Estate Planning, Probate & Trust Administration

At the law firm of McShane & Bowie, our estate planning attorneys provide complete estate planning services for a diverse client base.  Whether your estate is large or small, our attorneys can develop and help implement an estate plan that protects your assets and family upon your death or incapacity.  We specialize in eliminating or minimizing unnecessary delays and costs related to probate and taxes.

Our estate planning services include the planning, drafting and/or maintenance of:

• Wills and revocable living trusts
• Irrevocable life insurance trusts and similar trusts with special purposes
• Tax planning, including estate, gift and generation skipping transfer tax planning
• Lifetime and post-death charitable giving, including charitable gift annuities, charitable unitrusts and annuity trusts, and outright bequests
• 501(c)(3) tax exempt charities
• Estate and trust administration
• Real estate transfers and ownership planning, and related valuation matters
• Wealth transfer plans for high net worth individuals
• “Legal” and “financial” durable powers of attorney
• Patient advocate designations or durable powers attorney for health care, including living wills and health care directives
• Disputes among heirs and probate court litigation
• Asset protection strategies for individuals in high risk professions or ventures
• Advanced estate planning strategies, including family limited partnerships ("FLP"),  family limited liability companies ("FLLC"), qualified personal residence trusts (“QPRTs”), grantor retained annuity trusts (“GRATs”), self-canceling installment notes (“SCINs”), private annuities, and planning for non-citizens
• Planning for medicaid qualification, including “special needs” trusts
• “Incentive trusts” to provide for “value-conscious” wealth transfers
• Estate and gift tax return preparation
• Business succession planning, including “buy-sell”, “stock purchase” and similar shareholder agreements and recapitalizations

Effective estate planning will minimize or eliminate the time, cost and frustration of unnecessary probate proceedings upon your disability or death.  It will minimize and/or avoid any estate and gift taxes that might otherwise apply, and generally protect and preserve your estate for you and your family.  With effective planning, your intended heirs will inherit instead of the courts, the IRS, and other claimants.

We represent a diverse client base with respect to estate planning matters, from the routine “small” estates to the most complex high net worth individuals.  We represent business owners, farmers, retirees, doctors, professionals of all types, and people of nearly every imaginable income level and estate size.

Our estate planning services often overlap with other practice areas, such as business and corporate planning and general tax planning.  Business succession planning requires a breadth of knowledge beyond just estate planning, and our attorneys offer a blend of experience to meet such specialized needs.

Our services also extend to surviving family members after the death of an individual, to insure that any estate or trust is properly established and administered, any necessary taxes are paid, any disputes are properly resolved, and assets are distributed as soon as possible.

Our experienced estate planning, probate and trust administration lawyers include:

To contact with one of our lawyers, please visit our attorney page.

Our lawyers provide effective legal and business advice to clients throughout the State of Michigan including in cities such as Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Holland, Muskegon, Flint, and Traverse City.  We also regularly represent clients located in smaller cities or rural areas as well as from cities and states throughout the United States.  Many of our clients do business across the United States and abroad.