October has a way of snapping people back to reality. The leaves change on the trees along Five Mile Road, the air gets sharp, and suddenly the holidays are six weeks away. For a lot of families in Livonia and across Metro Detroit, this season brings a familiar rush of activity. What often gets lost in that shuffle is something genuinely important: taking a hard look at whether your estate plan still reflects your life.
National Estate Planning Awareness Week takes place during the third full week of October. Congress adopted the observance in 2008 to highlight the importance of estate planning. October can also be a useful time to review your plan before the year closes out. If you have never created an estate plan, or if yours has been sitting untouched for several years, now is a good time to act. Our attorneys work with families throughout Wayne County on estate planning documents that reflect their wishes, and we see how much a timely review can mean to the people our clients love.
What Documents Does Every Michigan Adult Actually Need?
Most adults need more than they think. Michigan law does not hand your family a roadmap when something happens to you. Without proper documents in place, the state’s default rules take over, and those rules may not reflect your wishes.
Wills and Trusts
A Last Will and Testament is a foundation of many estate plans. Most Michigan wills must be signed by the person making the will and two witnesses. A dated holographic will may be valid without witnesses if its signature and material portions are in the testator’s handwriting. Notarization is generally not required. Your will can name who receives the probate assets it controls, designate a personal representative to manage your estate, and nominate a guardian for minor children. Skipping that last step is a risk we encourage no one to take. Our wills and trusts attorneys can help you understand how these documents fit together.
A Revocable Living Trust is worth serious consideration for many Livonia families. A revocable living trust holds assets titled in the trust’s name during your lifetime and directs how those assets are distributed after you die. Properly funded trust assets can avoid probate. A successor trustee—the person named to take over as trustee—may also manage trust assets if you become incapacitated, without a court proceeding. That incapacity-planning role often surprises people. They focus on what happens after death and overlook how a trust may help while they are still alive.
One Wayne County Probate Court serves the county from the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, including estates connected to communities such as Dearborn, Livonia, and Westland. Probate is a public, court-supervised process that takes time and costs money. A properly funded trust can keep assets titled in the trust out of probate. Trust funding means retitling assets from your individual name into the name of your trust. Without that step, the trust has no assets to govern and cannot avoid probate for those assets. When assets remain outside a trust, families may need to navigate probate and trust administration for those assets.
Planning for Incapacity
A Financial Power of Attorney authorizes someone you trust to manage your financial affairs. Depending on its terms, it may take effect immediately or when a specified future event occurs. For powers of attorney created on or after July 1, 2024, durability is generally the default when the document is properly executed. It may be acknowledged before a notary or signed before two qualified witnesses; notarization is not the only option.
The other document is what Michigan law calls a Patient Advocate Designation, which many other states refer to as a healthcare proxy. It names the person you want to make medical decisions on your behalf if you cannot communicate them yourself. Without this document, Michigan law does not give close family members automatic authority to make your medical decisions. Without these plans, a family may need to ask a court to consider guardianship or conservatorship to address personal or financial decisions.
When Did Your Life Change? Life Events That Mean Your Plan Needs an Update
An estate plan is not a document you sign once and forget. Life moves, and your plan needs to move with it. In our experience working with Metro Detroit families, the plans that cause the most problems are the ones that were created thoughtfully years ago and then never touched again.
Major Life Changes
Consider a family in Livonia who bought a home on Newburgh Road, had two children, and then divorced. Their will still names a former spouse as primary beneficiary. Their trust was never updated to reflect the new ownership of the property. Their life insurance beneficiary designation, which controls outside of any will or trust, still points to someone they have not spoken to in years. That scenario plays out in Wayne County Probate Court more often than many people realize. If divorce changes your family or finances, an attorney familiar with divorce can help you review related documents.
Major life events that generally call for an immediate review include:
- Marriage or divorce
- The birth or adoption of a child
- The death of a named beneficiary or executor
- A significant change in assets, including buying or selling property in Metro Detroit
- A move to or from Michigan
Each of these events can affect who inherits, who controls your finances, and who makes medical decisions for you.
Beneficiary Designations
One point that often causes confusion: beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, IRAs, and life insurance policies generally pass outside your will. Retirement accounts, life insurance, and bank accounts should have current beneficiaries where applicable. If those designations are outdated, careful will drafting may not override them. Year-end is a natural time to review those accounts, and October gives you a clear runway before the holiday rush makes everything harder to schedule.
Why Q4 Is the Right Time to Get This Done
Frankly, the timing argument here is practical, not just symbolic. The stretch between October and December is when many families are busiest, which is exactly why getting ahead of it now matters. Once Thanksgiving arrives, attorney calendars fill up and the mental bandwidth for financial planning evaporates.
Plan Before Year-End
There are also year-end tax considerations worth noting. It is important to assess changes in estate and tax laws to avoid unnecessary complications and ensure compliance. Federal estate and gift tax thresholds have changed in recent years, and future laws may change them again. Anyone with significant assets, a family business in the Metro Detroit area, or complex property holdings should talk with an attorney before December 31, not after. A family business may also benefit from a succession plan that coordinates with the estate plan.
More than half of Americans do not have an up-to-date estate plan. That statistic is striking, but what matters more is what it means for individual families. Without a plan, Michigan law determines what happens to assets that pass under state default rules and who may speak for you medically. Those decisions may not match what you would have chosen.
We have worked with families throughout Livonia, Westland, Canton, and across Wayne County for years. The conversations that start in October, before the year-end rush and the holidays, tend to produce the most thoughtful plans. If your estate plan is outdated, incomplete, or nonexistent, reaching out now gives you time to review it carefully. Contact Creighton McLean & Shea PLC, a Livonia estate planning law firm, to speak with an estate planning lawyer. Your family will be glad you did.
