Aug. 5, 2025

Michigan Trust Owners: Don’t Share Your Whole Trust—Do This Instead

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If you're a trustee—or even thinking about creating a trust—this one's for you. Michigan made a quiet but important change in 2018 that most people still don't understand. Here's what the Certificate of Trust does, and why it can save you time, stress, and privacy headaches.
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Well, good afternoon, Michiganders. Welcome back to Tuesday with Tom,

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Michigan's Only podcast, where we talk about estate planning, a

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state settlement, and everything in between. As always, I'm your host,

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Tom Doyle, a state planning attorney, lifelong Michigander and your

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guide to planning for your future. Well, a brief recap

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of the last episode. I talked about estate and gift taxes,

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what changed and what didn't in Trump's Big Beautiful Bills.

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So if you're asking yourself, how has Trump's Big Beautiful

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Bill affected me and my estate plan, please listen to

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the last week last episode where I cover that topic.

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Today's show. Well, if you're a trustee in Michigan or

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you're planning to use a trust as part of your

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state plan, today's episode is a must listen. We're diving

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into Michigan's updated Certificate of Trust law, which has now

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been effected since March of twenty eighteen. This law can

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simplify how you manage your trust, how you protect your privacy,

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and streamline transactions. So we'll break down what you need

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to know. But please remember what I am about to

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discuss is as always for educational purposes only, It is

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not intended to be legal advice. Every person's situation is different,

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so be sure to talk with your attorney to figure

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out what makes the most sense for you and your

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estate plan. So let's just start an understanding Michigan certificate

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of trust law. Let's just start with the obvious question,

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what is a certificate of trust? Well, a certificate of

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trust is essentially a summary document that proves a trust

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exists without disclosing the full contents of the trust. So

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trustees use the certificate, for example, when dealing with banks.

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So if you've got a trust and you're going to

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be dealing with a bank account relative to that trust,

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you're going to need a certificate of trust for the bank,

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dealing with title companies when you're selling real estate or

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other financial institutions. And so, rather than handing over a

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full copy of your trust document, which obviously contains sensitive

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information perhaps about your beneficiaries, something about assets, which really

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the banks and the title companies don't need to have,

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the trustee can simply present a certificate of trust. Think

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of it kind of like showing your driver's license instead

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of your birth certificate. It's just enough information to prove

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you are who you say you are without revealing more

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than is necessary. Well, it's been some time now. Twenty

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eighteen is when Michigan updated excuse me, it's trust laws

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under the Michigan of Trust Code. Before that, certificate the

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trust were very less standardized and more burdensome, and in fact,

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we had two different kinds of certificates of trust. You

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might have a certificate of trust that related to your

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trust document, but then if you were trying to sell

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real estate, the title company required what was then called

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a certificate of trust existence. Well, the twenty eighteen revision

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created a uniform format and clarified the rights of both

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trustees and third parties. Now I know twenty eighteen, you

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might be saying to yourself, Well, twenty eighteen was quite

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a while ago. Why should we carry about it. Well,

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if you have a trust as part of your state

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plan and that or you're trying to settle in a

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state on a trust that was created before twenty eighteen,

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you don't have a current certificate of trust that you're

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going to need to have. So it's not unusual today

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to have clients with older estate plans where they haven't

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updated them in order to make sure that the certificate

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of trust was keeping up with the change under Michigan law.

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So here's what a valid certificate of trust must include.

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One the name and date of the trust. Two, the

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names of the trustees. Three, a statement of the trustees'

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authority to act. Four whether the trust is revocable or irrevocable.

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Five names of any successor trustees, six trustees, a trust

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taxpayer identification number if it has one. And lastly, a

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statement that the trust has not been revoked or amended

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in any way that affects its validity. So those are

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the things that a certificate of trust has to have

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per Michigan law. So if you have an old certificate

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of trust that doesn't meet all of those requirements, you

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don't have a certificate of trust that is likely going

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to be accepted at the time that is needed. Now,

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what are third parties allowed to ask for? So you

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have a certificate of trust, but what is your for example,

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bank or real estate agent allowed to ask you for. Well,

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under Michigan certificate of trust law, third parties, again like

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banks or real estate agents, must accept a valid certificate

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of trust that's presented in good faith. That means they

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can't demand to see the full trust document. However, they

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are allowed to ask for reasonable supporting document documentation, for example,

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proof of identity or signature authority. I'm sorry, got a

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little bit of a cold going on here on this

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beautiful summer day. But importantly, if a third party relies

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upon a properly executed certificate of trust in good faith,

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they are protected from liability, which means both sides benefit

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from a clear, fair and steam streamlined process. So why

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is a current certificate of trust important for estate planning? Well,

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the law when it was enacted is basically a win

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for both privacy and efficiency. First, it keeps the terms

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of your trust and beneficiary information confidential. You don't have

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to give a copy of your entire trust that would

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have that information in it. And second, it makes it

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much easier for trustees to manage assets, particularly when they're

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going to be dealing with real estate or financial institutions.

