Kalamazoo · two partners · one promise
Whatever this is, it untangles.
Debt that's swallowing the paycheck. An estate nobody planned. A house, a business, a parent who needs help. Kerry Hettinger and Elizabeth Robinson have spent 35+ combined years pulling exactly these knots straight — in plain language, with respect and civility.
↔ pull the string to untangle it
What people bring us
Four kinds of knots. We've pulled them all straight.
Debt & bankruptcy
"The cards are maxed, the calls won't stop, and the math will never work."
Bankruptcy — Chapter 7 or 13 — and debt consolidation aren't failure; they're the legal reset button. The calls stop the day we file. Then we rebuild.
Probate & estates
"Dad's gone, the house is in his name, and nobody knows what happens now."
Probate is a checklist, not a mystery. We run it start to finish — the court, the creditors, the deed — while your family gets to just be a family.
Elder law & Medicaid
"Mom needs more care than we can give, and we're terrified of what it costs."
Elder law and Medicaid planning protect the house and the healthy spouse. Earlier is better; even late, there are real options most families never hear.
Real estate & business
"We're buying the building / starting the business / signing something big — and we don't want to get burned."
Real estate closings, leases, LLCs and formations — reviewed and structured by people who've read the fine print for three decades.
Plus the paperwork everyone needs and nobody has: wills, trusts, powers of attorney. Ask — it's a shorter conversation than you think.
Ask about yoursThe two of us
Southwest Michigan locals. Thirty-five years of knots.
Hettinger & Robinson is deliberately small: two partners who answer their own phones and explain things in words you already know. No associates learning on your case, no legalese as a billing strategy — just real connections, practical solutions, and civility even when the other side forgets theirs.
Kerry Hettinger
Partner — decades of Michigan practice across bankruptcy, estates and the deals in between.
Elizabeth Robinson
Partner — estates, elder law and the steady hand families remember afterward.
“Using our legacy to preserve yours.”
0+
Combined years of Michigan practice
- Plain language, always
- You talk to a partner, not a voicemail tree
- Practical solutions over scorched earth
- Respect and civility — both directions
How it goes
Three steps from tangle to straight line
Tell us everything
One conversation, no judgment — bring the shoebox of statements, the letters you've been afraid to open, all of it. We've seen worse, we promise.
We map the knot
You leave the first meeting knowing your actual options, what each costs, and what we'd do in your shoes — in plain English, on one page.
We pull it straight
Filings, negotiations, closings, court — we do the work and keep you posted at every turn. The knot becomes a line; the line becomes a plan.
Start here
The knot never untangles by waiting.
Call the office on South Westnedge. Tell whoever answers — probably one of us — what's going on. That's the whole first step.
(269) 344-0700- No judgment — debt, family mess, all of it stays in this room
- Plain-English answers in the first meeting
- Clear fees before any work begins