Varnum

Estate Planning, Elder Law & Wealth Succession Attorneys in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Varnum LLP helps Grand Rapids families plan for the transfer of property, prepare for incapacity and address the financial and legal issues that can develop as family members age. Its estate-planning practice ranges from wills, trusts and powers of attorney to elder law, Medicaid planning, business succession, cottage succession and sophisticated tax and wealth planning.

The firm's work can continue well beyond preparation of the original estate plan. Varnum assists with estate and trust administration after disability or death and offers professional trustee and personal representative services when a family does not have an appropriate person to take on those responsibilities.

For families with businesses, valuable real estate or significant multigenerational wealth, estate planning can also involve deciding how those assets will continue to function after the person who built or managed them is no longer in control.

Putting a Plan in Place for Your Family

Estate planning begins with decisions about the people and property that matter most. Varnum prepares wills and trusts and helps clients determine how assets should ultimately pass to family members and other beneficiaries.

Planning also needs to address what happens during life. Durable powers of attorney and patient advocate designations can establish who has authority to handle financial or healthcare matters if illness, injury or declining capacity prevents someone from making decisions independently.

Depending on the family's circumstances, planning may also involve minimizing probate, providing financial security for dependents and addressing estate and gift taxes.

These arrangements can be relatively straightforward for some households and considerably more sophisticated for families whose wealth includes businesses, real estate or other complicated assets.

When Mom or Dad Can No Longer Manage Things Independently

Aging can eventually turn an estate-planning concern into an incapacity issue. An older parent may begin struggling with finances, healthcare decisions or other responsibilities that were previously handled without assistance.

Varnum's estate and elder-law practice addresses capacity and decision-making issues as well as guardianships and conservatorships. When advance planning provides sufficient authority, previously prepared documents may allow another person to assist. In other circumstances, court involvement may become necessary.

Guardianship generally concerns responsibility for personal decisions, while conservatorship addresses financial affairs and property.

For adult children, these questions can become urgent when a parent's decline reaches the point where important decisions can no longer safely be postponed.

Dad Needs Care, but Mom Still Has to Live at Home

Long-term-care costs can create concerns for an entire household when one spouse requires extensive care and the other continues living independently.

Varnum advises clients on elder-law issues involving long-term care, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Its Medicaid work includes applications, asset declarations and planning involving the ownership and retitling of assets.

For a married couple, that can include considering the financial position of the spouse who remains at home. That spouse may still need the house, income and other resources to maintain everyday life while the other spouse receives long-term care.

Addressing Medicaid and long-term-care planning as part of the family's larger estate plan allows those concerns to be considered alongside property ownership, incapacity planning and the eventual transfer of assets.

Who Takes Over the Family Business if Dad Can't Run It Anymore?

A business owner's succession problem does not necessarily begin at retirement or death. Disability can remove an owner from day-to-day decision-making with little warning.

Varnum works with owners of closely held and family businesses on succession planning, including how ownership and decision-making authority will transition if an owner becomes disabled or dies.

For a family, the practical questions can be significant. Someone may need authority to keep the company operating, employees and customers may be relying on continuity, and ownership interests may represent a large portion of the family's wealth.

Planning before that transition occurs gives the owner an opportunity to determine who should have responsibility and how the business fits into the larger estate plan.

When the Next Generation Is Supposed to Take Over

A family business can become even more complicated when succession is intended to remain within the family.

One child may have worked in the company for years while another has no involvement. Some children may want ownership but not management responsibility. The founder may also be relying on the value of the company for retirement.

Varnum's estate attorneys work on business succession alongside estate and tax planning. That allows the transfer of the company to be considered as part of the family's overall wealth rather than as an isolated business transaction.

Grand Rapids attorney Christopher Caldwell's work includes succession planning for multigenerational family businesses and farming operations, illustrating the kinds of closely held assets that can require coordinated planning across generations.

Three Children Inherit the Cottage — Now What?

A Michigan cottage can carry enormous sentimental value while creating surprisingly complicated legal and financial questions for the next generation.

Varnum specifically advises families on cottage succession planning. That can involve deciding who will participate in future ownership, how the property will be legally held and what rules will govern its use.

