What are common questions about Wills and Living Trusts?
What is a Will?
Simply put, a will is a written agreement that distributes your property upon your death and you also may name a guardian for your children in a Will. It is not intended to take place during your life, but it is a post-death legal document.
What is a Living Trust?
A Living Trust is a legal document that creates a seperate entity outside of your personal name and distributes your property upon a death or incapacity. Unlike a Will, a Living Trust does not go through the pain of probate court if structured the correct way. Structured the correct way means that your title to your property is titled in your Revocable Living Trust's name. A Living Trust is also intended to be a document that is designed to address an incapacity and avoid guardianship court. Guardianship court is a court where an adult disabled person lacks the sufficient understanding to make healthcare and financial decisions for themselves.
What is a Power of Attorney for Property? A Power of Attorney for Property is a legal document where you appoint somebody to make healthcare decisions for you in case you cannot make those decisions yourself.
What is a Power of Attorney for Healthcare? A Power of Attorney for Healthcare is a legal document where you appoint somebody to make healthcare decisions for yourself if you cannot make those decisions yourself.
How Can I Distribute My Estate Where My In-laws Cannot Touch My Children's Inheritance?
Unlike a Will, a beneficiary receiving an inheritance can have a spendthrift provision in a Living Trust, which protects the beneficiary from a divorcing spouse or creditors. Hence, with a Will, if your children go through a divorce proceeding, the inheritance is considered for divorce purposes. This is not true with a Revocable Living Trust.
What Happens If I own Real Estate In More Than One State? A probate proceeding must be established in every state where you own real estate. Generally, after both parent(s) have deceased, probate is necessary to determine who is the rightful heir. Probate is a court that determines whether there was a valid will or any other document that legally distributes a decedent's property upon their death (i.e. beneficiary designated life insurance policy).
How Long Does Probate Take and How Expensive Is It? Generally, probate takes a minimum of six (6) months to two (2) years in the State of Illinois. Probate has a costs of around $3,000 to $10,000 in legal fees, surety bond fees, and other court costs. There are several factors that increase the costs such as whether there is a will contest, the complexity and assets involved, and whether there are any minor children receiving an inheritance.
Robertson Law Group, LLc
Offices in Naperville, Chicago Ridge, and downtown Chicago
630-364-2318 or 312-498-6080
RobertsonLawGroup@gmail.com
www.RobertsonLawGroup.com
Key words: Naperville, Lisle, Downers Grove, Aurora, Montgomery, Bolingbrook, Joliet, Romeoville, and Plainfield.
Showing posts with label Probate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Probate. Show all posts
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
What Happens When One Spouse Dies With or Without a Will?
Today, I received a phone call from a widow because she received a payment of $800 as a refund. What is the problem? The refund check is in her husband's name, who is deceased. Her question was what do I do? If your loved one has under $100,000 in personal assets such as in a bank account, stocks, or bonds, than your estate can fill out a Small Estate Affidavit. This Small Estate Affidavit enables your beneficiaries to access their inheritance without going through probate court. In many cases, this is not a viable option because the person owned real estate.
Probating Real Estate or Not?
When the first spouse dies, living spouses often times do not think about changing their real estate deeds to reflect that one spouse is deceased. In my prospect's example, her simple question about a $800 refund was really a question of whether we must establish a probate estate or will a simple small estate affidavit be sufficient? In her case, her and her husband's name were titled in both of their names as "Joint Tenants". In Illinois, Joint Tenants is a way of owning real estate with your spouse where as if one spouse deceases, the other spouse's one-half interest immediately transfers to the surviving spouse. Thus, in our example, my prospect must not undergo probate court because as a matter of law, she owns her home in her personal name only due to Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship. Therefore, automatically upon her husband's death, his interest was transferred to her.
What happens when Surviving Spouse dies?
The children, brothers, or sisters must probate the house and hire an attorney and undergo a legal process called probate court. Probate court is a court that hears inheritance issues such as who is the rightful owner of the parent's home when a will was not made. In Illinois, when one does not complete a will, the property must go through probate court and Illinois law assumes that the surviving spouse (if any) gets one-half of the property and the children will split the other one-half of property. If there is no surviving spouse like our example above, than all the children will split the profits equally.
How Much Does Probate Costs?
The answer depends on the complexity of the family relationships and whether the family gets along with one another. A typical probate estate may costs from $3,000 to $6,000 or more depending on the assets and nature of the probate estate case. The fees are generally around $600 to $1,000. Obviously, if any issue such as heirship is contested, a probate estate may costs in excess of $15,000 to $100,000s in attorney's fees and costs.
This Article is written by Sean L. Robertson, an attorney that concentrates in wills, trusts, probate, guardianship, corporate and asset protection law. