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MORTL → State Guides → Michigan
State Guide
What Michigan law actually says about death, probate, cremation, advance directives, and estate taxes. No legal jargon. No upselling. Just what you need to know.
Someone just died in Michigan? The first 24 hours, step by step →
Guide Status
● Last reviewed August 2026
Laws change. Each section shows when it was last verified. Always confirm with a licensed Michigan attorney for your specific situation.
This is general information, not legal advice. Michigan law changes. Your situation is specific. For anything that matters, talk to a licensed Michigan attorney. Our directory doesn't list attorneys, so you'll find one on your own.
The short answer
In Michigan, estates under $53,000 can skip full probate through a simplified process or affidavit. Cremation has no statutory waiting period. There's no Michigan estate or inheritance tax. Every figure below names its source and the date it was checked.
Reviewed August 2026 · Michigan
Someone just died in Michigan: the first 24 hours →Verified providers in Michigan →
Last verified: August 7, 2026
Source: MCL 333.2843 (Michigan Vital Records) ↗At a Glance
File within 3 days · Restricted for 0 years · Then public
In Michigan, a licensed funeral director must certify the death record and file it with the local registrar of the district where the death occurred within 72 hours after the death. The funeral director also has to obtain authorization for final disposition within 72 hours and before the body is buried or cremated. (MCL 333.2843(3), MCL 333.2848(1))
Ask each bank, insurer, court, agency, and property office whether it requires a certified copy. Order an initial quantity based on those actual needs, and confirm the current fee and process for ordering more.
The funeral director who first assumes custody of the body reports the death through the state's web-based death registration system. The physician in charge of the decedent's care, the attending physician, or the county medical examiner must complete and certify the medical certification portion no later than 48 hours after death. (MCL 333.2843(1))
Michigan death records aren't restricted. Anyone can request a search, and a certified copy is issued if the record is found.
Order certified copies from Michigan's vital records office; this section's source link is the official process. The funeral home or cremation provider usually orders the first copies for you. Ask each bank, insurer, court, and agency whether it needs its own certified copy before you decide how many to order.
$34 per certified copy in Michigan, as shown above. Additional-copy pricing varies; the official source linked in this section has the current fee schedule.
Last verified: August 9, 2026
Source: MCL 700.1101 et seq. (Michigan Estates and Protected Individuals Code); MCL 700.3982, 700.3983, 700.1210 ↗At a Glance
Small estate threshold vs. national average
Michigan has two small-estate shortcuts, and both use the same dollar cap. 2024 PA 1 raised the base figure from $15,000 to $50,000, and MCL 700.1210 adjusts it for inflation every year. For deaths in 2026 the cap is $53,000. Under MCL 700.3982 the probate court can order a small estate turned over to the surviving spouse or heirs once funeral and burial expenses are covered. Under MCL 700.3983 a successor can collect personal property with a sworn statement 28 days after the death, with no court order, as long as the estate holds no real property. When real property is in the estate, up to $264,000 of the debt secured by it comes off the value for 2026 before you test the cap.
The Michigan Department of Treasury publishes the adjusted figures each January. Check the current year's notice before relying on a dollar amount: the 2025 cap was $51,000 and the 2026 cap is $53,000.
Michigan intestate succession (MCL 700.2102) determines who inherits. The dollar figures below are the 2026 inflation-adjusted amounts:
Only assets owned solely by the deceased without beneficiary designations. Joint tenancy property, accounts with named beneficiaries, and life insurance pass outside probate automatically.
A straightforward Michigan probate typically runs 5-12 months, as shown in this section. Contested wills, missing heirs, or real property in other states stretch it well past that.
$53,000. Estates under that figure can use the simplified process or affidavit covered above instead of full probate.
Not always. If the estate qualifies for the simplified process covered above, many people handle it without a lawyer. Hire one for full probate, a contested will, or property in more than one state. Before you hire anyone, know the fee structures: hourly, flat, and (in a few states) statutory percentages. Our probate attorney cost guide covers what each should run you.
No will yet, or one that's out of date? How to write a will covers what belongs in one and the signing requirements, step by step. The rules on this page are what Michigan law adds.
