When I meet with prospective Estate Planning clients for the first time, it is very common for most people to believe that an effective Estate Plan must be complicated.
This is generally not the case. A well drafted document – whether it is a Will or a Living Trust – should be not only legally sufficient and effective, but also written in clear, concise language so your heirs fully understand your intentions.
I often see documents that have been drafted for a client previously that are so unnecessarily complex that they are almost incomprehensible. Such complexity does not serve any real legal or practical objective.
The aspect of an Estate Plan that should not be too simple is to make sure that potential personal and family issues are adequately addressed. Such issues may include provisions for your spouse or partner, children, their education and living expenses, Guardianships (if needed), and other issues that may become relevant.
I have 30 years of experience creating documents to protect my clients’ legal and personal Estate Plans. Every document is drafted for you to provide for your unique needs. Your plan will address any and all complexities your situation warrants — whether personally, financially or legally. It will do so in the most efficient manner possible, in the interest of keeping it as simple and robust as possible.
While there is no legal requirement in Illinois that a Lawyer has to be hired by a home seller, as a practicality it is nearly impossible and certainly ill-advised to represent oneself. There are many documents that need to be drafted, almost all of them fairly complex and detailed. Additionally, the negotiations that often occur […]
This unfortunately happens far too often. As people age, sometimes their ability to safeguard their assets diminishes. Fortunately there are laws to protect senior citizens, and each case of potential financial abuse is unique based on the facts at work. Parents, aunts/uncles or close friends who are seniors may often be reluctant to share information […]
If you have a living trust in place, it can probably be amended. It is, however, completely dependent on whether it is what is known as a Revocable Trust. The majority of Trusts are revocable in nature, which is the legal wording used to also indicate that they are amendable, or can be changed. This […]
While there is no general rule of thumb as to how often an Estate Plan should be updated, I tell my valued clients that they should make an appointment to see me whenever something significant happens in their lives – birth of a child or a grand-child, retirement, inheritance, as a few example. One of the […]