Michael Leonard Rutkowski

Michael L. Rutkowski is the founding attorney of Rutkowski Law Firm, which he has led since 2012. His practice is limited to estate planning, asset protection, Medicaid planning, elder law and guardianship. He and his team help Michigan families protect what they’ve built from probate court, from lawsuits and from the cost of long-term care.

Most law firms hand clients a binder and a to-do list. Michael built Rutkowski Law Firm to finish the job. Whether a family needs a living trust, a Lady Bird deed or help with a parent’s long-term care, the firm explains every option. Then it does the work families usually get stuck on: moving the home and accounts into the trust, recording the deed with the county and confirming in writing that the plan is done.

Every plan starts with a Vision Consultation. Before anything is drafted, the team listens to what the family wants to protect, what worries them and what they hope for the next generation. From there the plan moves through design, signing and funding, and the same team stays with the family the whole way. When a parent’s health changes suddenly, the firm moves fast: emergency powers of attorney have been turned around by the next day, with a notary sent to the family.

Clients meet the firm in person at its Troy and Rochester offices or work with it by video from anywhere in Michigan. The firm also hosts estate planning workshops across Southeast Michigan.

Michael came to estate planning through friends and family who were starting families of their own and asked him for help. Before founding the firm, he spent six years at Evans Pletkovic, PC, advising clients on business formation, negotiation and contracts, and handling workers’ compensation and employment law matters. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (Sales and Business Marketing) from Western Michigan University’s Haworth College of Business. He earned his law degree, with a concentration in Business Transactions, through WMU Cooley Law School’s accelerated two-year program. He was named a Super Lawyers Rising Star from 2018 to 2022 and is a member of WealthCounsel.

Outside the office, Michael is a husband and #girldad to three daughters, and he and his wife Katie keep a full family calendar of dance and volleyball.

The firm calls all of this The Rutkowski Way.