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May 13, 2025 21 mins
In today’s episode of Tuesday with Tom, we’re diving into what really happens if you die without a Will in Michigan. Who gets your assets? What if you have no close family? I’ll walk you through the State’s Intestate Succession laws and explain why having a Will — even a simple one — can save your loved ones time, money, and stress. Plus, I’ll share how Amanda and I can help you create or update your estate plan, and the convenient ways you can get started.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:31):
Good afternoon, Michigan Anders. It's Tuesday, May thirteen, twenty twenty five,
and that means it's time for another episode of Tuesday
with Tom, Michigan's only Internet show where you get answers
to your questions about a state planning and a state
settlement right here in the Great Lake State, and we

(00:52):
don't send you a bill. I'm your host, Tom Doyle,
a state planning attorney, lifelong Michigan resident, and a proud
ambassador for everything good about our beautiful state. Thanks for
joining me today. Well, last episode living trust, what they
are and why you might need one. So if you're

(01:14):
thinking about having a living trust as part of your
state plan, I invite you listen to the last episode
that you can find at Tuesday buttime dot com, where
I talk about what living trusts are and discuss when
people might need to have them as part of their

(01:36):
state plan. Today's show what happens if you die without
a will in Michigan. It's a very common question that
we get from clients all the time. If I don't
have a will, what will happen to my estate when
I die? And that is what we're going to spend

(01:57):
some talking time. If you will talking about in today's episode.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
So what happens if you.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Die without a will in Michigan. Well, if you die
without a will in Michigan, we're going to be talking
about you have died in test state. That's what that
refers to, as someone who dies whether it will. So
what is dying in testate? Well, when someone dies without

(02:35):
a valid will, again, that's called dying in testa. That
means you did not legally express how you want your
money and property distributed or who should be in charge
of handling your estate. So in Michigan, if that happens,
the state has a plan for you, and it's called

(02:57):
Michigan's intestate succession laws.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
But here's the catch.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Michigan's plan for you might be very different from what
you have wanted. In fact, during my forty plus years
now of practicing law, I can only think of one time,
one time out of all those thousands of clients that
we've assisted with the state plans, where what the State

(03:26):
of Michigan's plan under interstate succession for a client actually
matched what the client wanted. So under Michigan's state succession rule,
who gets what? Well, let's look at some common scenarios
if you will. One, you're married with no kids. Well,

(03:49):
if you're married with no kids, you might think that
your spouse will automatically get everything. That's what most clients
would think. I married and I die, I don't have kids,
everything can go to my spouse. Well, in fact, under
Michigan law, if your parents are still alive one or

(04:09):
two both parents are still alive, they in fact might
also get a cut of your estate because under Michigan law,
your spouse gets the first one hundred and fifty thousand
plus half of the remainder and anything that other half

(04:31):
of the remainder would then go to your parents. Again,
not what most clients would think and would want to
have happened, and that can also cause problems. Think about this,
maybe one of your parents is on Medicaid and now
they receive an inheritance from you at the time of

(04:54):
your death. It could end up disqualifying them from receiving
Medicaid benefits.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Another scenario, you're married with kids.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Again, most clients that we work with, when Amanda and
I are talking to them, if they're married and they
have kids, they will say something like, look, if I die,
I want my estate to go to my spouse, and
then when we both died, then we want the estate
to go to our children. Well, again, under Michigan's into
state succession rules, your spouse gets the first one hundred

(05:30):
and fifty thousand and half of the remaining estate, and
the other half of that estate goes to your children. Now,
when I talk about these numbers one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, essentially there is an escalation because of inflation

(05:53):
factor under the statute, So we would to be sure,
we'd really have to look at what is that number
going to be at the time of your death. But
we're using the beginning numbers, not the inflated numbers for inflation.
But again the idea, the important part is you're married
with kids.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Depending upon the size.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Of your estate, not necessarily everything is going to go
to your spouse. In fact, some of it might end
up going to your children. And it doesn't matter if
they're adults or if they're miners. And if they're miners
and they now are going to receive an estate from you,

(06:34):
there may well likely have to be a conservator appointed
by the probate court to receive.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
And manage that estate for them.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Another scenario, you have children.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
But no spouse.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Well, in that case, under Michigan law, your children will
inherit everything divided equally, and that would include adopted children
if you've adopted any children, but it does not include stepchildren.
So if you die without a spouse and you have children,