No. Michigan has no transfer-on-death deed statute. Michigan has no statutory TOD deed, but Lady Bird deeds are well established in Michigan title practice (Land Title Standard 9.3) and do the same probate-avoidance job; a living trust or joint ownership also works.
Michigan doesn't require a private employer to give bereavement leave, paid or unpaid. Whatever you get is your employer's policy, and it can be changed or refused.
Who it covers. No bereavement mandate for any private employer or employee.
How much. None required.
Paid or unpaid. Not applicable, no mandate.
Michigan requires no bereavement leave from private employers, paid or unpaid. ESTA hours (40 a year at employers with 10 or fewer employees, 72 at 11 or more) can only be spent on the reasons the act lists, and a death in the family isn't one of them, though a survivor's own health condition is. State classified employees are the exception, under Michigan Civil Service Commission Regulation 5.10: "In the event of the death of an employee's spouse, child, parent, or sibling, the employee will be allowed 8 hours of funeral leave on the day of the funeral to attend the service." That's a civil service rule for state government workers, not a law binding private employers. No Michigan statute covers pregnancy loss leave. Batch note that applies to all seven states: federal FMLA doesn't require bereavement leave either. DOL Fact Sheet #28 (dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/28-fmla) lists the qualifying reasons as the employee's own serious health condition, care for a family member with one, birth or placement and bonding, and military family and caregiver leave. Bereavement appears nowhere in it, though FMLA can apply if grief becomes a serious health condition under treatment.
Yes. Michigan enforces pet trusts under Mich. Comp. Laws § 700.7408, so money you set aside for an animal is legally binding on whoever you put in charge of it. The trust ends when your animal dies, or when the last of them dies if you covered more than one, and Michigan sets no year limit on it. Whoever you name in the trust enforces it, and if you name nobody a court appoints someone. Anyone who cares about your animal can also ask the court to appoint an enforcer or to remove one who isn't doing the job. A judge can cut the amount back if it holds more than your animal's care requires. Unless your trust says where the extra should go, it comes back to you if you're living, and otherwise to whoever inherits from you. Michigan rewrote this law in February 2024 and moved it into the Trust Code, so any form or advice pointing at MCL 700.2722 is out of date. The wording covers a designated domestic pet or animal, so name your animals in the trust rather than writing something general, and name a caretaker and a backup; Michigan won't pick them for you.
Source: Mich. Comp. Laws § 700.7408
If you die intestate (without a valid will) in Michigan, Mich. Comp. Laws §§ 700.2101 to 700.2114; 700.1210 (dollar amounts inflation-adjusted annually; 2026 figures per Treasury notice of Jan. 30, 2026) decides who inherits everything a will would have covered. The shares depend on exactly who survives you: spouse, children, parents, siblings. What you told people you wanted doesn't matter. Only a signed will changes these defaults.
Michigan never gives the spouse the whole estate when any descendant survives: even all-joint families split after the lump sum, unlike the UPC. The statutory $150,000/$100,000 amounts adjust for inflation every year (base factor 2.006 for 2026), so figures must be re-checked annually against the Treasury notice.
What your spouse inherits depends on who else survives you. The four common family shapes:
The descendants take everything by representation.
With no spouse or descendants, the estate goes to parents, then to parents' descendants, then half to each of the paternal and maternal grandparents' lines and their descendants, and with no takers it passes to the state (§ 700.2105).
Last verified: August 7, 2026
Source: MCL 700.5506 et seq. (Michigan Patient Advocate Designation) ↗At a Glance
Living Will
Specifies end-of-life care wishes
Healthcare Proxy
Names a decision-maker for you
DNR / POLST
Do-not-resuscitate orders
Michigan recognizes a Patient Advocate Designation (MCL 700.5506) that designates an agent to make medical decisions when you can't. The patient advocate must sign an acceptance.
Michigan's Patient Advocate Designation is broader than a standard healthcare power of attorney: it can also address mental health treatment decisions.
Michigan doesn't have a traditional living will statute. Instead, your healthcare wishes are documented in the Patient Advocate Designation. You can specify your wishes for life-sustaining treatment within the designation document.
