Tèm trust Michigan yo, defini

Verifye ak Michigan Statutes yo nan dat 2026-10-10. Enfòmasyon jeneral, pa konsèy legal; tèks ofisyèl la ki kòmande.

Michigan Trust Code

Article VII of the Estates and Protected Individuals Code (MCL 700.7101 et seq.), Michigan's enactment of the Uniform Trust Code in its own numbering, in effect since April 1, 2010. A trust's terms prevail over it except for the mandatory rules MCL 700.7105 lists, among them the duties to notify the qualified trust beneficiaries and to give beneficiaries the terms and information about the trust property, except during a nondisclosure period.

Estates and Protected Individuals Code

Michigan's code of decedents' estates, trusts and protective proceedings (1998 PA 386, MCL 700.1101 et seq.): intestacy, the spouse's rights, wills, probate and administration, guardianship and conservatorship, and — in Article VII — the Michigan Trust Code.

Probate court

The county court with exclusive jurisdiction of proceedings that concern a trust's validity, internal affairs or settlement (MCL 700.1302). A trust is administered free of the court unless an interested person invokes it (MCR 5.501).

Settlor

A person, including a testator or a trustee, who creates a trust (MCL 700.7103). While a trust is revocable, the trustee's duties are owed exclusively to the settlor, except that a trustee who reasonably believes the settlor is incapacitated keeps the settlor's designated agent, or the would-be qualified trust beneficiaries, informed (MCL 700.7603).

Trustee

The person who holds and administers the trust property. On accepting, a trustee administers the trust in good faith, expeditiously, in accordance with its terms and purposes, for the benefit of the trust beneficiaries (MCL 700.7801). Gid: Devwa administratè siksesè Michigan apre yon lanmò

Successor trustee

The trustee who takes over when a trustee dies, resigns, is removed or can no longer serve. A vacancy in a noncharitable trust is filled in the manner the terms designate, then by the court (MCL 700.7704); a successor to a trustee who was also the settlor of a revocable trust is not liable for the settlor's actions as trustee and has no duty to investigate them (MCL 700.7603). Gid: Administratè siksesè Michigan: aksepte wòl la

Acceptance of the trusteeship

How a designated trustee becomes trustee: by substantially complying with the trust's method of acceptance or, where that method is not exclusive, by accepting delivery of the trust property, exercising powers, performing duties or otherwise indicating acceptance; one who does not accept within a reasonable time after knowing of the designation is deemed to reject (MCL 700.7701). The 63-day acceptance notice runs from it (MCL 700.7814).

Letters of trusteeship

Michigan's probate court issues none. A trustee the court appoints, or one named in a will admitted to probate, files an acceptance, and a trustee may show its authority by affidavit (MCR 5.501); an institution usually asks for a certificate of trust instead (MCL 700.7913).

Trust beneficiary

A person who has a present or future beneficial interest in a trust, vested or contingent, or who holds a power of appointment over trust property in a capacity other than trustee or trust director (MCL 700.7103).

Qualified trust beneficiary

A beneficiary the settlor intends to benefit as a material purpose of the trust who is a distributee or permissible distributee of income or principal, would be one if those interests ended without ending the trust, or would be one if the trust ended that day; only if no beneficiary meets that test, any beneficiary in those three positions (MCL 700.7103). Michigan's two 63-day notices go to this group (MCL 700.7814).

Revocable trust

A trust the settlor can revoke without the trustee's or an adverse party's consent; the settlor's incapacity does not change that (MCL 700.7103). For a trust instrument executed on or after April 1, 2010, the settlor may revoke or amend the trust unless its terms expressly make it irrevocable (MCL 700.7602). Gid: Trust revokab pandan lavi Michigan, eksplike

Irrevocable trust

A trust that can no longer be revoked — by its terms or because the settlor has died. Within 63 days after the trustee learns that a trust was created irrevocable or has become irrevocable, the trustee notifies the qualified trust beneficiaries (MCL 700.7814). Gid: Trust irevokab Michigan, eksplike

Notice of acceptance

The notice a trustee sends the qualified trust beneficiaries within 63 days after accepting the trusteeship: the acceptance, the court in which the trust is registered if it is registered, and the trustee's name, address and telephone number (MCL 700.7814).

Notice that the trust is irrevocable

The notice a trustee sends the qualified trust beneficiaries within 63 days after learning that an irrevocable trust was created or that a revocable trust became irrevocable: the trust's existence, the identity of the settlor or settlors, the court of registration if registered, and the right to request a copy of the terms that describe or affect the beneficiary's interests (MCL 700.7814).

