other financial arrangements. Because Medicaid rules affect what can be done with property, families considering transfers or other financial changes need to understand how those actions may affect eligibility.

When a Guardianship or Conservatorship Becomes Necessary

Powers of attorney and other advance planning can provide authority for family members to help during incapacity, but those arrangements are not always available or sufficient.

Reeder Murphy handles guardianship and conservatorship matters when court involvement becomes necessary.

A guardianship generally addresses responsibility for personal decisions involving someone who cannot adequately make those decisions independently. A conservatorship concerns management of finances and property.

For an adult child concerned about a parent's declining capacity, the issue may arise after bills stop being paid, financial decisions become increasingly difficult or the parent can no longer adequately manage personal needs.

Court-supervised arrangements can provide legal authority in those situations, although they involve a different process from authority established voluntarily through estate-planning documents.

Having a Will Does Not Necessarily Avoid Probate

A common misunderstanding is that creating a will means an estate will not have to go through probate.

Reeder Murphy explains that a will provides instructions for probate property, but does not by itself remove that property from the probate process. Whether an asset requires probate depends in part on how it is owned and whether another legally effective transfer arrangement applies.

Trusts and beneficiary arrangements can affect how particular property passes after death. That makes coordination among estate-planning documents and asset ownership important.

A family may therefore discover after a death that some property transfers outside probate while other assets require probate administration. Determining which property falls into each category is part of understanding how the deceased person's estate will actually be settled.

When You Become Responsible for a Parent's Estate

Serving as personal representative involves legal and administrative responsibilities that can be unfamiliar to someone handling an estate for the first time.

Reeder Murphy assists with probate administration, including court filings, inventories, required notices to heirs and beneficiaries, creditor claims, taxes, accountings and eventual distributions.

For the personal representative, those legal requirements exist alongside practical family concerns. Property must be identified and protected. Bills and legitimate claims may need to be addressed. Beneficiaries may want information about the estate and when distributions will occur.

The person administering the estate is responsible for completing that work according to the applicable legal requirements rather than simply dividing the property among relatives.

A Successor Trustee Has Responsibilities After a Death

A trust can change the way property is administered after death, but it does not eliminate administration altogether.

Reeder Murphy assists trustees with trust administration. Depending on the circumstances, the work can involve identifying and managing trust property, providing required information or notices, addressing financial obligations, handling tax matters and making distributions under the terms of the trust.

A successor trustee is often a family member who agreed to serve years before the responsibility became real. After the death of a parent or other relative, that person may suddenly be responsible for significant property while also communicating with beneficiaries who have questions or expectations about the trust.

Legal guidance can help trustees understand the responsibilities that come with the role and complete the administration required by the trust.

Estate Planning and Elder Law From Downtown Grand Rapids

Reeder Murphy P.C. is located at 124 Fulton Street E, Suite 100, in downtown Grand Rapids and serves clients in Grand Rapids and throughout West Michigan.

The firm is not limited to estate and elder law; its broader practice includes family, business, real-estate, government-benefits and tax matters. Within its estate-related work, however, Reeder Murphy has developed services that address both conventional planning and the problems families encounter as relatives age.

That is particularly apparent in its work involving caregiver contracts, long-term-care planning and Medicaid. Those services recognize that an aging parent's needs can affect an entire family—not only the parent receiving care, but also the spouse who remains at home and the adult children who increasingly take responsibility for helping.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Elder Law

• Medicaid Planning

• Long-Term Care Planning

• Caregiver Contracts

• Guardianship & Conservatorship

• Probate Estate Law

• Probate & Trust Administration