Overview

Doug Mielock is devoted to helping clients achieve their goals, Doug represents and counsels clients in the following areas:

• Estate Planning: Meets with clients to determine their goals. Drafts wills, trusts, powers of attorney and other documents to achieve these goals. This includes the avoidance or reduction of federal income tax and federal estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax.
• Estate Litigation: Represents fiduciaries and beneficiaries in probate court litigation. This includes disputes such as the construction of wills and trusts, the contested validity of wills and trusts and breach of trust actions brought against fiduciaries.
• Estate Administration: Represents fiduciaries and beneficiaries in the administration of probate estates and trust estates following the death of an intestate decedent, testator, or settlor.
• Marital Agreements: Counsels individuals on their legal rights prior to marriage. Drafts pre-marital and post-marital agreements.

Doug is a frequent speaker on trust and estate-related topics. He has addressed dozens of groups and forums across Michigan, including testimony before state legislative committees. He is also a member of the Probate Advisory Committee for the Institute of Continuing Legal Education. A native of Lansing, Doug is the leader of the firm's Trusts & Estates Practice Group and previously served on the firm's Executive Committee as Co-Vice President of the Lansing office. He also formerly served on the firm's Executive Committee as Secretary.

Honors & Recognitions

Affiliations

Memberships & Affiliations

Legal Affiliations:

• State Bar of Michigan
  • Probate and Estate Planning Section
    • Council Member/Officer 1996-2007
    • Chair 2006-2007
    • Estates and Protected Individuals Code Committee, Member 1992-2000
    • Michigan Trust Code Committee, Member 2005-2010
• American Bar Association
  • Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section
• Ingham County Bar Association

Industry & Professional Associations:

• The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, Fellow 2002-Present
• Institute of Continuing Legal Education
  • Probate Advisory Committee, 2006-2018
• Greater Lansing Estate Planning Council
• Elder Law of Michigan Inc., Former Chair and former Board of Directors
• Capital Region Community Foundation
  • Board of Trustees 2006-2014
  • Treasurer 2007- 2009
  • Chair Elect 2010
  • Chair 2011

Community Involvement:

• Sparrow Foundation
  • Planned Giving Committee, Former Chair and former Committee member

Experience

Representative Matters

• Develop, draft, and implement estate plans that permit clients to pass a significant amount of wealth free of federal estate tax at death.
• Successfully represented beneficiaries of $7.5 million trust in defending action contesting validity of trust.
• Successfully represented beneficiary under unsigned draft amendment in trust action to establish validity of unsigned trust amendment.
• Successfully represented bank trustee in defending separate actions for breach of trust brought by beneficiaries of multi-million dollar trusts.
• Represented beneficiaries of trust in successfully defending multiple actions brought contesting validity of trust; obtained complete victory for clients following bench trial.

Communications

Publications

• Michigan Probate Litigation, Institute for Continuing Legal Education (ICLE), October 15, 2017
• Introductory Trust Clauses, Michigan Estate Planning Handbook, July 2017
• Office of Trustee, Michigan Estate Planning Handbook, July 2017
• Using Revocable Grantor Trusts, Michigan Estate Planning Handbook, Institute for Continuing Legal Education (ICLE), July 2017
• Avoiding Conflict Over Tangible Personal Property, Foster Swift Estate Planning Insights, Fall 2010
• Michigan Trust Code Takes Effect April 1, 2010, Foster Swift Estate Planning Insights, Winter 2009

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News & Events

Speaking Engagements

• Modifying Trusts, ICLE’s 64th Annual Probate and Estate Planning Institute, May 18, 2024
• Apply 2020 Discovery Rules in Probate Litigation, Institute for Continuing Legal Education (ICLE), January 9, 2020
• Anatomy of a Trust, 59th Annual Probate and Estate Planning Institute, State Bar of Michigan, Probate and Estate Planning Section, May 16, 2019
• Nonprobate Transfers, 58th Annual Probate and Estate Planning Institute, State Bar of Michigan, Probate and Estate Planning Section, May 17, 2018
• Estate Planning 101, Michigan Farm Bureau: 2018 Take Root Conference, February 26, 2018
• You’re Just the Scrivener: How to Avoid Being a Witness in a Will or Trust Contest, 57th Annual Probate and Estate Planning Institute, State Bar of Michigan, Probate and Estate Planning Section, May 2017

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News

• Five Attorneys Named Best Lawyers "Lawyer of the Year" 2025, Best Lawyers in America, August 15, 2024
• Foster Swift Attorneys Named 2025 Best Lawyers in America, Best Lawyers in America, August 15, 2024
• 17 Attorneys Selected to 2024 Michigan Super Lawyers and “Rising Stars”, Michigan Super Lawyers, August 12, 2024
• Foster Swift Elects EC Officers for 2024, Ingham County Legal News, February 21, 2024
• Foster Swift Attorneys Named 2024 Best Lawyers in America, Best Lawyers in America, August 17, 2023
• Four Lansing Attorneys Named Best Lawyers® 2024 "Lawyer of the Year", Best Lawyers in America, August 17, 2023
• 17 Attorneys Selected to 2023 Michigan Super Lawyers and “Rising Stars”, Michigan Super Lawyers, August 11, 2023