Trustee's report

The report a trustee sends at least annually and at the trust's termination — the trust property, liabilities, receipts and disbursements, the source and amount of the trustee's compensation, and a listing of the property with market values where feasible — to the distributees and permissible distributees and to other beneficiaries who request it; on a vacancy with no cotrustee, the former trustee reports (MCL 700.7814). Gid: Egzijans kontablite trust nan Michigan

Waiver of reports

A trust beneficiary may waive the right to the trustee's report or other information, and may withdraw the waiver for the future (MCL 700.7814). A beneficiary who waived reports has one year after the end of the calendar year of an alleged breach to bring a proceeding about it (MCL 700.7905).

Certificate of trust

A sworn affidavit a trustee may give a person other than a beneficiary instead of the trust instrument: the trust's name and date and the date of each operative instrument, each current trustee's name and address, the trustee's powers for the purpose at hand, revocability and who may revoke, and how cotrustees sign (MCL 700.7913). With an instrument affecting real property, it gives the property's legal description (MCL 565.431). Gid: Administratè siksesè Michigan: aksepte wòl la

Trust registration

A trustee may register a trust with the probate court at the place the terms designate or the principal place of administration (MCL 700.7209). Registration is optional and does not put the trust under the court's supervision; the 63-day notices name the court only if the trust is registered (MCL 700.7814).

Undisclosed trust

A noncharitable trust whose instrument clearly expresses the settlor's intent to withhold the trust's existence, the trustee's identity, its terms or its property from beneficiaries for a nondisclosure period of at most 25 years; the holders of the rights or powers the instrument grants receive their own 63-day notices, and the ordinary notices follow when the period ends (MCL 700.7409a).

Duty of loyalty

A trustee administers the trust solely in the interests of the trust beneficiaries; a transaction affected by a conflict between the trustee's fiduciary and personal interests may be set aside at an affected beneficiary's request unless an exception the statute states applies (MCL 700.7802). Gid: Devwa administratè siksesè Michigan apre yon lanmò

Prudent administration

A trustee acts as a prudent person would in dealing with the property of another, following the Michigan prudent investor rule, and uses any special skills the trustee has or was named for (MCL 700.7803).

Michigan prudent investor rule

The standard for investing trust property: a fiduciary invests and manages it as a prudent investor would, considering the purposes, terms and distribution requirements of the governing instrument and the other circumstances, with reasonable care, skill and caution — a default rule the instrument may expand, restrict or eliminate (MCL 700.1502).

Impartiality

A fiduciary owes impartiality among the beneficiaries, with undivided loyalty, care and prudence, and segregation of the property held in the fiduciary capacity (MCL 700.1212).

Delegation

A fiduciary may delegate investment and management functions, using reasonable care, skill and caution in selecting the agent, setting the scope and terms of the delegation and periodically reviewing the agent's actions; a fiduciary who does so is not liable for the agent's decisions (MCL 700.1510).

Cotrustees

Trustees serving together act by majority decision and each participates in the trustees' functions; a cotrustee who delegates a function only a trustee can perform notifies the qualified trust beneficiaries within 28 days (MCL 700.7703).

Separate trustees

Trustees whose instrument divides the trusteeship into discrete offices — investment, distributions or others — each separately accepted; they are not cotrustees of one another, and each office's vacancy is filled on its own (MCL 700.7703b).

Trust director

A person other than a trustee whom the terms give a power of direction over the trustee's actions, such as investments or distributions; Michigan's directed-trust section sets the director's duties and the trustee's (MCL 700.7703a).

Directed trustee

A trustee who must take action to comply with a trust director's exercise of a power of direction and is not liable for doing so — except where the direction was obtained by the trustee's own collusion or fraud (MCL 700.7703a).

Trustee compensation

What the trust's terms specify or, if they are silent, compensation that is reasonable under the circumstances; a court may allow more or less in the circumstances the statute names (MCL 700.7708). The trustee tells the qualified trust beneficiaries in advance of any change in the method or rate (MCL 700.7814). Gid: Konpansasyon trustee nan Michigan (MCL 700.7708)

Spendthrift provision

A term restraining voluntary or involuntary transfer of a beneficiary's interest; Michigan makes it valid and enforceable (MCL 700.7502), with exceptions for a beneficiary's child or former spouse owed support and other claimants the statute lists (MCL 700.7504).

Discretionary trust provision

A provision leaving to the trustee's discretion whether, how much, to whom or when to distribute income or principal (MCL 700.7103); a beneficiary's creditor has no right to an amount that may be distributed only in the trustee's discretion (MCL 700.7505).

Support provision

A provision directing the trustee to distribute income or principal for a beneficiary's health, education, support or maintenance (MCL 700.7103); the interest may not be transferred and is not reachable by a judgment until distributed, with the statute's limits after distribution (MCL 700.7503).

Nonjudicial settlement agreement

A binding agreement among interested persons on a matter involving a trust, valid only to the extent it does not violate a material purpose and contains terms a court could approve; it cannot be used to terminate or modify the trust (MCL 700.7111).

