Dec. 3, 2024

Does Your Homeowner’s Insurer Know Your Home Is In Your Trust (Episode 309)

Did you know that putting your home in a trust can impact your homeowner's insurance? In our latest episode, we dive into the crucial question: Does your insurer know your home is in your trust? Tune in to Episode 309 for insights that could save you...

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Did you know that putting your home in a trust can impact your homeowner's insurance? In our latest episode, we dive into the crucial question: Does your insurer know your home is in your trust? Tune in to Episode 309 for insights that could save you from potential pitfalls!

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Well, good afternoon, Michigan Anders. It's Tuesday, December third, twenty

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twenty four, and of course this is Tuesday with Tom,

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Michigan's only weekly Internet show where we do answer your

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questions about a state planning and a state settlement in Michigan.

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I'm your host, Tom Doyle, a state planning attorney, lifelong

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Michigan resident, and ambassador for all things good in this

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great state of Michigan. Welcome today's program on a pretty

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cold and snowy December day. Last episode Understanding Digital Asset

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reporting requirements. If you have digital assets such as bitcoin,

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I encourage you listen to last week's episode because you

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want to make sure that you are complying with the

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IRS rules and regulations about what you do have to

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report relative to digital assets such as bitcoin. So again,

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if you have some bitcoin or other digital monetary assets,

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I encourage you listen to the last episode to make

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sure that you understand what your reporting requirements are today's show.

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We have a lot of clients who have a trust.

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Those clients, we're always talking to them, and many attorneys

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talk to the clients when they have a trust about

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the importance of funding their trust and a major asset

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that most clients have relative to their estate is going

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to be their home, and so part of the funding

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process is normally looking at retitling if you will, the

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home into the trust. Well, today's topic is does your

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homeowners insurer know your home is in your trust? But

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please remember what I'm about to discuss during the program is,

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as always for educational purposes only. It is not intended

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to be legal advice. You need to work with your

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attorney to determine what is appropriate for you and your

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estate plan. Does your homeowners ensurer know your home is

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in your trust? So you've had a trust prepared for you, you're

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looking at the whole funding process. Part of that funding

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process has to do with your home and how you

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would go about retitling the home into the trust. That

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might be done in one of a couple ways. One

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you might have had a deed prepared that simply conveyed

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the home to the trust, so that effectively, once that

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deed was done, your trust owns that home. Alternatively, you

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might have had what's known as a ladybird deed prepared.

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The ladybird deed is essentially like making the trust the

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beneficiary on your home. You still own it. It is

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still in your name, but by virtue of the Ladybird deed,

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the home will pass to the trust upon your death.

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So those are the two ways, either having the property

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deeded to the trust now or having a Ladybird deed

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that's going to deed the property to the trust upon

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your death. In either case, with your home, you need

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to stop and think about homeowner's insurance. Once that trust

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owns the home, whether it's now or upon your death,

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it is no longer your home. And if your homeowner's

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insurance only covers a home that you own, effectively your

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home is now uninsured. So if you've got a home

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own policy that simply covers your home that you own

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and you need it to the trust today, you no

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longer own that home, and your homeowner's insurance will likely

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take the view that therefore, your homeowner's insurance no longer

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covers a home or a Ladybird deed once you die

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and that home is now owned by the trust. If

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your homeowner's insurance was just covering you, then in your

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interest in the home, your home is now uninsured. So

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it's important to make sure that there is no lapse

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in coverage of your insurance. There was a case over

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the last several years where essentially somebody had put their

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home into the trust, their home burnt down, they had

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not notified their homeowner's insurance that the trust now owned

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the home, and the insurance company took the position that said, hey,

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we only ensured a home that you owned. We did

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not ensure a home that the trust owned, and since

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the trust owned your home when it burned down, we

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do not cover the loss. That was litigated and the

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insurance company won. What does that mean then, if you

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deed the home to your trust now, or you use

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a lady bird deed that's going to convey your home

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to the trust upon your death, in order to make

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sure that there is no lapse in coverage, you need

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to notify your homeowner's insurer to add the trust as

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an additional named insured. That's all you have to do.

