I Know I Need an Estate Plan, I Just Haven't Done It
You Know You Need a Michigan Estate Plan. You Just Haven't Done It.
A Michigan estate plan is a coordinated set of legal documents — typically a will, trust, powers of attorney for finances and healthcare, and beneficiary designations — that determines who inherits your assets, who cares for your children if you can't, and who manages your affairs if you become incapacitated. It's governed by Michigan's Estates and Protected Individuals Code (EPIC, MCL 700.1101 et seq.).
It has been on your list for a while, but you've not got it done. This is likely because it never quite becomes urgent enough to act on. The kids have a tournament. Work is busy. Summer is here. Estate planning is the thing you will do when things settle down, and things never quite settle down.
One reason estate planning stays undone is that life genuinely is busy. But the deeper reason is that estate planning asks you to make decisions that feel heavy.
Who raises your children if something happens to you?
Who manages your finances if you can't?
What happens to everything you have worked for?
Guardianship is often the hardest one. Naming the person who would raise your children if you and your spouse were both gone requires you to imagine a scenario most parents can barely think about, let alone plan for. It means choosing between people you love, knowing someone may feel overlooked. It is an act of enormous love, and it is genuinely uncomfortable to do. Most people would rather not think about it at all, and so the whole estate plan waits. But if you do not decide it now… guess who would? A Judge would. You should be the one making the choice.
Why Parents Put Off Estate Planning in Michigan
These aren't questions most people want to sit down and answer deliberately, and unlike most tasks on your list, there is no external deadline forcing you to. Nothing bad has happened yet, so the urgency never quite arrives. It moves from this year's list to next year's list, and because life is good right now, it stays there.
If you're worried about making the wrong choice on guardianship, that worry is normal, but it's also the reason most parents who never finish an estate plan never make the choice at all. A clear-eyed conversation with someone who's helped other Macomb and Oakland County families work through this is the simplest way past it.
What Happens If You Don't Have a Michigan Estate Plan?
If you die in Michigan without an estate plan:
A judge decides who raises your minor children under MCL 700.5204, based on the court's view of the children's best interest, not your wishes
Your estate goes through Michigan probate (typically 6–12 months, longer for complex estates)
Michigan intestate succession statutes determine who inherits, under MCL 700.2102
The 2026 spousal share thresholds surprise most people: $301,000 first plus a fraction of the balance in shared-descendant scenarios; $201,000 in blended-family scenarios. The formula often doesn't match what you would have wanted.
Many people wait until things settle down. They don't. The kids' tournaments turn into college visits. Work doesn't get less busy. The plan keeps getting pushed.
Others use an online will service. These tools generate documents, but they don't account for Michigan-specific requirements. Michigan's Estates and Protected Individuals Code, EPIC, MCL 700.1101 et seq., sets specific witness, capacity, and execution requirements (MCL 700.2502 for attested wills). Templates often miss them, and a will that fails Michigan's execution rules can be challenged or thrown out at the worst moment.
Some hope the rules don't apply. They do. The intestate succession formula above is what kicks in when there's no plan, and the guardianship decision moves from you to a probate judge.
Do I Need a Will or a Trust for My Michigan Estate Plan?
Whether you need a will, a trust, or both depends on what you own, whether you have minor children, and whether avoiding probate court is a specific goal. A will handles guardianship for children and directs distribution but doesn't avoid probate. A trust avoids probate for assets titled to it. For many Michigan families, the answer is both: a pour-over will plus a funded revocable living trust.
One Conversation Is All It Takes to Start
You do not need to know what documents you need before you call. You do not need to organize your assets. You do not need to have thought through every decision in advance.
The guardianship question, the asset decisions, the documents you are not sure you need, none of those require you to have answers before you call. That is what the first conversation is for.
You describe your situation, your family, your assets, what you are worried about, and JBM Law does the rest. That first call takes thirty minutes. You come in not knowing what you need and leave with a clear answer: exactly what documents fit your situation, what they cost, and what happens next. For most Macomb and Oakland County families, the entire estate planning process takes a few weeks and a couple of conversations.
Getting Your Estate Plan Done Is Easier Than You Think
You might feel ten pounds lighter. Clients describe it as setting down something heavy they had been carrying for years without realizing it. The hum goes away, not managed or reduced, but gone entirely. The right people are named. Your assets go where you want them to go. You got on the plane last summer with that hum in the background. You will not next summer.
If avoiding probate court entirely is a specific concern, the plan can be structured to do that. If your situation is straightforward, the plan can be too. We don't oversell complexity.
Most Michigan families complete their estate plan for $2,500 to $5,000. You will know your exact number before you commit to anything.
Let's Get It Done This Year
Schedule your free consultation. You will leave knowing exactly what you need, why it fits your situation, and what it costs, before you commit to anything. The consultation itself is free.