Michigan Estate Planning Lawyers
Estate Planning & Probate Avoidance
Estate Planning is about peace of mind. Estate Planning is about creating your rule book versus relying on the government’s rule book. Estate Planning is about discovering your goals, developing the strategies to meet your goals and then picking the right tools, like a will or a trust.
Will or Living Trust?
At Castle Wealth Group Legal, we help families achieve their goals. We do this through our 3 step process of determining what your goals are, developing the strategy to achieve your goals, and then picking the right tools to achieve your goals.
How to Avoid Probate in Michigan
Probate is a court process that can easily be avoided. To avoid probate you need to understand how estate administration works.
Michigan Estate Planning Lawyers
Elder Law & Asset Protection
Elder law and Asset Protection is all about the use of legal entities like Castle Trusts™ and Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) to defend against potential lawsuits and the devastating cost of long-term care in a Nursing Home (the dreaded “nursing home spend-down”)
Do I Want a Living Trust or a Castle Trust?
Did you know there are different types of trusts? Most people (even attorneys) only think about a trust that can avoid probate and distribute assets upon death. What if there was a trust that could protect you from lawsuits and the devastating cost of long-term care? There is. It’s called a Castle Trust™. Want to learn more?
Understand the Long-term Care Maze
Are you a caregiver? We literally wrote the book on navigating the long-term care maze, talking about Veteran’s Benefits, Long-term Care Insurance, Medicaid and how to get the best care possible.
Michigan Estate Planning Lawyers
Medicaid & Nursing Home Planning
In Michigan, the average cost of a nursing home can be over $12,000 per month! Current statistics say that one out two people will need nursing home care. The average stay in a nursing home is two and a half years. The question is, “how are you going to pay for it?” You have a choice. You can private pay until you run out of money. Or you can look at the smart planning alternatives.
Don’t Go Broke in the Nursing Home
Unlike what your friends, neighbors, other professionals are saying…you don’t have to go broke paying for nursing home care or engage in the “Medicaid spend-down.” There are options to avoid nursing home care costs, whether you are planning ahead or if you have a loved one in a nursing home now. Learn about Medicaid Crisis Planning strategies with this case study.
Tax Free Money for Long-term Care
Paying for long-term care, especially nursing home care can be expensive and tricky. The earlier you start thinking about it, the more options you will have. I co-authored a book on how to pay for long-term care and get money to do so tax-free.
Michigan Estate Planning Lawyers
Retirement & Tax Planning
Estate planning is not just about the legal documents, it needs to fit into a family’s overall plan for retirement and the legacy you want to leave. It would be counter intuitive for our firm to create a great estate plan, but not take into account how the financial tools fit into the plan or what tax ramifications there are based on the type of trust. Even more important, many estate planning firms create trust but do not help families fund or get assets in the trust. An unfunded trust is not worth the paper it’s printed on.
Retirement Planning
As estate and elder law attorneys we are frequently asked to assist our clients with estate, long-term care, insurance and investment planning. As fiduciaries and attorneys who have to act in our client’s best interest at all times, we often find that our clients have been misled or have not been fully advised about investment products, leading to significant mistakes in their investment planning. These mistakes often jeopardize our client’s future income, their future support and leave less of an inheritance to their children. That’s why we are their trusted counsel.
Tax Planning
Tax planning can have a large impact on the amount of wealth you will have in retirement and what you leave to the next generation as a legacy. Most tax preparers and even CPAs look at taxes through a micro lens of minimizing taxes in a specific year. Our approach is to look at taxes through a macro lens and minimize taxes over your lifetime and for your children or loved ones. We employ state of the art technology prepared by actuaries to add comprehensive tax planning as a service, which differentiates our firm.