(07:13):
and you have stepchildren, and you wanted your stepchildren to
receive part of your estate, that's not happening under Michigan law,
unless you were to adopt them, or you made sure
that you did not die into state. Another example, you

(07:36):
have no spouse, no kids, no parents.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
You don't have anyone.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
Naturally in that order, and that basically means no spouse,
no kids, no grandkids, no parents, et cetera. Well, now
here's what's going to start happening.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
It's going to go down the line.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
So what the law basically says is you would start
by saying, all right, go up a generation to parents.
But you don't have parents, so now you come down
to your siblings. So the estate would end up going
to your siblings. If you don't have siblings, or you
have a deceased sibling, then that deceased siblings share, or

(08:14):
if no siblings, then we're gonna talk. I mean, if
you've had siblings, but maybe they've all predeceased you too, well,
then nieces and nephews are going to be involved.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
So if you think about I tell clients to think
of it.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
As like a Christmas tree. We're starting to come down.
We kind of had my parents at the top. We're
coming down to my siblings, We're coming down to nieces
and nephews, et cetera. And so that's kind of this
whole idea of this Christmas tree that I tell clients.
But let's say you're an only child, so you don't

(08:51):
have siblings, and your parents were only children, so there
are no aunts and uncles involved, and so they're is
literally no one in line to inherit your estate. In
that case, the entire estate goes to, guess it, the

(09:15):
star on top of the tree, which is the state
of Michigan. And unfortunately, many clients find themselves in that
situation today. They are only children of only children, and
so there are no other relatives to receive the estate,
and in that case, the estate would all go to

(09:38):
the state of Michigan. And seldom do we ever have
clients who look at us and say, hey, I want
my estate to go to the state of Michigan when
I die. Another consideration, who's going to be in charge
of your estate?

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Well, without a will?

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Into state succession statutes in the state of Michigan say
that it's the probate court who will appoint someone to
be what's called your personal representative. So there's a statute
that says who is in line to become that personal representative.
That might not be a person that you want to

(10:25):
be in charge, that might not be a person that
would be a good person to be in charge. And
so now you might have a fight amongst your amongst
your surviving family members in court over who it is
that should be placed in charge of settling your state.

(10:46):
And if you notice all of this that I just
said points out another glaring fact about into state succession,
and that means your estate is going through probate.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
Many clients, when we talk to them.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
About their goals if you will on their estate plan,
one of the goals many many clients have is to
avoid probate. Well, interstate succession has your estate going through probate.
One more thing, though, what about minor children? So you
have minor children and you die without having put an

(11:30):
estate in place, and now your state is going to
pass to those minor children by interstate succession. The other
problem that you have, though, is that by not having
an estate in place, a state plan in place, and
quite frankly this would be where a will comes in place,

(11:51):
you have not named a guardian for your minor children.
You have not decided who they're going to live with
if you die. In fact, it's Amanda and I have
the situation quite often where we will have a young
person sitting across the table from us during a consultation
and they will look in and say, you know, I

(12:12):
don't know why I'm even doing an estate plan because
I don't own anything, or we don't own anything. All
we have is a six month old baby. Well, the
fact of the matter is that's the most important decision
that you now have to make, and that is who
is going to raise that six month old baby, or

(12:35):
who is going to raise your minor children if you
die again, If you haven't designated that in a will,
then it's going to be the probate court who's going
to make that call. And yes, probate courts, the judge
is going to try and pick someone who seems suitable,

(12:57):
but it might not be the person that you would
have chosen, and unfortunately, in too many families, it could
trigger family disputes. Let's say you and your spouse have
both died and you have minor children. You might be
setting it up where each of your respective families, your

(13:20):
family or spouse's family are going to be arguing that
they are the ones who are in the best position
to raise the minor children. And you could have avoided
all of that by having an appropriate will in place
in which you named who the guardians would be that

(13:43):
would be raising those children. So review some of the
key takeaways from this conversation today about what happens if you.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Die with it without a will. In Michigan.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
One, the state is going to decide who get your property,
and again, it might not be who you choose to
the probate court will decide who's going to be in
charge of the process of settling year state. Again, that
might not be the person that you would choose, and

