Everyone already has an estate plan, whether they have something in writing or not. If someone passes away without a will or trust, their estate will be distributed by the laws of the state in which you reside through the Probate Court. An estate plan makes your wishes known for how you want your assets handled and distributed and designates who you appoint as a fiduciary to carry out the administration of your estate.
If you become incapacitated and have not previously designed an individual as your Power of Attorney for Financial matters and a Patient Advocate Designation for Medical matters, you may need to have a guardian or conservator appointed by the court. Proper estate planning can keep your estate a private matter if you are incapacitated with the use of Power of Attorney and Patient Advocate Designations to assist you.
Appropriate drafting and funding of Trust documents will also keep your estate a private matter. A will is necessary to express your desire for a guardianship for (a) minor child(ren).

An estate plan encompasses a range of documents and designations, including Wills, Testamentary Trusts, Trusts, Patient Advocate Designations, and Financial Powers of Attorney. When properly drafted, these documents can be utilized to minimize estate taxes, give direction to your advocate regarding medical care when you cannot communicate, protect your assets, provide for your family, plan for a disabled person, retain privacy, and create a legacy.

An estate planning attorney knows circumstances are always changing and you need documents to grow with you. Previously created “revocable” documents can be modified or reinstated as your situation demands.

Everyone passes away with an Estate Plan, whether you realize it or not. In Michigan, if a decedent has not specified where the decedent wishes to dispose of the estate, statute determines this for the decedent. In Michigan, the code probate attorneys follow is state specific, meaning a one size fits all form document probably doesn’t address how the law is drafted and interpreted in Michigan. From experience, she can tell you that all too often when someone passes away without a proper estate plan, it causes unnecessary stress and frustration for friends and family of the decedent.

As our society advances in technology, most of us generate what are known as “Digital Assets”. Estate Planners can address ownership, access to or restriction from, and transfers of digital assets to your beneficiaries through carefully drafted estate planning.
Digital Assets include:

• documents and pictures stored in the cloud
• social media accounts
• digital music
• domain names
• online bank and financial investment accounts, including PayPal and Square cash accounts
• credit card rewards
• virtual currency
• income generating websites or blogs
• email accounts

A proper estate plan will address who is granted authority to access your digital assets and how to administer any assets that are income producing or have value. It will grant access to online accounts that may be useful in administering your estate. You can dictate if assets should be simply deleted, transferred, or given to a particular individual, as long as the platform of the digital assets allows such actions. The law is changing in attempt to address privacy of the decedent while balancing access of family and friends to memories of their loved ones, but laws take time to implement. In the meantime, addressing digital assets in your estate planning can ease the administration process for your designated agents by allowing them access to information necessary to carry out your wishes.