Northville has a quirk that matters more than it sounds like it should: the community is split across two counties. The City of Northville sits on the Wayne and Oakland county line along 8 Mile Road, also known as Baseline Road, while Northville Township is entirely within Wayne County.
For most purposes that is trivia. For an estate plan involving your home, it is the detail that determines whether the plan works.
Remy Law PLLC serves Northville from Ann Arbor. George Remy has practiced law in Michigan for more than eighteen years, handles every plan personally, and quotes a flat fee before any work begins.
What Northville households actually need to plan around
Which register of deeds your property belongs to. If a revocable trust is part of your plan, your house has to be deeded into it, and that deed belongs to the register of deeds for the county the parcel actually sits in. Wayne and Oakland are separate offices with separate records. A Northville mailing address does not tell you which one is correct, and a deed drawn for the wrong county does not transfer anything. We verify against the legal description before preparing it.
Trusts that were never funded. This is the most common defect in estate plans generally, and Northville adds a way to get it wrong. A trust that lists your home but never had a deed prepared to move it does not control the home, and the family finds out at the worst moment. If you already have a trust, confirming that the deed exists and is drawn for the right county is a short piece of work and worth doing regardless of who drafted it.
Control over the terms, not just the recipients. A will lists who gets what and then routes everything through the probate court. A revocable trust does more: it sets when each person receives their share and under what conditions, and it completes the whole transfer without that court. For families with young children that difference is decisive, since anything left to a minor otherwise arrives outright at eighteen, which is rarely what a parent actually wants.
Substantial home equity as the center of the estate. Northville has both long-held homes in the historic district and newer construction in the townships, and for many households the house is the largest single asset. How it transfers is therefore the most consequential decision in the plan, and it is the usual reason a client here wants a funded trust rather than a will alone.
Accounts that pass outside your will and trust entirely. Professional households here often hold a large share of net worth in retirement accounts and life insurance. Those pass by beneficiary designation, which overrides both your will and your trust. Forms completed at a previous employer are one of the most reliable places to find a plan that no longer matches the family.
The deed is the part that has to be right
Plenty of firms will draft you a trust. The work that determines whether it functions is the deed that moves your house into it, drawn correctly for the county your parcel is actually in. In Northville that is worth saying out loud.
Common questions from Northville families
Northville sits on a county line. Does that affect my estate plan?
It affects the paperwork, and getting it wrong is a real risk. The City of Northville straddles the Wayne and Oakland county line at 8 Mile Road, also called Baseline Road, while Northville Township lies entirely in Wayne County. A deed transferring your home into a trust has to be drawn for the county where the property actually sits. A deed prepared for the wrong county does not accomplish the transfer.
How do I know which county my house is in?
Not from your mailing address, which is the trap. A Northville address tells you very little about which side of the line the parcel is on. We confirm it from the legal description and the county record before any deed is prepared, rather than assuming.
I already have a trust. How do I know the house is actually in it?
By looking at the deed, not the trust document. A trust that names your house but never had a deed prepared to transfer the property into it does not control the house. This is the most common defect we see in plans drafted elsewhere, and in a community split across two registers of deeds there is one more way for it to go wrong. The check is quick.
What does an estate plan cost?
Plans are quoted as a flat fee before work starts, including any deed work required to fund a trust. You will know the number in advance.