Decanting

The distribution of a trust's property to a second trust by a trustee with discretion to distribute principal, without consent or the court, after written notice — with the proposed instrument — to the living settlors and the qualified trust beneficiaries at least 63 days before, unless they waive it in writing (MCL 700.7820a).

Contest period

A trust that was revocable at the settlor's death may be contested within the earlier of 2 years after the death and 6 months after the trustee sends a notice of the trust's existence, the instrument's date, the dates of known amendments, the relevant terms, the settlor's and trustee's names and the time allowed (MCL 700.7604).

Limitation period (claims against a trustee)

A beneficiary may not bring a proceeding for breach of trust more than 1 year after a report that adequately disclosed the potential claim and stated the time allowed; otherwise, within 5 years after the trustee's removal, resignation or death, the end of the beneficiary's interest or the trust's end (MCL 700.7905).

Notice to creditors

Where no personal representative of the settlor's estate has letters, each trustee of a trust the settlor could revoke publishes and serves a notice to creditors in the manner MCL 700.3801 sets (MCL 700.7608). Claims are then barred unless presented within 4 months after publication — a known creditor, within the later of 28 days after notice and the 4 months — or, without a compliant notice, within 3 years after the death (MCL 700.7610).

The trust's liability for the settlor's estate

Property of a trust the settlor could revoke at death answers for the estate's administration expenses, timely claims and the family's allowances only to the extent the probate estate is insufficient; the trustee pays the amount the personal representative certifies in writing (MCL 700.7605, 700.7606).

Homestead allowance

An allowance to the surviving spouse — or, if none, the minor and dependent children — of $15,000 adjusted for the year of death ($30,000 for a 2026 death), exempt from and prior to claims except administration costs and funeral and burial expenses (MCL 700.2402). It is not a restriction on devising a home. Gid: Kay la apre yon lanmò nan Michigan

Exempt property

The surviving spouse's right to household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances and personal effects up to $10,000 adjusted ($20,000 for a 2026 death) above any security interests (MCL 700.2404).

Family allowance

A reasonable allowance for the surviving spouse and the children the decedent supported during the administration, for no longer than a year if the estate cannot pay its claims (MCL 700.2403); the personal representative may set it without the court up to a lump sum of $18,000 adjusted ($36,000 for a 2026 death) (MCL 700.2405).

Spouse's election

The surviving spouse of a decedent who left a will may abide by it or take one-half of the intestate share, reduced by one-half of what the spouse received from the decedent by other means, filed within 63 days after the later of the date for presenting claims and service of the inventory (MCL 700.2202).

Per capita at each generation

The division Michigan uses for an intestate estate passing to descendants (MCL 700.2106), and the meaning of "by representation" or "per capita at each generation" in an instrument made or amended on or after April 1, 2000: equal shares at the nearest generation with a survivor, the deceased members' shares combined and divided the same way among the next generation (MCL 700.2718). Gid: Kalkilatè per stirpes pou administratè Michigan

Small estate

An estate of $53,000 or less for a 2026 death may be collected without letters by a sworn statement 28 days after the death if it holds no real property (MCL 700.3983), or turned over by the court's order after funeral and burial expenses are paid (MCL 700.3982). Gid: Pwobasyon nan Michigan, eksplike

Personal representative

The person appointed to administer a decedent's probate estate. On appointment a personal representative publishes a notice to creditors and notifies known creditors and the trustee of the decedent's revocable trust (MCL 700.3801), and prepares an inventory within 91 days (MCL 700.3706). Gid: Pwobasyon nan Michigan, eksplike

Patient advocate designation

A written designation by an individual 18 or older of sound mind of another individual to make care, custody and medical treatment decisions (MCL 700.5506); the advocate accepts in writing and acts only when the patient cannot participate in the decisions (MCL 700.5507, 700.5508). Michigan has no separate living-will statute. Gid: Pwokirasyon ak direktiv alavans nan Michigan

Holographic will

A will that is dated, signed and has its material portions in the testator's handwriting, valid whether or not witnessed; any other will is signed by the testator and at least two witnesses (MCL 700.2502).

Uncapping of taxable value

After a transfer of ownership of real property, its taxable value for the following year becomes its state equalized valuation (MCL 211.27a); the statute lists exceptions, among them a conveyance to a trust whose sole present beneficiary is the settlor or the settlor's spouse. The new owner files a property transfer affidavit within 45 days of a transfer.

Governing law and principal place of administration

A trust's terms are governed by the law they designate unless that is contrary to a strong public policy of the jurisdiction most significantly related to the matter (MCL 700.7107); a trustee may move the principal place of administration after at least 63 days' written notice to the qualified trust beneficiaries, who may object (MCL 700.7108).