Background: Michigan’s revocation of a devise or bequest upon divorce statute provides that the divorce or annulment of marriage revokes: (i) a disposition or appointment of property made by a divorced individual to his or her former spouse in a governing instrument and a disposition or appointment created by law or in a governing instrument […]

Take-Away: Caution needs to be exercised before a petition to remove a trustee is filed with a probate court. Courts seem to be highly reluctant to remove a trustee, even in the face of an established technical breach of trust. Background: The last few of years have been  ‘busy’ years in the Michigan Court of […]

Take-Away: A sophisticated planning technique is for a wealthy individual to fund an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) taking back a ‘right to be repaid’ at a point far into the future. The present value of the right to be repaid is then included in the wealthy individual’s taxable estate, at a value far less […]

Take-Away: An income-only self-settled trust enables a settlor to qualify for Medicaid eligibility. The danger is that if the settlor retains other rights in and to the corpus, that then makes the trust’s assets ‘countable’ for Medicaid eligibility. In addition, giving the trustee  the ‘power to adjust’ under the Michigan Uniform Principal and Income Act […]

Take-Away: While a Roth IRA is normally viewed as being strictly used for retirement purposes, it can also act as a flexible backup account. Thus, a Roth IRA can serve a dual purpose of  accumulating funds for retirement, or act as a savings account when funds are needed long before retirement is reached. Background: We […]