In a recent newsletter, Relevar Home Care reported on the often-fatal combination of a dementia patient and access to firearms, and they offered some safety suggestions. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 45% of people aged 65 and older have guns in their household. Another 12% reside in the home of a gun owner. […]
If your home is owned by your Trust, or if you are the Trustee or Personal Representative for someone who owned a home, you need to make absolutely certain that your homeowner's insurance knows that! Earlier this year, the Michigan Court of Appeals was faced with a case where a homeowner transferred his house to […]
Recently, I was given an opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. for the week of October 8th. When I checked the schedule I was thrilled to learn that the United States Supreme Court WOULD be hearing oral arguments while I was there. I had last visited the Supreme Court in 1983, when I was a college […]
Rodney Dangerfield once joked that “my wife and I sleep in separate rooms, have dinner apart, and take separate vacations - we're doing everything we can to keep our marriage together!” But what if your wife didn't live with you and still wanted to inherit your property after your death? The Michigan Supreme Court recently […]
The Michigan Court of Appeals was recently asked to decide if a completely electronic "will" was valid. The ruling was that it is. Duane Horton was only 21 when he committed suicide. Before his death, he left an undated, handwritten entry in his journal. The journal entry said that his "final note" was on his phone, […]
If you’ve had a family member die recently, you may have been surprised by how quickly you started receiving phone calls from bill collectors. According to a recent New York Times story, some debt collectors are specially trained in all five stages of grief and are paid a commission to collect debts from grieving family […]
Are you using construction liens to your benefit? If you are a contractor, or a supplier of materials to a contractor, you have one of the most powerful collection tools at your disposal – the construction lien. If you are not paid by your customer, the law allows you to place a lien on real […]
The depressed real estate market has caused many people to consider buying or selling a home on a land contract. Before deciding on this type of transaction, it is important to first understand what a land contract is. What is a Land Contract? A land contract is simply a sale of real estate in which […]
Most people have at least one asset that includes a beneficiary designation (i.e, a life insurance policy, 401(k), IRA, annuity, etc.) It is important to remember that a beneficiary designation is the “trump card” and will overrule your will, your trust, or any other document that tries to direct to whom these funds are […]
