Most married couples hold title to their home in “tenancy by the entirety.” Married couples quit holding title as joint tenants when tenancy by the entirety was allowed in the mid 90’s in Illinois. This means that if one dies, the house snaps to the other avoiding probate. Also, the house is protected from creditors. [...]
Estate planning and real estate in the Land of Lincoln
Category Archives: Estate Planning
Living trust funding: Whose job is it?
At home, I received a newsletter from a northwest suburban lawyer who prepares a lot of living trusts. This attorney does a lot of seminars and I must be in his direct mail target market now that I am old enough to be in the AARP army. I scanned the newsletter expecting the usual boilerplate, [...]
How do I get a free nursing home?
“How do I protect my assets so that the state doesn’t get everything if I have to go into a nursing home?” This is, by far, the most common question that I answer. I prepare many living trusts for clients, so this question comes up almost every time I meet with a client. It’s really [...]
The cost of probate
I am a fan of living trusts. Trusts avoid probate. Probate is not the chamber of horrors that it is sometimes made out to be. But, all things being the same, you are better off side-stepping it if possible. In Illinois, probate is not terribly expensive since we do not have a fee schedule that [...]
Estate tax vanishes Jan 1: But watch out for capital gains tax
If you thought inheritance taxes were complicated before, just wait for January 1. The inheritance tax is abolished starting January 1. But it only stays abolished until December 31, 2010. On January 1, 2011, the old inheritance tax system returns, except that the amount that is free of inheritance tax changes to $1 million per [...]
Illinois inheritance tax is alive and well
As this Wall St. Journal story explains, many states have an inheritance tax and Illinois is one of them. The tax kicks in on estates of $2 million or more. We tend to pay attention to only the federal inheritance tax limit of $3.5 million. This is one reason to make your domicile in Florida [...]
Two steps and your will is done
Clients are short on time. Couples with young children seem the most time-starved. In the past, it generally took two office visits to have a will done for a client. It was hard to coordinate times to meet and I think multiple office visits discouraged clients from signing wills and trusts. Now, I’ve simplified will [...]
Convenience bank accounts may cause probates
Starting January 1, “convenience accounts” will be able to be set up at your bank. These are alternatives to joint bank accounts. This development is good and bad. It’s good because we have endless problems with joint bank accounts. Many times, clients add a joint tenant, usually a family member — but sometimes a non-family [...]
Supreme court gives retirement plan to ex-spouse
Couple is married and Mr. makes Mrs. the primary beneficiary of his retirement account. Mr. & Mrs. get divorced. Mr. does not change his beneficiary and then dies. The U.S. Supreme court recently ruled in Kennedy Estate vs. Plan Administrator for DuPont Savings that the ex-spouse gets 100% of the retirement plan because the beneficiary [...]
Illinois 09 inheritance tax trap may be no more
The Illinois House passed, and the Senate is reviewing, a bill that would prevent estate tax from being owed on the first to die of a husband and wife with a large estate. It looks like it will pass the Senate easily. Technically, the bill does this: “Amends the Illinois Estate and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax. [...]
