Pre-Nups and Divorce Estate Planning-Naperville

This morning, I spoke on Pre-Nups and Divorce Estate Planning. These were the critical points:
First, a pre-nup is important to protect one's assets in case of a divorce. Typically, upon a divorce, the spouse with more assets loses at least fifty (50) percent of those assets. With a pre-nup, you can protect your assets prior to marriage from the possibility of divorce. A key term is non-marital property and marital property. Non-marital property are assets owned prior to marriage and marital assets are assets earned during the marriage. In Illinois, both husband and wife may make their own definition of how to define their assets acquired during their marriage. It is important that you do not commingle your non-marital assets and marital assets with one another. Non-marital assets remain non-marital assets because you keep them seperate and divided from marital assets.

With an revocable living trust, a spendthrift provision enables parents to give their inheritance upon a death to their adult children and protect their adult children from divorce proceedings and alimony. This is important because a will does not contain a spendthrift provision. A spendthrift provision is a provision in a revocable living trust or otherwise known as "living trust" that protects the beneficiary(ies) from creditors such as divorcing spouses and alimony.

Sub-trusts are important for revocable living trust because you can require your adult children to maintain these trusts to keep their inheritance seperate from their marital assets. The topic of estate planning is crucial because seniors and middle class families should avoid family disputes and determine who is the best beneficiaries for their specific wills and trusts' needs.

Sean Robertson is an estate planning attorney concentrating in wills and trusts, advanced estate planning, and asset protection. Sean Robertson can be reached at (630) 364-2318 or (312) 498-6080. The Robertson Law Group, LLC is based in Naperville, Illinois and has a satellite office in Chicago, Illinois.