Kalamazoo · trusts & estates since 1994
Estate planning is an expression of love.
That's not our slogan — it's how this firm has practiced for thirty years. A well-made plan is the letter your family opens on the hardest day, and finds everything handled.
Best Law Firms® — Tier 1, Kalamazoo Trusts & Estates, 2025 · (269) 343-2106
To the people I love —
everything is handled. The house, the accounts, the guardians, the giving — signed, sealed, and already decided with love.
— your estate plan
What a plan actually says
Seven sentences your family will hear, even when you can't say them.
Every instrument we draft is one of these sentences, made legally true. This is the full range of the practice — each line is something a plan can promise.
To my children, you will never stand in a courtroom to inherit your own home.
Estate planning & settlement
To my spouse, the accounts, the house, the decisions — none of it lands on you alone.
Trust administration
To my family, when the time comes, the process will be short, private, and already paid for.
Probate
To my partners, the business survives me, and nobody has to guess what I wanted.
Business succession
To the causes I believe in, my giving continues after me — thoughtfully, and tax-wisely.
Charitable giving
To the ones who can't decide for themselves, someone I trust is legally standing beside you.
Guardianships & conservatorships
To my future self, if age takes the wheel, my dignity and savings are both protected.
Elder law
Written with you, not for you
How a thirty-year firm drafts a plan
I.
We listen first
The process is different for every client — that's firm doctrine, not marketing. Your family, your assets, your worries, your wishes. The plan follows.
II.
We draft precisely
The right combination of strategies and instruments for you — not a binder of boilerplate. You'll understand every document before you sign it.
III.
We revisit together
Marriages, births, sales, losses — when life changes, we sit down again, with you and the people your plan protects, and bring it current.
Time and attention are the whole point. It's why families stay for decades — and why Best Law Firms® ranks the practice Tier 1 in Kalamazoo trusts & estates.
The firm
Quietly, one of Michigan's most decorated estate practices.
Since 1994, DeMent & Marquardt has done estate work from the fourth floor at 211 East Water Street — wills, trusts, successions and the hard conversations, for three decades of Kalamazoo families. No billboards. No volume practice. The reputation was built the slow way: one well-made plan at a time.
Meet the attorneys in person — the introductions are better over coffee than on a webpage.
- 1994
- Practicing since
- 0+
- Years of estate work
- Tier 0
- Tier — Best Law Firms®, KZoo trusts & estates
Best Law Firms® — Tier 1, Kalamazoo Trusts & Estates, 2025
Begin
The hardest part is the first phone call. Make it anyway.
Fourth floor, 211 East Water Street — above the river, downtown Kalamazoo. Bring your questions and the names of the people you love; that's genuinely all a first meeting needs.
(269) 343-2106- No document homework before the first meeting
- Plans reviewed after major life changes
- Guidance in plain language, always