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STATE OF MICHIGAN COURT OF APPEALS

RAE JEAN ADKINS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v GINA LYNNE DICK, Defendant-Appellee, and TIAA-CREF, LLC, Defendant.

UNPUBLISHED September 6, 2011

No. 297820 Kent Circuit Court LC No. 09-010105-CZ

RAE JEAN ADKINS, Appellant, v GINA LYNNE DICK, as personal representative of the ESTATE OF LARRY THOMAS WELCH, Appellee. No. 298945 Allegan Probate Court LC No. 10-056180-DE

Before: SAWYER, P.J., and WHITBECK and OWENS, JJ. PER CURIAM. This is a consolidated appeal arising out of a dispute regarding the rights to certain annuity proceeds. In Docket No. 297820, plaintiff Rae Jean Adkins appeals by leave granted the Kent Circuit Court's order granting summary disposition to defendant Gina Dick, personal representative of the Estate of Larry Thomas Welch, pursuant to MCR 2.116(C)(8) on the ground that Adkins had no standing to bring her claims. In Docket No. 298945, Adkins appeals as of right the Allegan Probate Court's dismissal of her petition for supervised administration of the estate, removal of Dick as personal representative, and a stay of proceedings on the ground that Adkins lacked standing because she was not an interested person in the estate. We affirm the -1-

probate court's dismissal in Docket No. 298945. Likewise, we affirm the circuit court's dismissal in Docket No. 297820, but remand for correction of its order. I. FACTS A. BACKGROUND Plaintiff Adkins is the sister of Larry Welch, who died of brain cancer in July 2009. Defendant Dick is the personal representative of the Welch's estate and one of Welch's three adult children. Before his death, Welch had two retirement annuities, both held by defendant TIAA-CREF, LLC. Only one annuity is at issue in this case. Since 2001, Adkins was the primary beneficiary of the annuity, and Dick and her siblings were the secondary beneficiaries. But four days before he died, Welch signed a change of beneficiary form, making Dick and her siblings the primary beneficiaries of the annuity. In her complaint, Adkins alleged that the annuity was worth approximately $250,000. At the heart of this appeal is Adkins' effort to have this change of beneficiary designation disregarded so that the funds in the annuity retirement account will be paid to her rather than Welch's children, who Adkins claims used duress, coercion, and fraud to induce Welch to name them as the primary beneficiaries. Evidently, the annuity funds are still being kept by TIAA-CREF. Welch divorced the mother of Dick and her two siblings in 2000. Adkins alleged as follows: Welch did not have a close relationship with his three children following the divorce in 2000, and usually only saw them once a year during the Christmas season. All three children were estranged from their father, upset about issues related to their parents' divorce. Adkins further alleged that Welch was very vocal about wanting to leave the annuity to her, a widow, and was also "very vocal and open about his plan to leave no money or assets to any of his adult children." Adkins also alleged that Welch and Dick had confrontations over this issue in the years before his death. According to Adkins, Welch began to show signs of some "mental/neurological disorder" in late 2008 or early 2009. While he was visiting Adkins in Kentucky in the spring of 2009, Welch became ill and went to a hospital for an evaluation. In June 2009, he was diagnosed with brain cancer in the area controlling memory and cognition and was given two months to live. Adkins and Deanne Savage, Welch's then fianc

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Michigan Law