Michigan's portable medical order for seriously ill patients is the POST form, authorized by Part 56B of the Public Health Code (MCL 333.5671 et seq., added by 2017 PA 154 and effective February 6, 2018). It's a signed medical order covering CPR and other treatment decisions, and it travels with the patient across care settings. It isn't a substitute for the Patient Advocate Designation.
Start with MCL 700.5506 et seq. (Michigan Patient Advocate Designation), linked as this section's source. Use the current form or sample that the official source provides or identifies. Form authority and execution requirements vary by state, so confirm the source before signing and get legal help if your situation or the instructions are unclear.
Michigan requires 2 adult witnesses; notarization isn’t required. Anyone 18 or older of sound mind can make one.
At a Glance
Michigan sets no waiting period before cremation. What it requires is an authorization for final disposition, on a form prescribed by the state registrar and signed by the local or state registrar, obtained within 72 hours after death and before the body is disposed of. When the disposition is cremation, the medical examiner of the county where the death occurred also has to sign that authorization. (MCL 333.2848(1), (3)) Funeral establishments and mortuary science licensees are licensed by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.
MCL 700.3206 sets the order: a designated person under federal military rules if the decedent was a service member, then the funeral representative the decedent named in writing, then the surviving spouse, then, in order, the decedent's children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, siblings, and more distant descendants of the decedent's parents and grandparents.
You can name a funeral representative in a dated writing you sign, and it can sit inside your will or your patient advocate designation. It has to be either signed in front of two witnesses or acknowledged before a notary. That naming outranks the spouse and everyone below.
Green burial is permitted in Michigan. Natural burial is allowed at cemeteries that permit it. Ask the cemetery directly; no state list of green burial grounds exists.
Michigan sets this order by statute. The first person on the list who is available and willing decides, and a funeral home takes its instructions from them.
Naming someone in advance. Funeral representative designation, MCL 700.3206(2). A separate form is not required: the designation may sit inside the declarant's will, patient advocate designation, or any other writing. It must be in writing, dated, and signed voluntarily by the declarant (or by a notary on the declarant's behalf under MCL 55.293), and it must either be signed in the presence of and by two witnesses or be acknowledged before a notary. If it is in a will, the will does not have to be admitted to probate for the designation to work. MCL 700.3206a allows a successor funeral representative and requires acceptance by signature or by acting. Funeral-home, cemetery, crematory, and treating-health-professional personnel cannot serve unless they are the spouse or a relative.
When the same tier disagrees. MCL 700.3206(5): where two or more individuals share the rights, they are exercised as decided by a majority of those who can be located after reasonable efforts; if a majority cannot agree, any of them may file a petition under MCL 700.3207.
A tier loses its turn if its members cannot be located after a reasonable effort, decline, or fail to act within 72 hours of the pronouncement of death under the determination of death act (1992 PA 90, MCL 333.1031 to 333.1034), and the rights pass down in the same order. Below the family tiers the statute is conditional rather than a flat list, which is what makes the tail order easy to get wrong: subsection (7) gives the right to the guardian if the decedent was under a guardianship at death, and both subsection (6) (personal representative or nominated personal representative) and subsection (8) (special fiduciary under MCL 700.1309 or special personal representative under MCL 700.3614(c), where the decedent died intestate) apply only 'if subsection (7) does not apply.' A guardian at death therefore outranks the personal representative. Subsection (9) is the backstop: the medical examiner for the county of domicile, or the Director of the Department of Corrections or the director's designee if the decedent was incarcerated in a state correctional facility, acts when nobody under (3) to (8) exists or when a person under (3) to (8) fails to act within 14 days after the death. Under subsection (10) an attempt to locate someone in (3) or (4) is sufficient if a family member, personal representative or nominated personal representative, or a health or veterans facility that treated the decedent during the final illness made a reasonable good faith attempt at the person's last known address, telephone number, or email address. Anyone criminally charged with intentionally killing the decedent cannot exercise the right while the charges are pending (subsec. (12)), and whoever exercises it must ensure payment through a trust, insurance, a commitment by another person, a prepaid contract under 1986 PA 255, or other effective and binding means, or be personally liable for the cost, which does not apply to a person acting under (8) or (9) (subsec. (13)). The section does not void an anatomical gift made under part 101 of the public health code (subsec. (11)). Fetch note for future runs: legislature.mi.gov serves its leaf certificate without the DigiCert Global G2 TLS RSA SHA256 2020 CA1 intermediate, so plain curl fails verification and the egress proxy answers 503. That is a server misconfiguration, not a bot block. The page reads normally after downloading the intermediate named in the certificate's Authority Information Access extension (http://cacerts.digicert.com/DigiCertGlobalG2TLSRSASHA2562020CA1-1.crt), converting it to PEM, and appending it to the CA bundle passed to curl --cacert. Read that way on 2026-08-09, the page states 'MCL Complete Through PA 20 of 2026' and its history line ends at Am. 2022, Act 157, Imd. Eff. July 19, 2022.
