The Michigan Legacy deed is a relativly new approach at handling the estate planning and elder law issues involved in handling real property, including your home. The legacy deed is an innovative way that in many respects, we can “have our cake and eat it too” when protecting the home. That’s the purpose of the legacy deed, to protect the home.
From an elder law perspective, we now have Michigan estate recovery. What this means is that without proper planning they state of Michigan may place a lien on your home if the state pays any cost of long-term care through the Medicaid program, whether that care is provided in the home or in a skilled nursing facility. By utilizing a legacy deed, the family home avoids probate where, currently, the state of Michigan places a lien on on the family home after the senior’s death.
The legacy deed is also used from a basic estate planning perspective with a married couple. The typical estate planning approach most attorneys recommended was either the “deed in the drawer” trick where you sign a quit claim deed, but don’t record it or do nothing when a client creates a revocable living trust. The reasons for this are numerous, but it involves maintaining asset protection for the home. However, if you do nothing the home ends up going into probate if both spouses pass away. The solution…the legacy deed.
The legacy deed used in an estate planning enviorment allows a married couple to maintain the home’s asset protection while still alive and avoids probate if the married couple were to pass away. The whole time not uncapping taxes and allowing the freedome to sell the property at any time.
Call our office at (248) 481-4000 if you have Michigan property and want to set up a Michigan Legacy Deed to protect your property.