Once you have figured out what kind of attorney you need, there are a few more things that you need to think about before putting down a retainer to the first person that pops into your search engine.

Before choosing your attorney, it is a good idea to meet with a few to see if your personalities match, and that they are looking out for your best interests. If you find that you meet someone who seems to be the stereotypical “sleazy attorney,” it won’t work, no matter how specialized and knowledgeable he or she is. You don’t want to be second-guessing and wondering if your lawyer is cheating you out of your money or is putting your case on the backburner. You want to find someone who clicks well with you because when you feel comfortable with your attorney, things run much smoother.

You are your own Rocky Balboa, and the attorney you hire should be your Mickey Goldmill. Mickey was always in Rocky’s corner, and that’s the relationship you should have with your attorney. This type of relationship is easily seen in areas of law such as Criminal and Family. In Criminal Law, we’ve all seen defense attorneys looking out for their clients. We know that they throw everything plus the kitchen sink at the court to make their client walk free. The same is true in Family Law; divorce attorneys are known for squeezing as hard as they can to get their client the best deals.

In Estate Planning, your attorney needs to be your Mickey. When drafting your documents, your attorney should be contacting you with suggestions on how to protect your family from creditors and predators. A proper estate attorney should be able to protect as much of your assets as possible to insure they go your beneficiaries. Another role of the estate attorney is to protect you from possible predators, because the danger of undue influence in Wills and Trusts can be hard to see. It may not be obvious that the home caregiver is forcing an elderly person to put them into the Will. It may be difficult to see the difference between a grandchild with truly altruistic intentions or one looking out for his inheritance.

We always see Mickey giving Rocky advice and looking out for his best interest; this is the ideal relationship between you and your attorney. Your attorney is there to give you tips and look out for your well-being. Just because a lawyer is knowledgeable does not mean he is in your corner. Make sure you get the right attorney for you.

Like many other areas of life, finding the right attorney is crucial for you and your estate plan. Some people choose to go to Superstore-style attorneys, but a good shopper knows that a specialty store will have more concrete advice regarding winter tires than the local Meijer. It works the same way with lawyers. If you get a ticket for a DIU, you go to a lawyer who specializes in them, so that he can throw every trick in the book for you. When going through a divorce, you look for an attorney who specializes in Family Law to get you what you want.

The same goes with Estate Planning, you want to hire an attorney who specializes in this field. You can go to an attorney or a law firm, which practices in multiple areas of law, but if they have the “go to” attorney who handles too many areas of law, then all you are buying are Meijer tires. The attorney is probably a great attorney, but his or her practice is just too vast to give the expertise needed.

They may not know to challenge the calibration of the radar gun when fighting a DUI, or may not ask for everything in a divorce case because they don’t quite know how to squeeze the other side.

A lot of attorneys and law firms do Estate Planning, but the problem is unless they hire a lawyer to specifically head their Estate Planning and Probate section, they will not know all the nuisances that fall within Estate Law. An inexperienced attorney, or one who doesn’t solely practice in the field, may accidently put an IRA or Roth-IRA into a trust without the appropriate language, thus triggering the clause set up by the IRS, which would require the IRA to be drained within five years. Or they may draft a trust for a grandchild without a Crummey clause, which could trigger the GST on the gift. There are so many nuisances that going to a general practitioner or someone who practices too many areas of law is just not doing justice for you and your estate.

How can you tell which attorneys are spread too thin? There are two types, there are the general practitioners, and there are the ones whose areas of practice barely overlap. Both will be able to give good general advice in the areas that they practice, but do not expect expert advice. If you see that someone practices Family Law, Criminal Law, Estate Planning, and Tax, you can see the red flag, since Family Law and Criminal Law rarely overlap. In this scenario, at least there is quite a bit of overlap between Estate Planning and Tax, and a tiny overlap between Family Law and Estate Planning. But these types of lawyers are the ones who are usually limited to good general advice.

Marriage works as a protection under Michigan law. If one dies, his spouse generally receives everything even without a Will. While this protection is a nice safety net for some, it leaves others drastically under protected, specifically same-sex marriages and unmarried couples.

Same-sex marriages are currently not recognized by the state of Michigan. This lack of recognition wreaks havoc on same-sex marriages. While talking to LGBTQ advocates, they told me that they are participating in the fight to get same-sex marriage recognized in Michigan, but when I asked them what they were doing to protect themselves under the current law, they had no response.

This worries me, as long as Michigan does not recognize same-sex marriage, all same-sex marriages need to have specific documentation in order to receive the same legal benefits. A Will and Trust will allow for personal and real possession be transferred to your loved one. The Power of Attorney, Patient Advocate, and HIPPA release form will allow your loved one to take care of you as the State allows for a husband to take care of his wife, or vice versa. In simple truth, Estate Planning levels the field to allow people to have their loved ones care for them at all times.

When talking to a client, she told me about her and her “husband,” air-quotes included. Upon inquiring, she informed me that her “husband” was her second husband and they were not actually married. She told me that they did not feel like they needed a piece of paper to tell them they were married.

I feel that her situation is not a unique one; there are plenty of couples out there that are “married” in the sense that they are loyal to each other, but are not documented. Whether you have not yet “tied-the-knot” or you have decided that you do not need the piece of paper, Estate Planning allows you to take care of each other.

“Uncle Sam requires us to review our income every year, all the more so should we review our estate plans.” –Eric Carver, Dykema

When clients discuss the topic of Wills, I have heard one of two reactions. The first response, which is very concerning, is “Oh, I don’t have Will.” The other response is “Oh, I drafted a Will a while ago.” Upon further investigation, I find that they drafted their estate plan five years ago, if not more. The longest one that I heard was 18 years.

If a person passes without a Will, he is trusting a court to divide up all of his assets. The judge will not know what he would have given to each of his children had he written a Will. There is no way to know that it is important for Courtney’s tuition to be covered, or some money set aside for Mike’s down payment. Leaving such important decisions to someone so removed from the situation is irresponsible at best.

Many see the pitfalls of this thinking, and opt to write their first Will after a major life change, mainly getting married and having children. After this, they fall into a false sense of security, assuming that what they wrote in their late twenties still applies years later.

I find this concerning because a Will and Trust should be updated, or at a minimum reviewed, at every life changing experience. These life changes can be things that affect you both directly and indirectly.

Think back over the past five years of your life and ask yourself, “What has changed?” Marriage, birth, death, graduation, all constitute as change. If a parent has set up a guardianship for their children, they need to review it when their oldest child turns 18. If someone wants to ensure that gifts are given to grandchildren directly, at each birth the Will or Trust should be updated. The creation or dissolution of friendships and family ties are reasons to ensure that those you want remembered in your Will can be.

Although we tend to think that things don’t change, change happens more often than we consciously recognize. As we walk into a new year, make a resolution to take care of your family and estate.