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For example, if you're selling a home that's held in

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a trust, you don't need to provide the full trust

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agreement that would then get recorded with a registered deeds

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office that would then become a public record. All you

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have to do is provide the certificate of trust that

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obviously can speed up the process. You don't have a

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title company that needs to read through your trust. It

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maintains your privacy because it's not going to get recorded

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with the registered deeds, So it is beneficial to you

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in that event. If you are selling real estate that

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is currently in a trust, which is oftentimes where you're

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going to find that happens, you might have had perhaps

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you're settling a trust today for somebody who created that

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trust before twenty eighteen, and now you have real estate

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and you're trying to sell the real estate. Well, the

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title company relative to that sale is going to want

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a current certificate of trust. If you had one prepared,

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or the maker of the trust had one prepared prior

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to twenty eighteen, you are likely going to find the

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title company saying that is not sufficient. It needs to

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be a new certificate of trust. So if you need

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a new certificate of trust, you can obviously ask your

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attorney first to review your current existing certificate of trust

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to determine whether or not it is appropriate, and if not,

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you could look at having new one created for you. You

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need to make sure, obviously that all of the elements

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are card by Michigan law are contained within that c

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certificate of trust, and you certainly need to keep copies

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of that certificate of trust with your estate plan. A

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question arises, though, as to should you today go out

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and have a new certificate of trust prepared even if

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you don't need it today. So let's say you had

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a trust that was prepared before twenty eighteen, You're looking

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at all over, you realize you have an old certificate

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of trust, and you ask the question, well, should I

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go and have a certificate of trust prepared today? Will

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likely not? You really only need that new certificate of

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trust when you're going to use it. Why, because you're

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also going to find that pretty much all the banks,

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certainly financial institutions and title companies, they're going to insist

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that not only does that certificate of trust contain all

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those things that I just discussed, but they're going to

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want it to be created within the last six months

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before you're using it. So it doesn't make any sense

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to just go ahead and have one prepared today, only

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to find out that you're not going to use it

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for a number of years, Only to find out that

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after a number of years, a title company or a

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bank or somebody's going to want a new one. So

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generally speaking, even if you go back and review your

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estate plan today and it has an old certificate of trust,

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it might not be necessary for you to create one now,

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but it will be required at some point in time

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in the future. Well, if you have a question about

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your trust or help drafting a certificate of trust, please

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contact us, or better yet, if you go to DOYLELOWPC

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dot com, which is our website. There you're going to

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find our legal store. At the legal store you can

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actually order an updated certificate of trust directly through the Internet.

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So that's something that you can do at DOYLELOWPC dot com.

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Of course, if you need to have a personal consultation,

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we can arrange for that. Amand and I could arrange

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for that either through an in person appointment in the

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Grand Rapids office or Lansing location or wherever you happen

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to be in the state of Michigan. We could consult

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with you by zoom or phone and help you determine

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what is needed. We end up regularly people simply contacting

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us needing a new certificate of trust, and it can

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be paired normally fairly expeditiously. When that time comes, so

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simply head on over to Doyle opc dot com. There

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you're going to learn how you can schedule your consultation

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and again you can visit the Legal store to see

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how you can order a certificate of trust and other

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legal documents such as powers of attorney directly from us online. Well,

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I realized this was kind of a short episode today,

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but it's just a brief summary about certificate certificate of

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trust if that's relevant to you. As always, though, if

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you have a comment about about the program, or a

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question that you'd like to have answered, or a topic

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that you'd like to have me cover in a future episode,

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simply head on over to Tuesday with Tom dot com.

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You can leave me a voice message by clicking on

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the microphone or send me an email to Tom at

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Tuesday with Tom dot com. Please do be sure to

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And don't forget to subscribe to our email list at

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date with new episodes and important estate planning tips and

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with Tom as well. Well. Thanks again for spending part

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of your day with us, and until next time, take care,

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stay safe, and have an awesome day and an awesome

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week here in Michigan. Tuesday with Tom has been brought

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to you by the estate planning attorneys at Doyle Law PC.

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To learn how we can help you with your estate

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plan or with settling a loved one's estate, please call

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us today at five one seven three two three seven

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

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seven three sixty six.