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After a person passes away, his or her executor is responsible for managing the estate’s assets, determining what taxes are owed and paying them, distributing any assets to the beneficiaries and determining what debts need to be paid. While working with their Illinois estate planning attorneys, many wonder if they should name one of their children as the executor of their estate. Although this can be beneficial in some situations, parents should make this decision with great care.Qualities to considerAn executor should be honest,...

Sure, you can print forms for a Will, Powers of Attorney for Health Care and Property, and a Living Will from the internet and fill in the blanks yourself. You can even prepare your own Living Trust using a form you find online, but do you really know what these forms will mean to you and your family? Do you have the correct number of witnesses and did you have the documents properly notarized? What about funding that trust that you just printed and signed?We have seen so many documents prepared without the help of an experienced estate pla...

In January of this year, an Illinois college student was studying abroad in Rome. According to the Chicago Tribune, the 20-year-old was seriously injured as the result of a fall. He has undergone several surgeries and remains hospitalized. The young man’s parents have flown to Italy to be with their son as he is recovering.As an estate planning attorney in Illinois knows, the situation highlights the need for signed legal documentation even at a young age. Without the right paperwork in place, a child’s future could hinge on a court...

Most of us make New Year’s resolutions to be a better version of the person we are: thinner, more patient, more organized. This year, how about resolving to take care of family business? Interested? Raise your hand and read the following aloud:Organ Donation: I resolve to make a choice about being an organ donor: Save your family from making hard choices by setting a gift in advance. Specify limitations: no gift, internal organs only, whole body to science. Put donor provisions in a will, sign an anatomical gift declaration and the back...

An Illinois man left a death benefit of more than $400,000 when he passed away suddenly from a heart attack. According to The National Law Review, the beneficiary on the policy was the man’s wife, to whom he had only been wed for a few years. The man’s grown children from another marriage claim that they found a completed document that the man never submitted stating that he wanted to change the beneficiary on the policy to be his children. A trial court ruled that because the completed form was never turned in, the wife would get the money...