Special needs trusts are designed to financially provide for disabled loved ones without impacting the disabled person’s eligibility for governmental assistance programs. There are two types of special needs trusts and the type of trust that you create will determine a number of key factors related to the disabled person receiving the benefits of the trust.

Testamentary Special Needs Trust v. Stand-Alone Special Needs Trust

The first type of special needs trust is called a testamentary special needs trust. This type of trust is created by including certain language in the creator’s will or trust. A testamentary special needs trust does not go into effect until the creator of the will or trust dies. 

Alternatively, there is a stand-alone special needs trust. A stand-alone special needs trust (also called a free-standing special need trust) is effective as soon as it is created.

Kendall County Gun Trust Lawyers: Serving Plainfield, Yorkville, Oswego, Plano and Surrounding Areas

What is a Gun Trust?

Naming Guardians for Your Children in Your Last Will and Testament

Any experienced estate planning attorney will emphasize the importance of naming guardians for any current or future minor children when drafting your will. It is important to make sure the person (or people) you want to take care of your children in the event that you pass while they are still minors (under the age of 18) so that your wishes are followed. If no legal guardian is specified in your will, this huge decision is left up to strangers (the court).

It is custom that if one parent passes and there is a surviving parent, the surviving parent has the legal right to custody of the children. If possible, it is ideal that both parents are in agreeance of custody of the children should one or both pass while the children our minors. However, it is sometimes the case that both parents cannot agree. In any event, your wishes should be clearly stated in your will, so the court is clear on your wishes.   

What is Legal Guardianship?

You may be wondering what an LLC is. Well, an LLC is short for Limited Liability Company.  

LLC is the common business structure for private companies in the US that protects its’ owners from personal responsibilities from debts or liabilities.  

Oswego and Yorkville Living Trust Lawyers

There are many different goals possible to be accomplished with an estate plan, depending on your situation. A good estate plan will ensure that your loved ones are in the best position possible from both a financial and personal perspective if you pass away or become mentally incompetent. When you start to plan your estate, you need to consider your assets, beneficiaries and goals. You should then consult an estate planning attorney who can advise you on ways to save money and taxes and ensure that your will or trust legally provides for your beneficiaries in the manner you direct. 

Call Peace of Mind Asset Protection, LLC at 630-882-2467, we are here to serve you and listen to your needs. If you have recently had an important life event—marriage, birth of a child or grandchild, divorce, death of a beneficiary, an inheritance, and/or purchase of a new asset—you will want to update your estate plan accordingly.

Common goals of a good estate plan include:

Kendall County Probate Lawyers

A person appointed to the role of Executor during a probate proceeding has the responsibility of dividing and distributing a person’s assets when that person passes away. There is a lot of legal jargon involved and it may be an intimidating task. It is important to understand what goes into the role of Executor and what the process looks like. This makes the process much easier and smoother for the Executor. 

Cost

The Executor does not pay for the cost of the probate process. It is paid by the assets of the estate. Costs typically come in the form of attorney fees, court filing fees, and any appraisal needed.

What if you don't have children yet, is estate planning still necessary for you and your spouse? Frankly, death or a terminal sickness can come knocking anytime even before you both decide to have children. So, you ask yourself, "is estate planning ideal for childless and infertile couples?" The answer is yes. 

Estate planning is not only for couples with children. In fact, many estate planning documents do not contain children as beneficiaries alone. Other like pets, extended family members, and even distant relatives as beneficiaries are also included. 

Owning rental property can be a great benefit to a landlord, as well as a way for an individual to generate additional income. But there are substantial risks that an individual assumes when taking on the role of a landlord. The risk of a lawsuit against a landlord is high, as there can be claims brought based a lease dispute or an injury that occurred on the property. If a tenant brings a claim against a landlord, judgment creditors will be able to access the landlord’s personal assets to pay off the judgment. In order to protect personal assets, it is crucial to include rental property in an estate plan as a way to structure a workable asset protection plan.

The best way for landlords to eliminate the risk of creditors reaching personal assets is to take the rental property out of the landlord’s individual name and place it into an entity. There are two ways that are most effective at doing so, establishing an LLC, or putting the property into a land trust.

LLC Attorneys Serving Naperville, Yorkville, Plainfield, Oswego, and Kendall County

Pros and Cons of an LLC

An LLC, or a Limited Liability Company, is an entity that can be used to protect an individual’s personal assets from creditors. A landlord should always consider placing any rental property into an LLC because the LLC is then the owner of the property, which takes the property out of the landlord’s individual name. Since the landlord is then shielded from liability, a creditor is (for the most part) not able to go through the LLC to reach the landlord specifically. While an LLC can be a good estate planning tool for landlords, there are some precautions that the landlord must consider ensuring the utmost protection of their assets.

