Recent Blog Posts
Illinois Power of Attorney for Health Care Gets Makeover in 2015
It seems like just yesterday that I was revising our forms and explaining the brand-new ‘Illinois Statutory Short Form Power of Attorney for Health Care’ (“PAH”). Three years goes by quickly. Apparently, the legislature had second thoughts about the July 2011 rewrite because they’ve yet again rewritten the Illinois statutory form PAH. On August… Read More »
Guest Blog: Relational Estate Planning
Today’s post is a guest blog written by Stephanie Heavey about Relational Estate Planning. For more information, contact Stephanie at r.estplanner@gmail.com You just breathed a sigh of relief. The “t’s” have been crossed and the “i’s” have been dotted on the will, the trust, the powers of attorney. That task you’d been “meaning to… Read More »
WBEZ Tech Shift Podcasts on Death in the Digital Age
A couple weeks ago, Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ 91.5 FM, ran a series of four short podcasts on its ‘Tech Shift’ channel on the subject of death in the digital age and how technology is changing the way we handle death. The topics included a new Cook County ‘digital cemetery’ program, a discussion… Read More »
New Illinois Small Estate Affidavit Coming in 2015
A significant change is coming to the small estate affidavit form and procedure in Illinois. On August 1, 2014, Governor Quinn signed into law an amendment to the Small Estate section of the Illinois Probate Act (755 ILCS 5/25-1) that changes the small estate affidavit form and procedure (statutory additions and deletions shown at… Read More »
The State of State Estate Taxes
Most people know that there is a federal estate tax (the dreaded “death tax”). But many are surprised to learn that some states (including Illinois) also have a separate (and additional) state estate tax. The federal estate tax calculation previously allowed a credit for state estate taxes paid, which generally negated the impact of… Read More »
National Estate Planning Awareness Week is October 20-26
Are you aware that this week is National Estate Planning Awareness Week (NEPAW)? You are now. In 2008, the 110th Congress passed a resolution designating the third week of October as such. The resolution recognizes the importance of estate planning, encourages the distribution of estate planning information by professionals to all Americans and is… Read More »
My NBI Webcast Seminar Presentation: ‘Administering a Small Estate’
I recently recorded a seminar presentation for National Business Institute (NBI) on the topic of “Administering a Small Estate.” NBI is a continuing legal education (CLE) provider for professionals. The presentation aired on October 1, 2014 and is now available as an on-demand webcast from NBI. I co-presented the seminar along with attorney Kimberly… Read More »
Big Internet Companies Oppose FADA Legislation — Really!?!
In July I discussed and lauded the recent adoption of the Uniform Fiduciary Access To Digital Assets (FADA) Act. FADA is not a law in itself, but is intended to provide uniform model legislation for states to enact to vest fiduciaries (executor, trustee, agent and guardian) with the authority to access digital assets and… Read More »
Are you (and your Estate Plan) Ready for Some (Bears) Football?
Over 60,000 Chicago Bears fans (and hopefully very few Packers fans) will converge on Soldier Field this Sunday to watch the Bears beat the Packers (the power of positive thinking, right?). Around half of them will be there by virtue of a “Permanent Seat License” (PSL). A PSL is a device mainly used for… Read More »
Unmarried Couples Have Acute Need for Estate Planning
I sometimes review and answer basic questions in online legal forums. Some questions are truly “off the wall”, while others are thought-provoking. The following question was recently posed in an online Q&A forum: QUESTION: A couple not married but living together for over 20 years, if one passes away does the other one have… Read More »