Estate Planning
Overview
At Varnum, we believe that each person has a vision for life and the legacy he or she will leave behind. The vision changes and matures, but at any one time it is expressed as an objective or goals for the future. It often includes an element of financial well being, perhaps centered around the need to preserve, manage and transfer acquired wealth. The vision may include a desire to assist family members and other loved ones to enable them to achieve their potential and their own vision. People also look to give back to the community that helped them succeed through charitable giving.
The Estate Planning Services offered by Varnum provide a unique opportunity to share the hopes and expectations that make up your vision for the future.
For more information, please contact either your Varnum attorney, or Chris Caldwell at 616/336-6951 or cjcaldwell@varnumlaw.com
Partner with Your Attorney
Through confidential discussions, you are able to explore opportunities and ideas. The emphasis is on building a relationship between you and your attorney—a partnership that may be relied upon long after the vision has been set down in writing. You and your attorney will spend time discussing your estate plan objectives and dealing with important issues such as:
- Establishing a plan to accomplish your personal and financial objectives
- Providing financial security for your family and assuring that dependents are cared for
- Reducing the tax burden on your survivors by taking advantage of opportunities
- Avoiding probate
- Establishing a succession plan for a family business
- Establishing a succession plan for a family cottage
- Exploring options for charitable giving
Service and Experience
As one of the largest estate planning practices in the state, we will ensure that you receive attentive, timely and committed personal service. Our knowledge of the most sophisticated tax and planning techniques permits us to offer a broad range of services to fit your needs, ranging from the simplest plans to the most complex:
- Wills
- Trusts
- Durable powers of attorney
- Living wills and patient advocate designations
- Gift planning
- Succession planning for closely held companies
- Succession planning for family cottages
- Retirement distribution planning and IRAs
- Charitable giving
- Private foundations
- Guardianships and conservatorships
- Marital agreements
Creativity
Death and taxes are notorious as two things in life we can count on. In fact, the estate tax includes some of the highest tax rates we face today. Through technology and continuing legal education, our attorneys maintain their position as strong leaders in the field of estate planning. We work continuously to ensure that you have an opportunity to explore the most creative and effective techniques in use today to achieve your vision:
- Generation skipping trusts
- Irrevocable life insurance trusts
- Charitable trusts
- Qualified personal residence trusts
- Grantor retained annuity trusts
- Planning for retirement
- Family limited liability companies and partnerships
Whatever your estate planning needs, our attorneys are committed to providing you the appropriate plan for your needs. We know this means more than just the right documents. We provide summaries, analyses and visual graphics to help illustrate the plan your technical legal documents create.
News & Publications
News
Events
Publications
Estate Administration
Estate Administration
We offer a wide range of probate and trust administration services upon the disability or death of a client. Some of the most important work we do is in this area. These situations present difficult problems to our clients. We see our role as that of family counselor, striving to assist our clients in a time of great need.
Administration work typically involves gathering assets and important documents, assisting individual fiduciaries in valuing estate assets, preparing appropriate tax returns, and generally assuring that our client's wishes are followed. Often the administration process also presents the opportunity to do postmortem planning which can be useful in further minimizing tax and probate exposure.
Our experience in the decedent's estates area has taught us to recognize the signs of difficult family dynamics that often arise after the death of a loved one. Unfortunately, these dynamics occasionally lead to serious disputes and even litigation. Our goal, of course, is to avoid such conflicts, but when such disputes prove unavoidable, we utilize our trial team's litigation expertise to protect our client's interests.
For more information, please contact either your Varnum attorney, or Fred Sytsma at 616/336-6808 or fasytsma@varnumlaw.com
Elder Law
Contact
- Christopher A. Ballard
- Thomas H. Bergh
- Jeffrey W. Beswick
- Christopher J. Caldwell
- Linsey Gleason
- Janelle G. Haggadone
- Dirk Hoffius
- John M. Huff
- Robert M. Huff
- Thomas G. Kyros
- Marilyn Lankfer
- Paul L.B. McKenney
- Michael J. Mulcahy
- James A. Radgens
- Laura E. Radle
- Stephen C. Rohr
- Hilary F. Snell
- John Norris Stone
- Fredric A. Sytsma
- David M. Thoms
- Rebecca K. Wrock