Business SuccessionWills & TrustsAdvance DirectivesLitigation SupportMichigan
💼 Business Succession Planning.
Zamzow Fabian works collaboratively with estate planning attorneys to develop, draft, and strategize business succession plans.
The firm fills the business-side gap that many estate plans leave open — translating a client's exit goals, ownership transfer intentions, and retirement timeline into documents and structures that work alongside their wills and trusts.
When succession-related disputes arise, the firm provides litigation support, working in conjunction with the primary estate planning attorney to protect the client's plan.
⚖ A litigator in the succession conversation.
Most estate planning attorneys draft excellent wills and trusts — but the business succession component of an estate plan involves documents and structures that benefit from a litigator's perspective.
A lawyer who has seen succession plans contested, buy-sell agreements challenged, and ownership transfers disputed brings a different lens to the drafting table.
Zamzow Fabian provides that perspective — working alongside the primary estate planning attorney, not replacing them.
Succession Planning.
Business succession planning answers the question every business owner eventually faces: what happens to the business when I am no longer running it? The answer involves the owner's estate plan, the business's governing documents, any buy-sell agreements among owners, and the tax consequences of each available structure. When these elements are not aligned, the result is often a disputed transition — or a transaction that cannot close because the documents do not support it.
Zamzow Fabian's role is typically to handle the business side of this process — drafting and reviewing the governing documents, structuring the transfer, and ensuring the succession plan is consistent with the client's broader estate plan. The firm works directly with the client's estate planning attorney and other advisors, not as a replacement for them.
When succession arrangements are challenged — by a departing partner, a beneficiary, or a third party — the firm provides litigation support, drawing on its trial practice to protect the plan that has been put in place.
Wills.
Zamzow Fabian regularly works with estate planning counsel to support business clients on will provisions affecting business interests and asset transfers. Anyone over 18 with property — and especially any business owner — should have a will directing its distribution. The absence of a will, or a will that fails to address business interests clearly, can create disputes that a properly drafted document would have prevented.
Where a will is absent, incomplete, or invalid, Michigan's intestate succession laws (MCL 700.2101–700.2114) govern distribution. Omitted spouse and omitted child statutes, as well as elective share provisions, may further affect the intended result. Wills are public documents upon probate; for clients with trusts, the firm coordinates pour-over wills to capture any assets not otherwise transferred.
The firm's support in this area is typically in conjunction with a primary estate planning attorney — providing the business-side drafting, litigation backup, or strategic input as the matter requires.
Trusts.
Trusts involve a fiduciary relationship in which a trustee manages assets for designated beneficiaries. Whether testamentary or inter vivos, trusts serve a variety of purposes — tax planning, privacy, and controlled asset transfer among them. Michigan's Uniform Trust Code (enacted 2010) governs most trusts, with the exception of constructive, business, and resulting trusts. The code distinguishes between mandatory provisions and those that can be waived, which affects both administration and dealings with third parties.
A principal advantage of a trust is that it typically avoids probate, keeping the transfer of assets private and efficient. Charitable trusts serve defined public purposes — science, education, religion, and similar causes. Non-charitable trusts address private purposes. Inter vivos trusts are created during the settlor's lifetime; testamentary trusts are established by will and take effect at death.
The firm's involvement in trust matters is typically in litigation support, as a collaborator with the primary estate planning attorney, or as part of a broader business succession engagement.
Advance Directives.
Advance directives are legal documents through which individuals record their wishes for end-of-life care and property management, and designate a proxy to act on their behalf in the event of incapacity. They operate during the individual's lifetime, where wills and trusts govern posthumous distribution.
The principal benefit of advance directives — powers of attorney, patient advocate designations, and living wills — is clarity. A well-prepared set of documents reduces the uncertainty and potential for dispute that arises when a person's wishes are not on record. The firm coordinates these documents with estate planning attorneys to support business clients and families, and is available to advise in conjunction with primary counsel when questions arise.