Jan. 13, 2026

Why You Should Not Prepare Your Own Deed

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Learn why preparing your own deed transferring property can have unintended consequences.
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Well, good afternoon, Michiganders, and welcome back to Tuesday with

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Tom our first episode of twenty twenty six. Of course,

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we are Michigan's only podcast where we talk about a

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state planning, a state settlement, and all things good in

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this great state of Michigan. And as always I'm your host,

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Tom Doyle, a state planning attorney, lifelong Michigan resident, and

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your guide to planning for the future. Last episode of

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twenty twenty five, I discussed why your rental property should

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be owned by an LLC. So if you own rental

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property in your name or you're considering acquiring rental property,

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I encourage you listen to the last episode from twenty

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twenty five, in which I discuss and explain why you

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should consider having that rental property In n l LC

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Today's show, Why you should not prepare your own deed?

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Why you should not prepare your own deed. But please

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remember what I'm about to discuss is meant to be

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educational in an informative It is not legal advice. Every

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person's situation is different, so sure to talk with your

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attorney to figure out what is going to make sense

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for you and.

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Your estate plan.

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Okay, why you should not prepare your own deed. Well,

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this episode comes about because of a recent experience that

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Amanda and I had in working with a client who

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had a revocable living trust. That client's property that we

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are talking about had been transferred into that into that

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revocable living trust I'm sorry, revocable, not irrevocable by a

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deed that had already been recorded with the Register of

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Deeds Office when the client came back to us. The

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reason was the client he was looking at selling that

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property now and was working with a title company, and

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the title company was asking for an updated certificate of trust,

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which is normally what they're going to want from you

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when your trust owns property. That is a document that's

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going to confirm information that they need to know about

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the trust, who's the trustee, when was the trust created,

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et cetera, et cetera, and then that document will be

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recorded as part and parcel of that transaction. So we're

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looking at preparing this certificate of trust for the true

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trust concerning property that had been owned or was owned

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by the trust. Apparently, after the trust was created and

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after the property was transferred into the trust, the client

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wanted to in fact do what I talked about in

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last episode transfer the property apparently into ANLLC.

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He had an LLC. He wanted that LLC to own the.

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Property, but he decided that he would prepare his own deed.

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So he bought a deed form or downloaded up from

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the internet, not really sure where he acquired the deed form.

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He filled that deed form out with the legal discript

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of the property, et cetera, and the property, according to

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that deed, was being transferred into his LLC, and had

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that deed executed, had that deed recorded? The problem or

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the problem I guess that he did not realize when

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he did that, though, was that the deed that he

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prepared showed that the property was being transferred by himself

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to the LLC. Remember now, at the time he did

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that deed, the property had already been transferred into his trust.

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But now he's preparing a deed from himself to the LLC.

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Once that was done a number of years later, he

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decided that what he wanted to do now was to

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transfer that property to one of his children, So he

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took out his deed form again apparently looked at the

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deed form that he had done before had the appropriate

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legal description. So now he prepared a deed showing that

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the property was being conveyed by his LLLC to his daughter,

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and he had that deed recorded. So what did he

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just do through that entire process. Keep in mind that

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the property was owned by his trust at the time

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he prepared aired the deed conveying it supposedly from himself

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to his LLC. The problem was, he did not own

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it at the time he prepared his own deed. In fact,

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his trust owned it at the time he prepared his

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own deed.

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So now when the daughter was.

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Attempting to sell the property because she thought she owned it,

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because he prepared that second deed transferring it from the

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LLC to his daughter, discovered through the work of the

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title company that in fact she didn't own it. It

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was never conveyed to her because it could not be

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conveyed to the LLC because the client didn't own it

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when he did that transaction. So the property was still

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in fact owned by the trust. Now fortunately, fortunately the

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client was still alive, so for purposes of transferring the property,

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selling the property from his daughter to the new person,

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he because he was the trustee of his trust was

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able to have a certificate of trust prepared, was able

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to have the trust transfer the property, so that when

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it was all said and done, or when it will

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be all said and done, in fact, the individual that

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the daughter was transferring the property to, will now own it.

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But what if what.

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If the client had died in the meantime, So let's

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work our way through that. If the client had died

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in the meantime, it was his trust that still owned

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the property.

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It was not his LLC. It was not his daughter

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who thought.