If several siblings or cousins share the cottage, ordinary questions can become important: Who gets to use it during popular summer weekends? Who pays for maintenance and repairs? How will improvements be approved? What happens when one family member no longer wants to participate?

Varnum also addresses property-tax considerations and real-estate issues associated with cottage ownership, including boundary and riparian matters. Planning can therefore establish more than who inherits the property—it can provide a framework for how shared ownership will actually work.

Protecting Wealth for Another Generation

Families with substantial assets may want an estate plan that does more than transfer property immediately to beneficiaries.

Varnum handles multigenerational wealth planning using trusts and other estate-planning strategies. Depending on the family's circumstances, planning can involve estate and gift taxes, charitable objectives and how assets will be managed for future generations.

The firm also provides family-office services for families whose financial affairs require ongoing coordination. Those services can encompass wealth and estate planning, tax matters, philanthropy and significant transactions such as major asset sales or revisions to an estate plan.

For some families, the objective is therefore not simply determining what happens at one death. The plan may need to account for businesses, investments and other assets intended to remain significant to the family for decades.

When Charitable Giving Is Part of the Estate Plan

Charitable goals can become an important part of planning for individuals and families who want some of their wealth to benefit organizations or causes they support.

Varnum incorporates charitable planning into its broader estate and wealth-planning work. Charitable objectives can be coordinated with what clients want to provide for children, grandchildren and other beneficiaries.

Tax considerations may also influence how and when charitable gifts are structured.

For families with significant wealth, charitable planning can therefore become one component of a larger strategy for transferring assets during life and after death.

When No One in the Family Is the Right Person to Serve as Trustee

Choosing a trustee can be difficult, particularly when the trust will hold substantial or complicated property.

A family member may be trustworthy but lack the time or experience to manage investments, real estate or a closely held company. Selecting one child instead of another can also create tension when siblings will all be beneficiaries.

Varnum provides professional trustee and co-trustee services. Its trust work can involve assets including securities, closely held businesses, commercial and residential real estate and insurance.

Using a professional trustee or co-trustee provides an alternative when the person creating the trust does not want to place the entire administrative responsibility on a relative.

After a Death, Someone Has to Carry Out the Plan

Varnum assists with estate and trust administration after death. That work can include gathering documents and property, valuing assets, addressing tax matters and carrying out the provisions of the estate plan.

Administration can become especially involved when the estate contains a family business, substantial real estate or other property that requires active management rather than immediate distribution.

Varnum can also provide personal representative or co-personal representative services. As with its professional trustee work, that creates an option when there is no family member who is an appropriate choice to administer the estate alone.

The firm's estate-planning practice therefore extends from designing the plan to helping implement it when death or disability makes those arrangements necessary.

When Family Disagreements Develop After a Death

Even detailed estate planning cannot guarantee that relatives will agree after someone dies.

Disagreements can develop over property, administration or how an estate plan is being carried out. Complicated family dynamics can become more difficult when substantial inheritances, businesses or valuable real estate are involved.

Varnum's estate practice works with its litigation attorneys when disputes arise that cannot be resolved through ordinary estate or trust administration.

That ability can be important when a matter that began as the administration of a parent's estate develops into a genuine legal dispute among beneficiaries, fiduciaries or other interested parties.

A Grand Rapids Firm With Deep Michigan Roots

Varnum is headquartered at Bridgewater Place, 333 Bridge Street NW, Suite 1700, in Grand Rapids. The firm has additional Michigan offices in Ann Arbor, Birmingham, Kalamazoo and Novi, as well as an office in Naples, Florida.

Its estate-planning practice is part of a much larger business and legal organization, but the firm's estate work spans both everyday family planning and sophisticated wealth issues. Grand Rapids attorneys within the practice advise on estate and trust administration, business succession, cottage succession, probate avoidance and tax planning.

That breadth is particularly relevant for families whose estate cannot be separated neatly from the rest of their lives. The central asset may be a company built over several decades, a farm expected to remain in the family, a Lake Michigan property with significant value or simply the home and savings a married couple wants to protect while confronting the cost of aging.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills & Trusts

• Elder Law & Medicaid Planning

• Guardianships & Conservatorships

• Business Succession Planning

• Family Cottage Succession

• Estate & Trust Administration

• Personal Trust Services

• Estate & Gift Tax Planning

• Charitable Planning