Wallace Law Firm, Estate Planning & Elder Law, Business Planning & Real Estate

Estate Planning & Elder Law Attorney in Port Huron, Michigan

Estate planning involves more than deciding who receives property after death. Families may need to prepare for incapacity, provide for minor children, protect a disabled family member's benefits, plan for the possibility of nursing-home care, or determine what will happen to a family business when an owner retires or dies.

Wallace Law Firm, P.C. focuses on estate planning, elder law, business planning, and real estate from its Port Huron office. Attorney Matthew M. Wallace, CPA, JD, has concentrated his practice in these areas for decades, helping individuals and families prepare for both expected life transitions and situations that can arise unexpectedly.

Choosing Between a Will-Based and Trust-Based Estate Plan

Different families can require different approaches to estate planning. Wallace Law Firm offers both will-based and trust-based estate plans.

A will-based plan can include a will, financial and healthcare powers of attorney, HIPAA authorization, beneficiary and payable-on-death designations, and assistance with properly titling assets. Parents can also use their planning to address guardianship for minor or disabled children.

For clients using a revocable living trust, the firm's planning can include the trust and related will, financial and healthcare powers of attorney, HIPAA authorization, living will, anatomical gift documents, and a certificate of trust. Wallace Law Firm also assists clients with funding their trusts.

Proper funding is an important part of establishing a trust-based plan because creating the trust document itself does not necessarily place assets into the trust.

Preparing for an Unexpected Incapacity

A serious illness, accident, or decline in mental capacity can leave a family facing important decisions about finances and medical care.

Wallace Law Firm incorporates incapacity planning into its estate-planning work. Financial powers of attorney can establish who will have authority to handle financial matters, while healthcare powers of attorney and patient advocate designations can address medical decision-making. The firm's planning also includes documents such as HIPAA authorizations and living wills.

Making these decisions while someone is able to express their own preferences can reduce uncertainty if incapacity occurs later. Without sufficient advance planning, families may instead find themselves considering court proceedings to obtain legal authority to act for a loved one.

Protecting Children and Disabled Family Members

Parents with minor children have estate-planning concerns that extend beyond the distribution of money and property. They may need to decide who should care for their children and how an inheritance should be handled if the parents die while the children are still young.

Wallace Law Firm's estate-planning services include guardianship appointments for minor and disabled children.

The firm also addresses planning for family members with disabilities who receive or may eventually receive means-tested government assistance such as Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income. An inheritance left without appropriate planning can create complications for someone who depends on eligibility for these programs.

This type of planning can help families consider how to provide financial support for a disabled loved one while preserving access to important public benefits.

Planning for Nursing-Home Care and Medicaid

Long-term-care costs can create difficult decisions for an older person, a spouse, and adult children.

Wallace Law Firm's elder-law practice includes Medicaid planning and asset-protection planning. The firm works with families when nursing-home admission is approaching, after someone has already entered a nursing home, and when families want to understand their options before care becomes necessary.

For example, an adult child may suddenly learn that a parent's health has deteriorated enough that returning home is no longer realistic. A married couple may be concerned about what nursing-home expenses could mean for the spouse who remains at home. Families in these circumstances may need to understand Medicaid qualification requirements and what planning options remain available.

Addressing these issues before making significant transfers or other financial decisions can be particularly important because Medicaid eligibility is governed by specific rules.

Guardianships and Conservatorships

Advance planning is not always completed before someone loses the ability to manage their affairs.

Wallace Law Firm handles guardianship and conservatorship matters involving legally incapacitated and developmentally disabled individuals. These proceedings may become necessary when someone requires another person to assume legal responsibility for personal decisions, financial matters, or both.

A family might encounter this situation because of an aging parent's declining capacity or because a developmentally disabled child is approaching adulthood and continues to require assistance with important decisions.

Administering a Trust After Incapacity or Death

Creating a trust is only one part of trust planning. Someone eventually may have to take responsibility for administering it.

Wallace Law Firm assists with trust administration both when a trustmaker becomes incapacitated and following death. A successor trustee may suddenly become responsible for duties that are unfamiliar, particularly if the person who created the trust previously managed everything independently.

Legal assistance can help trustees understand their responsibilities and work through the administration required by the trust and the circumstances.

Handling a Probate Estate After a Death

Some families need to go through probate after a loved one dies.

Wallace Law Firm handles probate administration throughout Michigan. Probate can involve gathering and administering property belonging to the deceased person and completing the legal process necessary to settle the estate.

For someone serving as a personal representative, the responsibility may arrive at the same time the family is dealing with a recent death. Guidance through the administration process can help the personal representative understand the legal responsibilities involved in settling the estate.

Planning for the Future of a Family Business

A business can represent both a major financial asset and years of work by its owner. For family-owned and closely held businesses, deciding what happens when an owner retires, becomes disabled, or dies can therefore become an important part of long-term planning.

Wallace Law Firm provides business succession and exit planning. Its work includes tools such as buy-sell agreements, redemption agreements, gifting programs, and installment-sale agreements.

Succession planning can help business owners consider how ownership will eventually change hands, how an owner will be provided for following retirement or disability, and how family members or business partners will be affected after an owner's death.

Planning for Larger Estates and Charitable Goals

For families with substantial assets, estate planning can involve more than deciding who receives property and how it will be administered. Wallace Law Firm also handles advanced estate planning involving tax considerations, wealth transfers between generations, and charitable giving.

The firm's advanced planning work includes irrevocable life insurance trusts, charitable trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, family limited liability companies, family foundations, and other strategies used in appropriate circumstances. These tools may become relevant when a family is considering how significant assets should pass to later generations or how tax considerations affect a larger estate plan.

Wallace Law Firm also assists clients who want charitable giving incorporated into their estate plans. Its charitable planning includes charitable remainder and charitable lead trusts, private family foundations, community-foundation gifts, and other planned-giving arrangements. These strategies can allow charitable objectives to be considered alongside the family's broader inheritance and estate-planning goals.

Attorney Matthew M. Wallace, CPA, JD

Matthew M. Wallace has practiced law since 1986 and founded Wallace Law Firm in 1994. Since 1999, he has focused his practice on estate planning, elder law, business planning, and real estate.

Wallace is also a Certified Public Accountant. He has earned the Probate and Estate Planning Certificate offered through the State Bar of Michigan and the Institute of Continuing Legal Education and has written extensively about estate planning and related legal issues.

His combination of legal and accounting experience is particularly relevant to a practice involving estate planning, elder law, business ownership, and the financial considerations that can accompany those matters.

Serving Port Huron and St. Clair County

Wallace Law Firm is located at 709 Huron Avenue, Port Huron, Michigan 48060.

From its Port Huron office, the firm provides estate planning, elder law, business planning, and real estate services to individuals, families, and business owners in St. Clair County.

Practice Areas

• Estate Planning

• Wills

• Revocable Living Trusts

• Financial Powers of Attorney

• Healthcare Powers of Attorney

• Patient Advocate Designations

• HIPAA Authorizations

• Living Wills

• Planning for Minor Children

• Planning for Disabled Family Members

• Elder Law

• Medicaid Planning

• Asset-Protection Planning

• Guardianships

• Conservatorships

• Trust Administration

• Probate Administration

• Business Succession Planning

• Business Exit Planning