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That she owned it. So now we would be going

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back and looking at the trust and looking at the

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distribution provisions under his trust. And lo and behold, when

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you looked at the distribution provisions under his trust, what.

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Did it say? It said that my estate.

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Everything that I own in the trust at the time

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of my death, will be distributed to my three children,

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not to my one daughter, but to my three children.

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What does that mean? Well, what that means has had

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he died in the meantime when we were settling the estate,

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the property would now be deeded out to the three children,

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not to the one daughter. And now you're going to

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get into the whole family dynamics of the two children.

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Are they going to agree to transfer their interest in

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the property that they have now received from their father

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to this individual that the one daughter wanted it transferred two.

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So there was.

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An incompatibility between the trust distribution and what the client

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thought he was doing when he made these various deeds.

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So now why did he do it? Well, it's probably

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why he did his own deeds. He decided that he

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didn't want to spend money on us or another attorney

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to prepare any new deeds. He figured he could do

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that himself. Apparently he had at some point in time

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in the past prepared a deed for different property than

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he had that he didn't own at the time the

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trust was created for him, So he just took it

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upon himself to say, well, I'm going to transfer it

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to my LLC, and the LLC he's going to transfer

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it to my daughter, not stopping to realize that in fact,

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the trust, by virtue of the deed that was prepared

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when the trust was created, in fact.

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Owned the property.

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So when you're dealing with your real estate, unless you

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know real estate, unless you involve yourself in real estate

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and understand and can look and say who owns it

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and what needs to be done in order to convey it.

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I encourage you, I would suggest to you, I would

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tell you you should not be preparing your own deed.

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What would have happened had the client come back to

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us and said to us, hey, I want to now

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transfer this property into an LLC. The conversation very much

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would have been around okay, but understand these are the

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steps they're going to be required. One first is we

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need to convey the property from the trust back to you.

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Then you can convey the property to your LLC. But

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he didn't do that. He decided to save money and

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he skipped that step, and fortunately for him, fortunately quite

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frankly for his daughter, who thought she owned the property

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and in fact was paying the property taxes on the

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property because she had filed a property transfer Affidavid showing

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that she was.

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The owner of it.

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Had he died, she would have had a potentially very

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complicated situation on her hand. So that's simply from this

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situation with this client an example of why you should

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not prepare your own deeds for real estate. Well, since

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that was based upon a recent situation that Amanda and

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I were involved in, today's episode.

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Is fairly brief, but it's very important.

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It's very important that you make sure that your real

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estate is done properly, and of course Amand and I

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would be honored to help with that. If you have

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real estate and you're looking at transferring that real estate,

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we would be happy to be working with you on

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that transfer to make sure that it.

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Is done properly.

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And of course, beyond that, Amand and I are here

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to help you protect the people you love, whether that

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means creating a new estate plan, updating and existing one,

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or guiding you through the estate planning process. We try

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and make it easy as easy as we can, understanding

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that it is legal work, but we try and make

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it easy for you, and that is convenient. To schedule

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an appointment, convenient to get started, simply head on over

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to our website Doyle LAWPC dot com. There you will

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find some options. There's a link that says schedule a consultation.

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When you click on that link, it's going to provide

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you with some options. Do you want in person appointments

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in either grind Rapids or Lancing And we've got two

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locations on grind Rapids, one on the East Side and

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one downtown, or do you want to consult with us

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virtually by zoom or phone. That way we can be

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of assistance to you wherever you are happen.

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To be in the state of Michigan.

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And of course reminder to if all you're looking for

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is one particular legal document, maybe all you're looking for

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is a new certificate of trust because your trust is

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involved in selling real estate.

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You can actually order.

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That document and several others online twenty four to seven

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through our legal store, which again is available at Doyle

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LAWPC dot com. And that is going to be a

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rap for today's show. But as always, if you have

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a comment, a question you'd like to have answer, or

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

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head over to Tuesday with Tom dot com. You can

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leave me a voice message by clicking on the microphone,

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or you can always send me an email at Tom

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at Tuesday with Tom dot com. And so you don't

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miss an episode, be sure to follow follow the podcast

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Most familiar with.

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Well, thanks again for spending part of your day with us,

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and until next times, have an excuse me, awesome day

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and an awesome week here 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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settling a loved one's estate, please call us today at

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