Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell

Estate Planning & Business Succession Attorneys in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell PLC works with Grand Rapids families on estate planning ranging from foundational wills and trusts to sophisticated planning for business owners and families with substantial or complicated assets. The firm's estate work includes planning for incapacity, special-needs beneficiaries, charitable giving, asset protection, estate taxes and administration of estates and trusts.

A particularly strong part of the practice involves families whose wealth is connected to a closely held business. Attorney Andrew L. Rassi has represented hundreds of closely held and family businesses and has assisted dozens with estate-planning and succession matters. For those clients, deciding who receives an inheritance may be inseparable from deciding who will own or operate the company in the next generation.

The firm's business and real-estate experience also intersects with estate planning when families own cottages, investment property or other assets that require more than a simple beneficiary designation.

Building an Estate Plan While a Family Is Still Young

Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell works with clients ranging from young families beginning their lives together to business executives with substantial estates.

For a younger family, planning can begin with fundamental questions about what happens after a death and who should have authority if someone becomes incapacitated. The firm's estate-planning services include wills, revocable trusts, and financial and medical powers of attorney.

These documents serve different purposes. Wills and trusts can establish how property should ultimately be handled, while powers of attorney address who can make financial or medical decisions when someone is alive but unable to act independently.

A plan created early can then be reconsidered as the family's property, responsibilities and financial circumstances change.

When an Inheritance Needs More Protection

Not every beneficiary is best served by receiving property outright. Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell uses a variety of trusts when a family's circumstances call for additional control or protection.

The firm's estate-planning practice expressly includes special-needs trusts for beneficiaries with disabilities. It also prepares charitable trusts, pet trusts, life-insurance trusts, asset-protection trusts and trusts designed to address estate-tax concerns.

The appropriate structure depends on the problem the family is trying to solve. A beneficiary with special needs presents different considerations from a family concerned about estate taxation or someone who wants to make arrangements for the continuing care of a pet.

That range allows the firm's planning to become more sophisticated when a conventional will or revocable trust does not adequately address the client's objectives.

What Happens to the Company When Dad Is Ready to Retire?

For a family-business owner, succession does not have to begin with death. Retirement can raise the same fundamental question: Who is going to own and operate the company next?

Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell advises closely held and family-owned businesses on succession. One possibility is transferring the company to children or another generation of the family. Another is preparing the business for an eventual sale.

Either path requires more than simply identifying who should receive shares in a will. The business may need to function without the founder who spent decades making the important decisions, maintaining customer relationships or controlling its finances.

Planning ahead gives an owner time to determine whether the next generation actually wants the company, whether family succession is realistic and what needs to happen for the business to continue without its founder.

When Some Children Work in the Business and Others Don't

Passing a family business to children can create estate-planning questions that do not arise when the family's wealth consists primarily of cash and investments.

One child may have spent years helping build the company while another pursued an entirely different career. Treating the children equally does not necessarily mean giving each of them identical ownership or management responsibilities in the business.

Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell's combination of estate planning and closely held business representation allows the firm to address succession as both a family and business issue. The plan can consider future ownership alongside the broader transfer of the owner's estate.

Those decisions can be especially important when the business represents a significant portion of the family's overall wealth and the owner's retirement security.

Keeping a Michigan Cottage in the Family

A family cottage can present many of the same succession questions as a small business. Several children may inherit a valuable asset together, but they may have different financial resources and different ideas about what should happen to it.

Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell has specifically addressed the use of family limited liability companies and other ownership arrangements for passing cottages to children and grandchildren. Its work in this area draws on both estate-planning and business-law concepts.

An ownership structure can provide a framework for continuing family ownership rather than simply leaving several relatives to become co-owners without a plan for the future.

The firm also addresses Michigan property-tax considerations associated with transfers of family cottages. That makes the legal structure of the transfer important alongside the family's desire to preserve a property with sentimental value.

When Estate Taxes Become Part of the Planning

Families with larger estates can face planning concerns that go beyond deciding which relatives receive particular assets.

Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell's estate practice includes estate-tax planning and more advanced trust arrangements. The firm prepares irrevocable trusts, life-insurance trusts and other structures for clients whose circumstances require more sophisticated planning.

Tax considerations can also intersect with lifetime transfers, business interests, charitable objectives and other parts of a family's financial picture.

The firm's work with business owners and affluent families allows estate planning to be coordinated with the assets that generated or hold the family's wealth rather than treating the estate as a collection of unrelated accounts.

When Charitable Giving Is Part of the Legacy

Some clients want a portion of their wealth to support charitable organizations or causes rather than passing everything to individual beneficiaries.

Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell includes charitable trusts and charitable planning within its estate services. These arrangements can become part of a larger plan involving family beneficiaries, taxes and the transfer of wealth.

For someone with substantial assets, charitable planning may therefore be considered alongside what children or grandchildren will receive rather than treated as an entirely separate decision.

The appropriate approach depends on what the client wants to accomplish and how charitable giving fits with the rest of the estate.

Planning for Families With Substantial Generational Wealth

Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell also has a Family Office Representation practice for families whose legal needs extend across substantial and varied assets.

Its work includes generational wealth planning, estate planning, charitable giving and asset protection as well as legal issues involving private businesses and real estate. The firm also addresses prenuptial agreements as part of protecting family wealth.

For these families, estate planning may involve coordinating multiple types of property and considering how decisions made by one generation will affect the next.

The firm's broader business and real-estate capabilities become particularly relevant here because family wealth may be concentrated in companies or property rather than conventional investment accounts.

When the Plan Has to Be Carried Out

Estate planning eventually becomes estate or trust administration. Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell assists with administration after a death as part of its estate practice.

The person responsible for an estate or trust may need to deal with property, financial matters and beneficiaries while following the documents and legal requirements governing the administration.

For a family member who agreed years earlier to take on that responsibility, the practical work may be unfamiliar when the time finally comes.

The firm's role therefore does not necessarily end when estate-planning documents are signed. Its services extend to helping carry out estate and trust arrangements after death.

A Grand Rapids Firm With Deep Business Experience

Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell PLC is located at 660 Cascade West Parkway SE, Suite 105, in Grand Rapids. The firm was established in 2010, and its attorneys bring decades of combined legal experience in the Greater Grand Rapids area.

Estate planning is part of a broader practice that includes business and corporate law, real estate, family office representation and other legal services. That broader foundation is especially relevant to the firm's estate work for business owners and families with complex assets.

For those clients, the objective may extend well beyond preparing a will. The larger problem can be preserving what a family has built—whether that is a closely held company, a portfolio of property, substantial generational wealth or the Michigan cottage the family hopes will still be there for the grandchildren.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills & Trusts

• Estate & Trust Administration

• Business Succession Planning

• Family Office Representation

• Special Needs Planning

• Charitable Planning

• Asset Protection Planning

• Estate Tax Planning