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Call your agent, your homeowner's insurance agent, tell them that

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you're either deeded the property to trust now, or perhaps

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they need to know what the statuses of the lady

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bird deed, But in any event, what you want them

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to do is add the trust as an additional named insured.

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By doing that if you have a Ladybird deed and

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you die and now the trust owns your home, it

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continues to still be insured. Or if you've conveyed the

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property to the trust now and you have the trust

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as an additional named ensured, it will be covered. So

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important make sure that your homeowners Ensure knows that your

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home is in your trust. Now I've been talking about

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your home, I haven't been talking about real estate that

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is not your home. And the reason it's important is

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that if it's your home and there's a mortgage on

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the home, you might have a do on sale clause

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in your mortgage, but that do on sale clause is

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not going to be effective if you in fact transfer

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the home into a revocable living trust that you own. However,

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if you have other real estate, let's say a cottage,

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and you have a mortgage on that cottage or perhaps

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a home equity loan on that cottage, now you have

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to take a step back because if you have real

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estate that is not your home, and use that cottage

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as an example, well, you've got a cottage, you don't

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have a mortgage, you don't have home equity, you own

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it outright. Then that cottage as well. If you transfer

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it to your trust now or you use a ladybird

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that's going to transfer the cottage to your trust at

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the time of your death, you need to notify your

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homeowner's insurer and have them add the trust as an

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additional named insured for the very same reason that I

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talked a couple minutes ago about your home, to make

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sure it's ensured. The complication with real estate that is

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not your home. Say again, that cottage that you have

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a mortgage on or a home equity loan on, you

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likely in that mortgage or in that home equity loan

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have a due on sales clause, and under the terms

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of that do on sales clause. Normally, if you transfer

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your ownership of that cottage to your trust your mortgage company,

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your risk in that is that the mortgage company is

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going to say, hey, that violates or doesn't violate. That

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brings into effect your due on sale clause, which means

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now you have to pay the mortgage off in full.

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So if you have a mortgage and it has a

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due on sale clause, or you have a home equity

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loan and it has a due on sale clause, again

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this is non home. It's not your home, it's other

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real estates that you have. You can confirm with your

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mortgage company or home equity company that placing the cottage

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in this case into the trust does it or does

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it not call into play the due on sales clause.

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And if they put in writing that you can transfer

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your cottage to your trust and that is not going

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to be calling up the due on sales clause, meaning

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they're not going to insist that the mortgage gets paid

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off in that case, then again you would look at

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notifying your homeowner's insurer to add the trust as an

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additional named insured. However, if the due on sales clause

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is not waived, the complication is this, if the due

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on sale clause is not waived and you notify your

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homeowner's insurer to add the trust as an additional named ensured,

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in some situations that information will be provided to buy

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your homeowner's insurer to the mortgage company because periodically the

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mortgage company wants to be updated to make sure that

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there's adequate insurance on the property so that the mortgage

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would be paid. So if you were to contact your

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homeowner's insurer and have that cottage if you will have

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the trust added as an additional named insured relative to

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the cottage, it's possible that that information might get back

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to your mortgage company, and if it gets back to

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your mortgage company, then your due on sales clause can

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be a problem for you. So one approach that many

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clients are going to take is if, again we're talking

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about not your home, we're talking about other Michigan real estate.

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If your mortgage or home equity loan has a due

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on sales clause and the mortgage holder or the loanholder

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is not willing to waive the due on sales clause,

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then you've got to make a choice. And the choice

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that many clients are going to make is to say, Okay,

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I'm not going to notify the insurer to add the

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trust as an additional named insured because I don't want

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that information to go to the mortgage company, because I

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don't want them to call upon making me pay the

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balance in full under the due on sales clause. So

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I'm just not going to tell them. Now we're going

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to wait. Well, if you do that, you need to

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make sure now that your successor trustee no that as

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soon as they learn that you have died that they

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need to contact homeowners insurer asap to add the trust

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as an insured on a policy. So now you're really

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saying to your successive trustee, if something happens to me

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upon my death, here's the information on the homeowners insurance.