(14:18):
it might lead to family drama. Another takeaway, you lose
the opportunity to make any specific gifts, so you might
be thinking, well, I really want this particular asset to
go to this particular individual. You're losing that opportunity because

(14:39):
the State of Michigan has already decided where the estate's
going to go to, and they're not going to be
concerned about specific gifts.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
It might be.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
In fact, you might have thought, I want something to go,
let's say to my step children, but the state of
Michigan doesn't give your estate to your step children. Or
maybe you have some charitable interest. I want a certain
amount to my state to go to my church or
go to the American Red Cross, whatever it is. The
State of Michigan won't do any of that. Why because
at the end of the day, if there's nobody take

(15:09):
your state, who gets it that would be the state
of Michigan. So you're losing the opportunity to maker specific gifts,
You're losing the opportunity to avoid probate, and you could
be losing the opportunity to protect a loved one's inherence.
And most importantly, most importantly for many clients, you lose

(15:31):
the chance to name guardians for your children. So those
are all the things that could happen that will happen
if you die without a will in Michigan and your

(15:53):
state is now going to be subject to into state succession. Now,
there are a lot of ways to avoid it. One, obviously,
is to have a will, because if you have a will,
that will is saying this is where I want my
estate to go to. That will is saying this is
who I want to be in charge of my estate.

(16:16):
That will is also going to say who it is
that you would want to be the guardians of your
minor children. So all of those things can be accomplished
simply by having a will. What can't be accomplished simply
by having a will, though, is if one of your
goals is to avoid probate. We've had a lot of

(16:38):
discussion in previous episodes of Tuesday with Tom about why
wills do not avoid probate, and if one of your
goals is to have an estate plan that's going to
avoid probate, you would learn if you have not listened
to any previous episodes, that having a will in Michigan
is not a probate avoidance strategy. So if you don't

(17:28):
have a will, or your will is outdated, obviously the
best time to fix it is today and a man
and I would be truly honored to help you protect
your loved ones, whether it means creating a brand new
estate plan and a new will for you, or updating
and existing one, or guiding you through the estate settlement

(17:50):
and process during a very difficult time. We try and
make it easy and convenient to get you started. We
can offer in person appointments. Those are available at our
Lansing location or our Grand Rapids location. We offer virtual
consultations by zoom or phone wherever you happen to be
in the state of Michigan. And of course we have

(18:14):
our Legal Store, which is the ability to order just
an individual document through our website.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Maybe all that you need is a.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
New certificate of trust, or you can simply go to
the Legal Store, browse through the listed documents that we
can prepare for you and they can be prepared and
delivered through you. All of that, how to schedule in
person appointments or virtual consultations of the Legal Store is
available at DOYLELAWPC dot com. So I invite you go

(18:50):
to DOYLELAWPC dot com to learn more and to schedule
your consultation today. Well, that is going to be a

(19:13):
wrap for today's show.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
As always, Oh, if you have a comment.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
A question, you'd like answered or a topic that you'd
like to me to cover in a future episode, head
over to Tuesday with.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Tom dot com.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
There you can leave me a voice message by clicking
on the microphone or just send me an email at
Tom at Tuesday with Tom dot com. Be sure to
please follow us on Facebook fte your family and friends
to do the same. That's Tuesday with Tom and the
Doyle Law office is Doyle Law PC. Don't forget to

(19:48):
to subscribe to our email list at Tuesday with Tom
dot com as well as at Doyle Law. So either
of those you have the ability to subscribe to our
e newsletter where we're going to keep you up to
date on important estate planning tips. And you can now

(20:08):
listen to Tuesday with Tom wherever you enjoyed podcast. We're
on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google podcast, iHeartRadio, and
Speaker and many many other distribution services as well as

(20:29):
your smart speaker. You can always ask your smart speaker
to play Tuesday with Tom.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Well, thanks again.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
For spending some of the part of your day with us,
and until next time, take care, stay safe and have
an awesome day and an awesome week in Michigan. Tuesday
with Tom has been brought to you by the estate

(20:57):
planning attorneys at Doyle Law PC. To learn how we
can help you with your state plan or with settling
a loved one's estate, please call us today at five
one seven.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Three two three seven three sixty six.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
That's five one seven three two three seven three sixty six.
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