Free Estate Planning and Will Preparation Program

Program Overview: The Free Estate Planning and Will Preparation Program provides educational workshops on the importance of estate planning and wills for generational wealth building. The workshops cover common issues in Detroit including tangled titles and the main estate planning components such as wills, lady bird deeds, power of attorney, and conservatorship.
Eligible workshop attendees are connected to professional attorneys to draft their personalized wills and estate plans.
 

Why it is important for Detroiters to have a will or estate plan: There are an estimated 5,525 heirs’ properties or properties with tangled titles in Detroit. These are family-owned properties passed on without a formal transfer of title to prove ownership. Residents of these properties are often unable to access home stabilizing services such as the City’s property tax assistance and home repair programs, secure homeowner’s insurance, or take out a home equity line of credit. This puts them at increased risk of unsafe living conditions or losing their home and destabilizes entire communities.
Having an estate plan and/or will in place ensures that homes efficiently passes to the next generation or other recipient as intended. In many cases it can help inheritors avoid costly and lengthy processes such as probate proceedings and quickly access services.  
 

What the program includes:

• Free educational workshops, both in-person and online, on the importance of estate planning
• Eligible participants work one-on-one with a professional attorney to draft a personalized estate plan

How to participate: Participation is simple, sign up for a workshop by phone or website.

1. Call 866.313.2520, press option 3, then press option 2, and ask for estate planning workshops
2. Click here to visit the Detroit Housing Network website to see a full schedule of upcoming workshops and to sign up online.

What are the qualifications?

• The educational workshops are free and open to the public. There are no restrictions on who may attend.
• The one-on-one legal services are for Detroit homeowners earning up to 300% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. For more information on the Federal Poverty Guidelines please click here.