Recent Blog Posts
How a Family Trust and Marital Trust Work with a Living Trust in Illinois
A living trust (also called a "revocable living trust" or "declaration of trust") is a foundational estate planning document that enables people to manage their assets in the event of an incapacity or death. Simply put, a living trust efficiently distributes assets and avoids probate.
Illinois has its own estate tax, and the federal estate tax exemption is $13.99 million. An exemption is a specific amount of money or value that is excluded from taxation. In the context of estate taxes, an estate tax exemption allows a certain portion of an individual’s estate to pass tax-free before any tax on the estate applies. Call our Illinois estate planning attorney for more information about estate planning and how a living trust could help you.
The Risk of Beneficiary Designations and Paid on Death Accounts
When crafting your estate planning, you should not only consider how you wish your assets to be distributed, but also the ideal way to do so to minimize the burden on your estate and beneficiaries. Many people believe that simply designating beneficiaries on their financial accounts, life insurance policies, and retirement plans is sufficient to transfer their assets smoothly to their heirs.
However, relying on naming beneficiary designations creates significant probate risks, including unintended consequences, probate complications, and a lack of asset protection. A properly structured living trust can provide a comprehensive estate planning solution to mitigate probate risks. An experienced Plainfield, IL estate planning attorney can advise you on your estate planning options, such as a living trust or other estate planning instruments.
Tips for Selling a Home With Solar Panels
Solar panels can save homeowners a significant amount on energy bills, including through state tax incentives. When it comes time to sell a home, however, solar panels can be a double-edged sword. While they can raise property values, some potential buyers are skeptical of the benefits, which means it may be more difficult to find a buyer.
Solar panels can also complicate the real estate sale process. Sellers should ensure that the contract for the sale of the home properly addresses the solar panels, depending on the seller’s solar panel ownership or financing type. An experienced Yorkville, IL real estate attorney can help you avoid legal and financial pitfalls during your sale of a home with solar panels.
Why Title Insurance Is Important In Your Real Estate Transaction
With all the excitement that comes with purchasing a new home, it is important to protect that investment, and a key way to do this is by purchasing title insurance. When you purchase a property, the seller will transfer the title to you. Title refers to your legal ownership right to the property and the title should be "free and clear" of any issues. To ensure it is, title insurance can protect your ownership rights against any defects in title. A qualified Illinois real estate attorney can assist you with the process of getting title insurance.
What Is Title Insurance?
During a home purchase, a title company will run a search of the property’s title history to ensure that there are no issues such as unsolved liens, undisclosed easements giving access to the property, errors in the public records, fraudulent ownership claims, or undisclosed heirs. Yet even after a title search is complete, issues may come up in the future. Title insurance provides you with legal and financial protections in the event there are defects in title.
Pros and Cons of Transfer on Death Instruments
If you are new to estate planning, you might understandably think that it is all about wills and trusts. While wills and trusts are powerful and widely used ways to create your estate plan, there are other legal instruments that may be well suited to your needs.
One of these is called the Illinois transfer on death instrument, and it is a way to transfer real property upon your death. An experienced Illinois estate planning attorney can offer advice on whether you should consider a transfer of death instrument for your estate plan.
What Is a Transfer on Death Instrument?
A transfer of deed instrument (TODI) is a revocable estate planning document that allows the owner of residential real estate to transfer the property upon their death while bypassing probate, the court process used to settle estates and determine if certain legal instruments such as wills are valid. With a TODI, the property owner selects one or more beneficiaries who will receive ownership interests in the property when the owner dies.
How Does a Living Trust Help Solve Guardianship Problems?
Guardianship is the traditional legal process used to appoint a guardian over someone a court determines is unable to handle their personal or financial affairs. Most people making their estate plan wish to put in place protections to avoid this process should they become incapacitated, given the lack of control and expense it can entail. The main way to do so is to create a living trust, which has several advantages over guardianships. An experienced Yorkville, IL estate planning attorney can help you set up a living trust.
What Is a Guardianship?
Guardianship is a legal mechanism to protect the financial and personal affairs of a person who is deemed by a court to be unable to make basic decisions or manage their finances. A guardian is legally assigned to make decisions about the incapacitated adult’s health care, finances, living arrangements, and more. Often, guardianships are created to care for people with Alzheimer’s, mental illnesses, or developmental disabilities.
Key Provisions in a Living Trust
An Illinois Living Trust, as its name implies, is a trust that you create during your lifetime. Your beneficiaries benefit from the trust after your death. A revocable living trust can also protect you should you become mentally incapacitated.
There are many benefits to the versatile living trust: It can help avoid probate, you have full control over trust assets during your lifetime, it can be modified during your lifetime, and it is a private document that is not part of the public record. To ensure that your living trust legally fulfills your wishes and contains key living trust provisions, consult with an experienced Yorkville, IL estate planning attorney.
Selling Vacant Land: Legal Tips for Sellers
If you own or have recently inherited vacant land in Illinois and want to sell it, there are specific legal considerations you should keep in mind. In some ways, the process is the same as it is for selling developed property. However, there are unique issues such as zoning and land use that you should keep in mind when selling vacant land in Illinois. A Yorkville, IL real estate attorney can provide legal advice for your vacant land sale.
Check Zoning Regulations
The zoning regulations affecting your vacant land will have a significant effect on how the land may be developed after sale (whether as residential, commercial, industrial, or a mix). Consequently, zoning may affect the type of buyer that will be interested in the land. Understanding the zoning requirements for the land can also help you accurately value it.
Estate and Asset Protection Tips for Small Business Owners
As a business owner, you are busy wearing many hats, from running the day-to-day operations to managing employees to growing the business. That is why you might not have taken the time to consider putting in place an estate plan to protect your assets. However, planning ahead as a business owner can safeguard and strengthen your business. If you want to know more about implementing an estate plan and asset protection strategy as a business owner, a qualified estate planning attorney can provide legal advice on how to best protect your assets.
Why Do Small Businesses Need Asset Protection?
The purpose of putting in place an estate plan is to ensure that your business assets are protected from any eventuality and that all the hard work, dedication, and money that you invested into building your business does not go to waste. A comprehensive estate plan can guarantee that someone you trust takes over your business if you are incapacitated and unable to do so. It can also protect your assets in the event you face:
Healthcare Power of Attorney vs. Advanced Health Directives
One of the best ways to protect your and your family’s future is to let your family members know in advance your wishes regarding end-of-life decisions. You can also put in place legal documents that provide authority to other family members to deal with unexpected health issues should they arise.
In Illinois, an Advanced Health directive and a Statutory Power of Attorney for Healthcare can be used to empower another to make health decisions on your behalf in the event you are incapacitated. Although a Statutory Power of Attorney is a type of healthcare directive, there are important differences between the two that your attorney can advise you on as you think about setting up a plan for dealing with health challenges.
What is an Advanced Healthcare Directive?
An advanced healthcare directive provides medical instructions on what to do in the event you are unable to make your own medical decisions. Some types of advanced healthcare directives include:
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