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Protect Your Assets During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Drafting a Will

There are a bunch of crumpled up papers on a desk. The paper in front of the camera reads We live in uncertain times. The COVID-19 pandemic presents a disruption to normal life and a real danger to many people, especially those who are ill or elderly. 

While you take steps to protect yourself, your family, and your community, make sure you also think of the future by planning your will or trust. When you have a legally binding will or trust when you pass away, there will be less confusion and your assets will go where you want them to go. If you don’t have a will when you pass:

  • State law decides where your assets go (a status known as “dying intestate”)
  • If you have a spouse or children, your assets typically will go to them
  • If not, things become more complicated

This article focuses on how your will can help you.

Stop Intestate Succession and Keep Control

The state takes over when you don’t have a will or trust. Most people have more specific plans for their assets that would not be carried out if the state decided where your property, belongings, and money will go. Friends, neighbors, significant others (for unmarried partners), schools, and charities are just some of the beneficiaries that would not receive anything in an intestate succession. Keep control of your belongings and assets when you draft a legal will. Don’t forget, an experienced lawyer can help (socially distant options are available with Aldrich Legal Services).

What Your Will Decides Beyond Your Property

Knowing what will happen to your property is important. However, your will provides direction for several other aspects of your life, including:

  • Naming an executor for your estate (person responsible for administering to your wishes) 
  • Names guardians for any children
  • Decides what happens to the property of the children
  • Forgive debts

Other documents such as a living trust can help you distribute your property, but only a will can fulfill the above obligations. 

Your Will Reduces Family Drama

No one will need to consider what you “would have wanted.” Your wishes will be clear in your will.

Many people can become emotional after losing a loved one. Having a detailed will helps provide clarity and reduce tension between family members during a difficult time. Think of your will as a plan that will help your family take care of details so they can properly mourn. 

Getting Legal Advice During Stay at Home Orders

Creating your end of life plan is never easy. With COVID-19 and the current stay at home order, these plans can become even more complicated. Here at Aldrich Legal Services, we want to help. We can connect with you virtually to help you walk through drafting your will or trust. We can get it all set up for when the social distancing order has been lifted.

MICHIGAN REAL ESTATE 95: Property owners did not place a condition upon the delivery of the deed; rather, they delivered the deed to themselves.

When the delivery of a deed is contingent upon the happening of some future event, title to the subject property will not transfer to the grantee until the event has occurred. However, in this case A and J did not place a condition upon the delivery of the deed; rather, they delivered the deed to themselves, then deposited the deed with their attorney with the instruction to record the deed only upon the happening of a future event, thereby placing a condition only upon the recording of the deed.

MICHIGAN PROBATE 57: Brother granted permanent guardianship of siblings.

At a multiday hearing to address the extension of the guardianship, the eldest children, the mother’s relatives and friends, and school personnel testified regarding the mother’s care of the children, appellant’s treatment of and interaction with the children, and the eldest siblings’ role in aiding the mother to raise the children.

FAMILY LAW 88: The trial court found that the children did not have an established custodial environment with defendant because, before the separation, he did not have a large role in the children’s lives.

The trial court credited plaintiff’s testimony that, before the parties’ separation, defendant spent minimal time helping to care for the children, so its finding that the children would not have looked to defendant for guidance, discipline, the necessities of life, and parental comfort during that time was not against the great weight of the evidence.

REAL ESTATE 89: RM had not included any language in the deed providing that the property was a joint tenancy with full rights of survivorship, the property instead became a tenancy in common.

RM drafted the deed without seeking counsel and mistakenly believed that, if either she or FK died, the property would fully pass to the surviving tenant. FK’s will provided that if his wife predeceased him—which she did—the personal representative of his estate should sell any residual property that he owned and divide the cash proceeds equally among his surviving children.

FAMILY LAW 83: A trial court can terminate a parent’s rights and permit a stepparent to adopt a child.

A trial court has discretion to terminate a parent’s rights and permit a stepparent to adopt a child when the conditions of MCL 710.51(6) are met. MCL 710.51(6)(b) requires the petitioner to establish that the other parent had the ability to visit, contact, or communicate with the children, and substantially failed or neglected to do so for a period of two years.

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