Estate planning mistakes have a cruel quality: the person who made them never sees the consequences. It is the children and grandchildren who spend months in probate court, pay avoidable taxes, or watch the family home slip away. After decades of handling Michigan estates, attorneys tend to see the same handful of errors repeated. Here are five of the most expensive, and the fixes for each.
This is the most widespread misunderstanding in estate planning. A will does not avoid probate; a will is an instruction manual for the probate court. If your home passes under your will, your family is going to probate, with the filing fees, inventory fees, attorney costs, and public records that come with it. Assets avoid probate only when they transfer by operation of law, through joint ownership, beneficiary designations, trusts, or the right kind of deed.
It feels intuitive: put the kids on the deed now and the house passes automatically later. In practice this is one of the riskiest moves a homeowner can make. Adding a child as a co-owner is an immediate gift of a share of the property, which can create gift tax filing obligations, expose your home to that child’s creditors, lawsuits, and divorce, and forfeit part of the stepped-up basis that would have saved them capital gains tax. You also cannot sell or refinance without their signature.
Michigan homeowners have an option that residents of most states do not. An enhanced life estate deed, commonly called a Lady Bird Deed, lets you name who inherits your home while keeping total lifetime control, including the right to sell or change your mind. At death the home bypasses probate entirely, heirs generally keep the stepped-up tax basis, and the deed can help shield the home from Medicaid estate recovery. This plain-language resource on the Lady Bird Deed Michigan walks through how the deed works and when it makes sense. Because so few states recognize the tool, even lifelong Michiganders often have no idea it exists.
Michigan’s Proposal A caps how fast a home’s taxable value can rise, but the cap resets when the property transfers, which can send the new owner’s tax bill soaring. Certain transfers to close family members can avoid uncapping when statutory requirements are met, and the way you structure the transfer matters. A poorly planned transfer can hand your children a home along with a permanently higher tax bill, an outcome good deed planning can often prevent.
An estate plan drafted fifteen years ago may name an ex-spouse, a deceased beneficiary, or a guardian for children who are now adults. Deeds, wills, and beneficiary designations should be reviewed after every major life event: marriage, divorce, births, deaths, and any significant change in Michigan law.
The common thread in all five mistakes is doing what seems obvious instead of what the law actually rewards. An hour with a Michigan estate planning attorney is cheap insurance against errors that can cost your family tens of thousands of dollars. This article is general information, not legal advice.
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Anyone who has spent a July afternoon in a Springfield attic or a January morning in an uninsulated pole barn knows the Ozarks climate does not do things halfway. Summers are hot and sticky, winters bring hard freezes and the occasional ice storm, and spring and fall can swing between the two in a single week. Buildings here have to handle heat, cold and humidity, often in the same month. Spray foam insulation has become a popular choice for homes, workshops and metal buildings across southwest Missouri because it addresses all three. This guide covers how it works, where it makes the most sense and what to ask before you hire someone to install it. Understanding the Missouri climate Springfield and much of the surrounding region fall in climate zone 4A under the International Energy Conservation Code, a mixed-humid zone. In practical terms, a building here must keep heat in during winter and keep heat and moisture out during summer. Humidity is the part people tend to overlook. Warm, damp outdoor air that leaks into a cooler building can condense on cold surfaces, leading to mold, rot and corrosion. Energy codes in Missouri are adopted locally, so requirements can differ between the city of Springfield, nearby towns and unincorporated parts of Greene, Christian and other counties. Check with your local building department before starting a major insulation project. How spray foam differs from other insulation Fiberglass batts and loose-fill cellulose slow the movement of heat, but air can still pass through and around them. Spray polyurethane foam is applied as a liquid that expands and hardens in place, filling gaps, cracks and irregular cavities. That gives it two jobs at once: it insulates and it air seals. The U.S. Department of Energy lists sprayed foam among the insulation types suited to irregular spaces and to sealing air leaks. Air leakage matters because many comfort complaints, from drafty rooms to upstairs bedrooms that never cool down, come from air moving through the building envelope rather than heat passing through solid walls. Stopping that air movement also cuts down on dust, pollen and outside noise. Open-cell versus closed-cell foam Spray foam comes in two main types, and choosing between them is the most important decision in the project. Open-cell foam Open-cell foam is soft and spongy, with tiny cells that are not fully closed. It expands a great deal during application, which makes it good at filling cavities and wrapping around wiring and plumbing. It is an effective air barrier and absorbs sound well, which is why it often goes into interior walls and between floors. It costs less per inch than closed-cell, but it offers lower insulating value per inch and allows water vapor to pass through. Closed-cell foam Closed-cell foam is dense and rigid. Its cells are sealed, so it delivers more insulating value per inch, resists water and acts as a vapor retarder at sufficient thickness. It also adds stiffness to walls and roof panels. It costs more per inch, but in tight spaces or areas exposed to moisture, such as crawlspaces, rim joists, basements and metal buildings, its performance often justifies the price. Many projects use both: closed-cell where moisture control or added strength matters, and open-cell where there is room for depth and sound control is a bonus.…
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