Three separate pots of money, on three different agencies' websites, collected nowhere. A family that qualifies for all three usually claims none of them.
1. When nobody can pay. State Emergency Relief (SER) burial assistance Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Apply through MI Bridges or your local MDHHS office. This is a statewide program, not a county one.
What it pays. Maximums effective 10/1/2025, from the MDHHS burial services table: burial with a memorial service $875 total ($615 to the funeral director, $160 to the cemetery or crematory, $100 for a vault); burial without a memorial service $610; cremation with a memorial service $640; cremation without a memorial service $390; a fetus or infant under one month $240; disposition of an unclaimed body $960; cremation permit fee for an unclaimed body $80; transportation of a donated or unclaimed body being cremated at $.34 per mile up to $176; and where a certified irrevocable funeral agreement (form 8A) exists, $260. To qualify for the memorial service rate the funeral director has to be at the service.
What disqualifies you. The deadline is the thing that trips families up: the application has to be made no later than 20 business days after the burial, cremation, or donation takes place. The remains have to be in Michigan, and MDHHS won't pay to bring someone back to Michigan. Who can apply: any relative, the person named in the will to arrange burial, a funeral representative the person designated, a special administrator or legal guardian appointed by the probate court, someone who held durable power of attorney at the time of death, or a funeral director holding written authorization from a relative who is incapable or unable. On assets, if there's a surviving group member you get a $15,000 cash exclusion plus a $15,000 non-cash exclusion, but a deceased adult with no surviving spouse gets no exclusion at all, and the application is denied if countable assets exceed the burial payment maximum. Death benefits come off the top: life insurance where a responsible relative is the beneficiary, a Social Security lump sum death payment if there's a surviving spouse, VA burial benefits, Soldiers and Sailors Fund benefits, fraternal or social organization donations, and prepaid funeral contracts. Friends and relatives may add up to $6,000 for extra services, and contributions over $6,000 get the application denied.
2. If the death was caused by a crime. $8,000 per victim, plus up to $500 more for a grave marker. MCL 18.361(5): an award for funeral expenses "must not exceed $8,000.00 for each victim," and "An award under this subsection must not exceed an additional $500.00 for a grave marker for each victim." The aggregate award is capped at $45,000 per claimant under MCL 18.361(1). Michigan's rule excludes "Expenses for flowers, gravestones, catering services, or other personal and family accommodations not directly related to the funeral service and disposition of the body" (Mich Admin Code R 18.358(2)), which sits alongside the newer $500 grave marker allowance in the statute. The cost of transporting the body is inside the burial benefit, and travel costs for family members aren't counted (R 18.359(1)). Where funeral expenses would have been paid from other public funds, the award can't exceed what those sources normally pay (R 18.358(3)). File within five years of the crime or its discovery, waivers may apply. The program is a payer of last resort, and the application asks whether you'll suffer a minimum out-of-pocket loss of $200.
Michigan crime victim compensation ↗
3. Money the person was already owed. Search Michigan's unclaimed property before you borrow anything. Searching and claiming are free.