 Implementing a Trust into your estate has many advantages. Along with being a less costly alternative than going through Probate and being more time-efficient, A Trust has the added benefit of being private. However, when a Trust has been implemented, you need to provide documentation of the Trust when opening new accounts or purchasing real estate. That is where a Certificate of Trust comes in handy.

Privacy of a Trust

While a Will must go through Probate and will become a public document, a Trust Agreement has the benefit of remaining private, meaning that only those that have seen the Trust know the contents of it. Mainly, the people who are aware of the contents of the Trust are the Trustees and Successor Trustees. 

Role of Trustees

The Trustee has the power to manage the Trust. Typically, while the Trustor (the person who created the trust) is alive, they will serve as Trustee. Doing so gives the Trustee full ability to add assets to the trust, make payments on behalf of the trust, and remove items from the trust as necessary to benefit the Trustor during their lifetime.

What Happened in Dobbs v. Jackson?

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court released its decision in Dobbs. This decision overturned the long-standing precedent set by Roe v. Wade that women have a right to have an abortion under the Constitution. The justification used by the majority of the Justices in the Dobbs ruling could have devastating impacts on other previously held constitutional rights, including the rights of same-sex couples. 

Before the Dobbs ruling, the Supreme Court in Roe held that women did have a right to seek an abortion (up to a certain point in the pregnancy) because it was protected by the constitutional right to privacy. This meant that an individual state could not ban women from seeking an abortion nor could a state place any undue obstacles in the way of a woman seeking an abortion. However, by a 5 to 4 vote in Dobbs, the majority held that the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly give women the right to seek an abortion and thus, there is none. Consequently, this decision gave individual states complete power to regulate any aspect of abortion not preempted by federal law. Thus, the Dobbs decision paved a path for the Court to allow states to regulate other constitutional rights that were previously held as constitutional under the right to privacy.  

A Limited Partnership company and LLC have similarities in operation, but they are quite different from each other. They are the two most common business entities in the US. 

For example, when it comes to taxation, LPs and LLCs have the freedom to incur pass-through taxation treatment. This means that each member (LLC) or partner (LP) is taxed on the personal profit gained from the company. LPs and LLCs are both exempt from federal income tax.

What is a Retirement Plan Trust?

A retirement trust is a method used in estate planning that provides not only the basic benefits of a trust, but also the tax benefits of an IRA (individual retirement account). 

A retirement trust works by establishing the trust and naming the trust as the beneficiary of your retirement accounts upon your death. Your retirement trust will not include your IRA until you pass away. At this point, the person you have selected as trustee of the trust will distribute the funds to your named beneficiaries according to the terms you included in your trust. 

What is an Adult Guardianship?

If a judge determines that an adult (over 18 years of age) cannot make basic life decisions or manage their own property or money, they have the power to place them under an adult guardianship. Under an adult guardianship, another person (that meets the legal requirements to be a guardian) is assigned to take care of the adult and act in their best interests. Common causes of adult guardianships include Alzheimer’s disease (or other mental decline due to aging), certain mental illnesses, developmental disabilities that the adult has had since birth or childhood, and certain physical disabilities. 

In Illinois there are two different types of adult guardianships. A person designated as the guardian can be assigned just one or both, depending on the circumstances. First, there is a guardianship of the person. A guardianship of the person allows the assigned guardian to make decisions regarding all personal care, for example, making medical decisions for treatment plans. The second type of guardianship is a guardianship of the estate. This guardianship gives the guardian control over the adult’s finances and property.

Yorkville and Kendall County Estate Planning Law Firm

An estate planning is a legal concentration helping people bypass or minimize family conflicts involved in the incapacity and death process. Estate planning is the process of setting up one’s affairs in a manner that minimizes and avoids potential family conflicts. Proper estate planning is an investment and wise decision to anticipate future family conflicts.

The use of an estate planning attorney is a tool to assist your family avoid the inherit conflicts involved in the death and incapacity process. The causes of family conflicts range from the following:

• Inheriting Real Estate especially the “Family” House

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Owning rental property can be a great benefit to a landlord, as well as a way for an individual to generate additional income. But there are substantial risks that an individual assumes when taking on the role of a landlord. The risk of a lawsuit against a landlord is high, as there can be claims brought based a lease dispute or an injury that occurred on the property. If a tenant brings a claim against a landlord, judgment creditors will be able to access the landlord’s personal assets to pay off the judgment. In order to protect personal assets, it is crucial to include rental property in an estate plan as a way to structure a workable asset protection plan.

The best way for landlords to eliminate the risk of creditors reaching personal assets is to take the rental property out of the landlord’s individual name and place it into an entity. There are two ways that are most effective at doing so, establishing an LLC or putting the property into a land trust.

