Michael C. Zahrt

Mike is a business, succession planning, estate planning, and tax attorney in Foster Swift’s Grand Rapids office and co-leader of the firm’s Business & Tax practice group. He helps business owners, families, fiduciaries, and closely held companies make informed decisions, protect what they have built, and plan for what comes next. Clients rely on Mike for practical, tax-conscious guidance that aligns business planning, ownership transitions, estate planning, and estate tax mitigation with their personal, financial, and family goals.

• Business Planning, Formations and Transactions. Mike advises clients on entity selection and formation, shareholder and operating agreements, business purchases and sales, mergers, and federal tax issues. He helps clients structure business decisions in a way that supports growth, reduces risk, and advances their broader ownership, succession, estate, and tax planning goals.
• Business and Farm Succession Planning. Mike works with business owners and family-owned farms to develop tax-efficient succession and exit strategies. He helps clients balance continuity, control, family dynamics, retirement needs, charitable goals, and long-term legacy planning.
• Estate Planning and Estate Tax Mitigation. Mike helps individuals and families create estate plans that protect assets, minimize tax exposure, and carry out their wishes. His work includes wills, revocable trusts, charitable trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, and other wealth transfer planning tools.
• Estate Administration. Mike represents trustees and personal representatives in trust and probate administration, helping fiduciaries understand and fulfill their duties under Michigan law.
• Agri-Business. Mike advises agricultural businesses and cooperatives on formation, governance, contracts, Capper-Volstead Act compliance, farm operation structures, and related state and federal tax issues.

Mike received his undergraduate degree from Calvin University and his Juris Doctorate from the Michigan State University College of Law. He graduated summa cum laude and was a Dean King Honors Scholar. Mike attended Michigan State on a full tuition scholarship and was an active member of the MSU Law Review for two years.

Best Lawyers® in America "One to Watch", Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law, (2021-2022), (2024-2025)

• Assisting in the creation of a business succession plan for the owner of a family business that transferred ownership of a company to children involved in the business while also providing income to the owner's spouse and non-business children and eliminating an estimated estate tax liability of over $175,000.
• Assisting in the creation of a farm succession plan for an operation with assets exceeding $10 million, including the selection and creation of business entities to hold and transfer farm assets.  The succession plan gradually transferred responsibilities to the next generation while also providing a reliable source of income for the older generation and off-farm children.
• Assisting in the estate plan of an individual with a net worth of more than $11 million, utilizing gifting strategies and an irrevocable life insurance trust to accomplish the client's estate planning goals while eliminating potential estate tax liability.

• Start Garden
  • Mentoring Program
• Wedgwood Foundation
  • Chair of the Board of Directors
• Church of the Servant CRC
  • Stewardship Committee Member