Do this in order, and watch the clock. Michigan pays SER burial money after the fact, but you only get 20 business days from the burial, cremation, or donation to apply. Miss that and there's nothing to appeal. Tell the funeral home you're applying for SER before you choose anything, because the payment maximums are low and specific: $875 for a burial with a memorial service, $610 for a burial without one, $640 for a cremation with a service, $390 for a cremation without one. Friends and family can put in up to $6,000 on top for extra services, but if contributions go over $6,000, MDHHS denies the whole application. Apply through MI Bridges or your local MDHHS office. Bring an itemized statement of goods and services signed by the funeral home, and be ready to document life insurance, any Social Security lump sum, VA benefits, and any prepaid funeral contract, because each of those comes off the payment. If there's a surviving spouse who lived with the person, MDHHS needs written confirmation of the Social Security lump sum before it approves anything. If nobody claims the body, that's a different track. The county medical examiner or the person the medical examiner designates applies, not the funeral director, and the body first has to be offered to the University of Michigan, Michigan State, or Wayne State depending on the county. Second, if the person was killed in a crime, call the Crime Victim Compensation Program's victim line at 877-251-7373 or email MDHHS-MichiganCrimeVictim@michigan.gov. Funeral expenses go up to $8,000 with up to $500 more for a grave marker. You have five years from the crime or its discovery. Third, search https://unclaimedproperty.michigan.gov/, the Treasury's own site, under the person's name.
Last verified: August 9, 2026
Source: Michigan Department of Treasury ↗At a Glance
Michigan doesn't impose a state estate tax. Michigan's estate tax equaled the federal credit for state death taxes, and when the 2001 federal tax law phased that credit out and eliminated it in 2005, Michigan's estate tax ended with it.
Source: Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency, State Notes (Sept/Oct 2001) ↗
Nobody inheriting from someone who died recently owes Michigan inheritance tax. The Department of Treasury still runs an Inheritance Tax Section, though, because the tax stays in effect for people who inherited from a person who died on or before September 30, 1993. That matters in one situation: an old estate gets reopened because an asset turns up that nobody knew about. Then Treasury wants a letter within 90 days of finding it, with the date of discovery, the type of asset, its date-of-death value, and copies of the petition, the inventories, the will or trust, and the final inheritance tax order.
Source: Michigan Department of Treasury: Inheritance Tax Frequently Asked Questions ↗
Michigan residents are still subject to the federal estate tax. The federal exemption is $15 million per individual in 2026.
The Working Families Tax Cuts Bill (Public Law 119-21, 2025) made the higher federal exemption permanent: $15 million per person for 2026, indexed for inflation.
No. Michigan has no state estate tax. Only the federal estate tax applies, and only to estates over $15 million per person (2026), $30 million for a married couple.
No. Michigan doesn’t tax inheritances. Heirs owe no state tax on what they receive.
$15 million per person, $30 million for a married couple, indexed for inflation. The Working Families Tax Cuts Bill (Public Law 119-21, 2025) made the higher exemption permanent. Estates below the threshold owe no federal estate tax.
Last verified: August 8, 2026
Source: Michigan Department of State: Organ Donor Registry; MCL 333.10101 et seq. ↗At a Glance
The Michigan Department of State maintains the Michigan Organ Donor Registry. Gift of Life Michigan, the state's authorized organ recovery organization, may access the registry when a transplant is pending.
Under the Michigan Anatomical Gift Act, a registered donor's decision is legally binding. Nobody else can make, amend, or revoke the gift after your death (MCL 333.10108(1)). One exception: if the donor is an unemancipated minor, a parent who is reasonably available can revoke or amend the gift (MCL 333.10108(7)). Organ procurement organizations still consult families in practice, so keep the registry entry current and tell the people close to you what you decided.
Register online through Michigan Secretary of State Online Services, by mail with an eligible renewal, at a self-service station, or during a Secretary of State office visit.
Need Help in Michigan?
Wills, trusts, advance directives, and probate all benefit from a licensed professional. We've compiled a directory of funeral directors, grief counselors, hospice providers, and financial advisors. Sorted by state. Before a listing appears, we check the provider's phone and address against the provider's own website.
Find Help in Michigan →From The MORTL Edit
Sources: Michigan Compiled Laws (legislature.mi.gov), Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (michigan.gov/mdhhs), Gift of Life Michigan, State Bar of Michigan. Individual sections are updated and re-dated whenever a law changes, which is why the date at the top of the guide can be newer than this one. The whole guide also gets a front-to-back review on a schedule. Last front-to-back review: June 2026.
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