Out of State Property

Many individuals own property out of state and do not realize the problems that can occur if that property is owned by you, individually.  If you are a Michigan resident and own property in Ohio and that property is not owned by your Trust, that property will go through probate.  However, it will not just go through Michigan probate, but Ohio probate as well.  The Ohio probate is called ancillary probate.  If you were a Michigan resident, you must first open a probate estate in Michigan and open a secondary probate in Ohio to allow for the transfer of the property to your beneficiaries.  In essence, you are potentially looking at two different probate fees in two different states and two different sets of attorney fees.  Obviously, all of this can be avoided by placing the Ohio property in a Trust and allowing the Trustee to handle the transfer or sale of the property at the time of your death without ever having to deal with Michigan or Ohio probate.