Michigan living trusts & estate documents

Living trust law in Michigan

A revocable living trust holds your home, accounts, and other property during your life — you stay in full control as trustee and can change or revoke it any time — then passes it to your beneficiaries without probate when you're gone. In Michigan, trusts are governed by the Michigan Trust Code, MCL 700.7101 et seq. (EPIC).

Avoiding probate in Michigan

Probate in Michigan is governed by the Estates and Protected Individuals Code (EPIC), MCL 700 and handled by the county Probate Court. EPIC allows unsupervised (informal) administration.

Michigan allows a small-estate affidavit (28 days after death, no real property) and a court assignment procedure when the estate is $50,000 or less as adjusted annually for inflation — $53,000 for 2026 (MCL §§ 700.3983, 700.3982, base raised by 2024 PA 1). That simplified procedure is set out in Collection by affidavit, MCL 700.3983. A funded living trust passes outside probate entirely, whatever the size of the estate — which is why Michigan homeowners in particular set one up.

Estate and inheritance tax in Michigan

Michigan imposes no estate tax and no inheritance tax: Michigan has no estate or inheritance tax. The separate federal estate tax reaches only estates above $15 million per person (2026, adjusted yearly), so most families never owe it.

Protecting a surviving spouse in Michigan

A surviving spouse in Michigan who is left out of the will can instead claim an elective share of one-half of what the spouse would take by intestacy, reduced by property already received from the decedent under Mich. Comp. Laws § 700.2202 — a protection the will itself cannot override.

Michigan also sets aside a homestead allowance of $15,000 (inflation-adjusted) for a surviving spouse and minor children (Mich. Comp. Laws § 700.2402), protected ahead of most creditors.

Signing your Michigan documents

1. Sign the living trust. Executed and acknowledged before a notary.
2. Sign the will. Two witnesses; notarized self-proving affidavit included (standalone and pour-over wills).
3. Sign the power of attorney. Sign your Durable Power of Attorney before a Notary Public.
4. Sign the health care documents. Sign your Advance Health Care Directive in the presence of two adult witnesses, as the form’s execution block provides.
5. Follow your package instructions. Your package includes page-by-page signing instructions written for Michigan — follow those as the authoritative guide.

Serving all of Michigan

Answer the questionnaire from anywhere in Michigan and download your completed documents in minutes: Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren, Sterling Heights, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Dearborn, Livonia, Troy, Westland, Farmington Hills, Flint, and every community in between.