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You need to contact them asap to make sure that

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we have coverage on the home. Because what you don't

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want to do is, in that case you've died, the

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home is now not insured and a fire breaks out

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and the home is lost. So it's going to be

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important if you make that decision. If you decide, because

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of concerns about a do on sale clim not to

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notify your homeowner's insurer, then you need to make sure

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that your successor trustee knows who your insurer is, knows

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that upon your death, they need to be immediately contacting

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the insurance company to make sure that your covered. So, again,

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does your homeowners' insurance know your home is in your trust.

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You need to look at that and decide if the

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home is deeded to the trust now or a ladybird

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deed on your home. Again, we're talking about your home.

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Then make sure that the homeowner's ensure adds a trust

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is an additional lane insured. If it's not your home

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and it's other Michigan real estate, you need to go

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through a little bit further analysis on that to determine

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whether or not you're going to notify the homeowner's insurer. Now,

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of course, if you're working with our office, we'll be

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happy to talk to you about our recommendations relative to

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notifying your homeowner's insurance and going through that analysis with you.

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If it's property that is not your home, and of

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course too, amand and I would be honored to have

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the opportunity to help you protect your loved ones by

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putting together an estate plan or amending a current plan,

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or assisting you in settling and estate. Simply head on

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over to our website that is going to be doylelowpc

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dot com. There you're going to find information on how

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you can go about setting up a consultation with this.

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It might be a virtual consultation, it might be in

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either our Eslansing location or our Grand Rapids headquarters, whatever

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it is that's going to make sense for you in

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having that consultation. All of that information is going to

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be available to you at the website. Reminder too, if

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all you need is a new document, maybe all you

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need is a new Ladybird deed, or all you need

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is a certificate of trust, whatever that individual document happens

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to be. Go to the website DOYLELAWPC dot com, click

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on the Legal Store, and there you will find information

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how you can order individual documents. Don't have to be

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your state plan. Order individual documents to the Legal Store.

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They can be prepared, they can be emailed to you.

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You can download them and print them and get them executed.

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You'll also find information on ordering individual legal documents on

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the office Facebook page. Again, all of that information available

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at DOILAWPC dot com. Well, I think that's going to

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be it for today's show. Hopefully you are staying warm

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today and staying out of the snow. But as always,

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if you have a comment about the program, a topic

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that you'd like to have me discussed, or questions that

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you'd like to have answered, simply head on over to

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Tuesday with Tom. You can leave a voice message by

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clicking on the microphone or send me an email Tom

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at Tuesday with Tom dot com. Please to follow us

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on Facebook. Invite your friends and family to follow us.

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That would be Tuesday with Tom and follow the office

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at Doyle LAWPC and don't forget join our email list.

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You can subscribe to our email list at Tuesday with

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Tom dot com. You can also subscribe to our email

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list at thedoylelawpc dot com website. Remember two. Tuesday with

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Tom is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcast, iHeartRadio, Spreaker.

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Wherever it is that you normally listen to your podcast,

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you're likely going to find Tuesday with Tom. And if

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you have a favorite service that you use to listen

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to your podcasts and you don't find Tuesday with Tom

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on it, let me know and I'll see if we

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can't add that to the list of channels in which

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the program is available. And again, remember too, you can

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always ask your smart speaker to play Tuesday with Tom. Well,

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thanks again for spending some of your time with us

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today and as always, I hope that you have an

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awesome day and an awesome week in Michigan. Stay safe now.

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Tuesday with Tom has been brought to you by the

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estate planning attorneys at Doyle Law PC. To learn how

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we can help you with your estate plan or with

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settling a loved one's estate. Please call Us today at

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five one seven three two three seven three sixty six.

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That's five one seven three two three seven three sixty six.