Hedeker Law

Creating a comprehensive estate plan may involve the use of a wide variety of estate planning tools and strategies. One of the most popular of those tools is a trust. Creating a trust can help achieve numerous goals, including incapacity planning, asset protection, and protecting a minor’s inheritance. Although trusts can differ in many ways, one common denominator is the need to appoint a Trustee to oversee the administration of the trust. If you were recently informed that you are the Trustee of a trust, you may be feeling a bit intimidated by your new position if you are a [Read more…]

Proper estate planning includes much more than just deciding how your estate assets will be distributed after your death. What additional components you include in your comprehensive estate plan will depend on your unique needs and goals. One common estate planning goal, however, is probate avoidance. A Vernon Hills probate lawyer explains why you might want your estate to avoid probate and offers some common probate avoidance strategies. What Is Probate? When you die, you will leave behind an estate that is made up of all the assets you owned at the time of your death. Probate is the legal [Read more…]

Most people equate the concept of estate planning with creating a plan for the distribution of their estate assets after their death to ensure that loved ones are provided for in their absence. This is certainly understandable as that is one of the primary functions of the average estate plan. When you think about protecting and providing for your loved ones, however, your death is not the only reason to have a plan in place. What happens if you become incapacitated tomorrow? Do you have a plan in place that protects you and your loved ones for that potential scenario? [Read more…]

For some people, philanthropy is part of their everyday life. If you are one of those people, chances are good that you have several charitable causes that are important to you. If so, you may wish to include these charities in your estate plan. Including charitable beneficiaries in your estate plan can be done in several different ways. One of the most popular options is to create a charitable trust. To help you better understand your options, a Lincolnshire living trust attorney explains charitable trusts and why they are often the tool of choice for charitable gifting. Your Comprehensive Estate [Read more…]

For most people, one of the primary reasons they create an estate plan is to ensure that the State of Illinois does not get to decide what happens to their estate assets after their death. If that is one of your primary estate planning goals, you should consider the likelihood of someone contesting your Last Will and Testament and plan accordingly. If someone launches a successful Will contest, your efforts to determine the fate of your assets will be in vain and the State intestate succession laws will be used to distribute your estate. One of the grounds used to [Read more…]

Have you worked hard over the course of your lifetime to acquire the assets you now own? Do you save prudently and invest wisely to ensure that those assets are available for your retirement years and to pass down to loved ones when you are gone? If so, you also need make sure you are aware of the numerous ways in which those assets might be at risk. Moreover, you need to incorporate asset protection strategies into your estate plan to ensure that your assets are safe. To get you started, the Vernon Hills asset protection attorneys at Hedeker Law, [Read more…]

For many people, owning their own business is very much a part of the American dream. If you are one of those people, and you have achieved that dream, you undoubtedly worked hard to make your dream a reality. Do not make the mistake of seeing your hard work go down the proverbial drain at the end of your life because you failed to include your business in your estate plan. To help ensure that does not happen, the Vernon Hills business planning attorneys at Hedeker Law Ltd. discuss business succession strategies. Why Is Business Succession Planning Important? Getting a [Read more…]

Like most people, when you think about the concept of estate planning you probably think about executing a Last Will and Testament that provides for the distribution of your estate assets when you are gone. While creating a Will that distributes your assets is certainly part of the estate planning process, it is not the entire process for most people. Because a comprehensive estate plan is intended to achieve a wide range of interrelated goals and objectives, most people find the need to include additional tools and strategies in their plan. By far, one of the most popular additions to [Read more…]

You likely know what estate planning is and why it is so important to have an estate plan in place. Do you, however, know what legacy planning is? The idea behind the concept of legacy planning is to take estate planning to the next level. Legacy planning allows you to incorporate your ideals, beliefs, values, and faith into your estate planning endeavors.  Instead of simply leaving behind assets, legacy planning lets you leave behind much more of who you are and what made you the person you were during your lifetime.  To help you better understand the concept of legacy [Read more…]

You have undoubtedly been urged by well-meaning family and friends to take the time to get started on your estate plan. The first step in estate planning, for most people, is to execute a Last Will and Testament, which you have yet to do. Part of the reason you don’t have a Will is because you don’t really see the need for one. Like many people, you are under the impression that in the absence of a large and/or valuable estate, there is no real need for a Will. This is a common misconception in estate planning. The truth, however, [Read more…]