Pros and Cons of an LLC

An LLC, or a Limited Liability Company, is an entity that can be used to protect an individual’s personal assets from creditors. A landlord should always consider placing any rental property into an LLC because the LLC is then the owner of the property, which takes the property out of the landlord’s individual name. Since the landlord is then shielded from liability, a creditor is (for the most part) not able to go through the LLC to reach the landlord specifically. While an LLC can be a good estate planning tool for landlords, there are some precautions that the landlord must consider to ensure the utmost protection of their assets.

Transferring Real Estate After Death: Naperville and Kendall County Real Estate Transfer Attorneys

Transferring real estate after death is a complicated mixture of real estate, estate planning, and probate law. Covid-19 has changed the nature of business and emphasized the importance of estate planning and real estate. Baby boomers are the generation, which were born after World War II. Birth rates skyrocketed, which was referred to as “the baby boom.”

Baby boomers and their adult children are preparing and passing their real estate and wealth to their children and grandchildren. This period is resulting in substantial amounts of wealth transferred from one generation to the next. 

Baby boomers and their families are ill-prepared to transfer their assets after death. There are eight types of property ownership in Illinois:

It is a certain wish to you that you'll love to leave a peaceful family behind when you're deceased. You'll love to lay down a good legacy for your family and kids to follow. You will also want to prevent any future family conflicts in the future when you're gone into the great beyond. 

These thoughts of yours can be possible if you'll take out the time to do proper and thorough estate planning. 

With an estate plan thoughtfully and thoroughly drafted out while you're alive, healthy, and capable, you'll have fewer worries when you become unable and no worries at all by the time the inevitable (death) happens to you.

When thinking about an estate plan, most people are under the false assumption that a Trust is only meant for the extremely wealthy. This is in fact not the case. Many people can benefit from having a Trust in their estate plan. 

What is a Trust?

A Trust is a legal instrument that holds title to certain property and is subject to certain obligations, rights, and restrictions that are put in place by the Trustor. The Trustor is the person or persons who create the Trust. A living Trust means that, for the duration of the Trustor’s life, the Trust is for the benefit of the Trustor, and will only pass to the beneficiaries upon the Trustor’s death. This also means that the initial Trustee (the person who is in charge of managing the Trust) will also be the Trustor.

What is the difference between a Revocable and an Irrevocable Trust?

A Trust can be made revocable or irrevocable at the decision of the Trustor. If the Trustor creates a Revocable Living Trust, then they are able to amend or revoke the Trust at any time during their life, even after the Trust is signed. A Revocable Living Trust will be made irrevocable upon the death of the Trustor. An Irrevocable Trust is a Trust that cannot be amended nor once it is signed by the Trustor. The Trustor does not even have the power to amend or revoke the document once it is signed into being. 

Estate planning is crucial for everyone, whether you are single or have a family. But incorporating a strong and effective estate plan is especially important for real estate investors and landlords, as these titles can open the individual up to liability if not properly protected. Another name for this form of estate planning is referred to as “asset protection”.

Asset protection is vital for real estate investors and landlords for many reasons. First, occurrences such as recession, death, taxes, and lawsuits serve to threaten the economic surety of individuals and families that own investment assets, such as rental properties and vacation homes. Many real estate investors and landlords improperly structure their business because they either place the properties in their individual name, or they put multiple properties under one LLC instead of distributing them to avoid liability.

The attorneys at Peace of Mind Asset Protection, LLC specialize in assisting real estate investors and landlords with coordinating a proper business structure that encompasses asset protection, while also creating a cohesive estate plan that furthers the individual’s particular estate planning goals. By focusing on business structure, asset protection, and estate planning all in one, Peace of Mind Asset Protection, LLC can effectively protect and prepare real estate investors and landlords for the uncertainties that lie ahead.

What is Estate Planning?

Every person, regardless of wealth, has an estate. Your estate is made up of everything you have to your name, whether it be real property, a car, a home, savings accounts, life insurance policies, or personal property. Estate planning includes the process of determining how to distribute the possessions in your estate after you die and solidifying your wishes in the event that you become incapacitated. 

Why is Estate Planning Important?

In order to make sure that what matters most to you is distributed according to your wishes, it is important to name your beneficiaries now. This will make distribution much easier in the future and eliminate potential arguments between loved ones. In addition to naming beneficiaries, estate planning should consist of instructions on how to provide for family members, explicit written protection for family members with disabilities, instructions for how to transfer your business and retirement, long term disability arrangements, guidelines for tax costs and fees, and provide instructions for how to manage your financial affairs when you are no longer able to. 

Unfortunately, many people are guilty of not preparing for the inevitable for a variety of different reasons. Whether it is because they believe that they don’t have the time or money, life gets in the way, or they simply just don’t understand the process or importance of planning.