During the creation of your estate plan, you will likely be required to make numerous decisions. Some of those decisions may not be easy to make and some may require you to be brutally honest with yourself. Such is the case when one of your beneficiaries falls into the “spendthrift” category. Once you have admitted that a loved one has a problem handling money, you must then decide how to handle that revelation within your estate plan. A Waukegan living trust attorney at Hedeker Law, Ltd. explains how a spendthrift trust may provide a solution that does not put your [Read more…]

While a basic Last Will and Testament can accomplish the distribution of your entire estate after your death, you will likely choose to incorporate more sophisticated estate planning tools into your estate plan as your estate grows over the years. For example, at some point, you may choose to establish a Family Wealth Trust to use as your primary method of distributing your estate. One mistake you do not want to make, however, is eliminating a Will completely from your overall estate plan. Instead, you should continue to include a Pour-Over Will in your comprehensive estate plan even if your [Read more…]

The idea of sitting down and creating an estate plan can be rather intimidating if you know next to nothing about estate planning. It should come as no real surprise then that over half of all Americans have yet to create an estate plan despite recognizing the importance of having one in place. In an effort to remove some of the mystery out of the estate planning process, the Lincolnshire estate planning lawyers at Hedeker Law Ltd. have provided answers to five of the most commonly asked estate planning questions. If you have specific questions or concerns about your own [Read more…]

If you recently lost a family member, or someone else close to you, you are undoubtedly going through a difficult time full of strong emotions. If the decedent named you as the Executor of his/her estate, you may be wondering how you can possibly focus on the practical and legal aspects of probate when you are still grieving the loss of your loved one, particularly if this is the first-time you have served as an Executor. It certainly will not be easy; however, with the advice and guidance of your loved ones, along with an experienced probate attorney, you can [Read more…]

Estate planning, when done right, involves so much more than simply executing a Last Will and Testament that directs the disposition of your estate assets when you are gone. A well thought out estate plan can include a variety of additional components, such as incapacity planning, tax and probate avoidance, and Medicaid planning, just to name a few. One of the most common estate planning tools used to accomplish these additional goals is a trust. If you have never established a trust before, you may not know what all is involved in creating a trust agreement. Of course, it is [Read more…]