Recent Blog Posts
District 211 Trusts & Estates Class Announcement for Fall 2015
I will be teaching an adult continuing education class for District 211 covering a broad range of estate planning and estate administration topics. Topics include asset ownership, wills, trusts, probate, trust administration, estate and gift tax, powers of attorney, beneficiary designations and more. The class takes place at Palatine High School from 7pm to… Read More »
Blended Families and the Accidental Disinheritance
Robin Williams, Casey Kasem, Dennis Hopper, Tom Clancy, Gene Roddenberry and Audrey Hepburn. What do they all have in common? They all left blended families that found themselves in court battling each other over estate issues. These types of clashes are not unique to the rich and famous. By their very nature, blended families… Read More »
Please Nominate This Blog for the 2015 ABA Journal Blawg 100
Do you like this blog? If so, may I ask a favor? Please nominate this blog for the 2015 ABA Journal ‘Blawg 100.’ “Friend-of-the-blawg” nominations are due on or before August 16, 2015. The nomination form can be found and completed at this link —> NOMINATE OUR BLOG HERE It’s really easy, too. Blawg… Read More »
Ernie Banks Estate, Part 6: Surviving Spouse’s Award
This is the sixth in my series on various legal aspects of the Estate of Ernie Banks. You can read my first five installments here. First, and before I completely bury the lead, news broke just yesterday that Elizabeth Banks filed the anticipated Will (and Trust) Contest on July 24. You can read about… Read More »
ULC Rewrites ‘Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act’
Almost exactly one year ago I wrote a blog post about the ‘Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act’ (UFADAA) that was adopted in July 2014 by the Uniform Law Commission (ULC). My post provided an overview about how the model legislation was crafted and what it provided, and explained that it would be… Read More »
How (not) to Revoke a Will
The act of revoking a Will seems like it ought to be fairly straightforward and noncontroversial. In most cases, (and ideally) a person revokes a current Will by simply executing a new Will that expressly revokes all prior wills and codicils. The later valid Will prevails. Simple and effective. But there are other permitted… Read More »
IRS Issues Final Regulations for Estate Tax Portability Elections
On June 12, 2015 — nearly 3 years after issuing temporary regulations — the IRS issued spousal portability election final regulations (read TD 9725 at the Federal Register here). The final regs don’t vary significantly from the temporary regs, but they do serve as an excellent reminder that spousal portability will be permanently waived… Read More »
Ernie Banks Estate, Part 5: Rights of Publicity
The Ernie Banks Estate is not becoming any less contentious as time passes. His widow and his caretaker/executor continue to do battle over information in probate court. Today’s post will first bring you up-to-date on the citation proceedings introduced in my last post. Then I’ll highlight some of the revelations contained in the recent… Read More »
The Best Time To Create An Estate Plan Is When You Don’t Need It
I recently had a few different people ask me the following: “Jeff, when is the best time to create an estate plan?” My inclination was to explain common triggers for creating (or updating) an estate plan — things like marriage or divorce, birth of a child or receiving an inheritance. But after looking at… Read More »
Can a Copy of a Lost Will be Admitted to Probate in Illinois?
If you’re anything like my law firm, you may be trying to digitize files and keep less paper. It generally works great — easy searchable access to files at your fingertips without having to chase down documents hidden away in file boxes or cabinets. The evolution will continue toward paper-less, though probably never entirely… Read More »