Will requirements in Michigan

Michigan requires you to be at least 18 and of sound mind. Capacity is judged at the moment of signing and asks whether you understood the nature of the act, roughly what you owned, and who would ordinarily expect to inherit from you.

A Michigan will is valid without a notary. Notarization serves two separate purposes here: it produces the self-proving affidavit attached to a witnessed will, and it can support a notarized will as an execution route in its own right.

The affidavit is worth the few extra minutes at signing. It lets the will be admitted to probate without your witnesses being located and asked to testify years later.

Michigan accepts holographic wills, and it asks for slightly more than most Uniform Probate Code states: the will must be dated, in addition to having the signature and material portions in your own handwriting.

The date requirement catches people out, because several states that recognise handwritten wills do not insist on one. The document need not be entirely handwritten — printed material can appear around handwritten dispositive provisions.

It remains a fallback rather than a plan. A holographic will must still be proved as yours after your death, and it carries none of the procedural protection a witnessed will with a self-proving affidavit provides.

Michigan allows small estates to be handled without full administration where the estate falls below a statutory limit. The figure is inflation-adjusted, so it moves.

We are not printing a number here because the sources available disagree about the current amount. The probate court in the relevant county will confirm the figure actually in force.

Michigan is a common law property state. Ownership follows title rather than being automatically shared between spouses because property was acquired during the marriage.

A surviving spouse has an elective share, so a spouse generally cannot be disinherited by will alone. Michigan also provides statutory allowances for a surviving spouse and minor children that take priority over what the will directs.

Michigan's health-care document is the designation of patient advocate, which appoints someone to make medical and, if you choose, mental-health decisions when you cannot. Michigan does not use the living will terminology common elsewhere; the patient advocate designation is the operative instrument.

For financial matters Michigan adopted the Uniform Power of Attorney Act. It was signed on November 7, 2023 and took effect on July 1, 2024, replacing the durable power of attorney provisions previously found in the Estates and Protected Individuals Code, and making Michigan roughly the thirty-first UPOAA jurisdiction.

One practical consequence of the change: powers of attorney are now durable by default where they are notarized or signed before two witnesses. Because this is recent, a Michigan financial power of attorney signed before July 1, 2024 is worth reviewing against the current framework rather than assuming it still behaves as intended.