Michigan Estate Planning: Free Wills, Forms & Calculators

Estate planning in Michigan involves navigating a specific set of state laws that differ in important ways from neighboring states. Understanding these distinctions helps ensure your documents will be valid and your wishes carried out as intended.

Like all states, Michigan recognizes formally executed wills and living trusts as valid estate planning tools. A standard will here requires 2 adult witnesses, and adding a notarized self-proving affidavit can streamline the probate process later. The state also recognizes holographic (handwritten) wills, though these have stricter proof requirements and are more vulnerable to legal challenges.

The state adopted the Uniform Power of Attorney Act in 2024, modernizing its rules around financial powers of attorney. Documents created before 2024 may not reflect the current law's protections.

If you die without a will in Michigan, your heirs must survive you by at least 120 hours to inherit anything. This "survival period" exists to prevent property from passing through multiple estates in quick succession when family members die close together in time, such as in an accident. The amount a surviving spouse inherits without a will depends on whether your parents are still alive. If they are, your spouse may have to share the estate with them—a result that surprises many people and underscores why having a will matters. Michigan uses "per capita at each generation" distribution when dividing assets among descendants. This modern approach ensures that grandchildren whose parent predeceased you share equally with other grandchildren, rather than splitting only their parent's portion.

Michigan does not impose a state estate tax or inheritance tax, which means estates are only subject to the federal estate tax (currently exempting the first $15,000,000 per person, or $30,000,000 for married couples using portability). This is a meaningful advantage over the states that layer their own death taxes on top of the federal system.

Michigan does not allow transfer-on-death deeds for real estate. Without this option, real property must pass through probate or be held in a trust to avoid court proceedings. Transferring property into a revocable trust does not trigger a property tax reassessment in Michigan, so property taxes remain at their current level.

Michigan provides a statutory homestead exemption protecting up to $3,500 in home equity from creditors. While not as strong as the constitutional protections in states like Texas or Florida, this still provides meaningful protection for the family home. Executors must publish a notice to creditors, who then have 4 months to file claims against the estate. Known creditors must also receive direct written notice.

Michigan automatically revokes an ex-spouse as beneficiary on life insurance, retirement accounts, and similar designations upon divorce. However, these automatic revocations can be overridden by a divorce decree or by re-designating the ex-spouse after the divorce. Michigan does not protect inherited IRAs from creditors. Unlike the owner's own retirement accounts, inherited IRAs in Michigan are vulnerable to creditor claims, which is an important consideration when naming beneficiaries.

Michigan authorizes remote online notarization (RON), allowing trusts, powers of attorney to be notarized via video call from anywhere. However, wills are excluded from RON and still require in-person notarization.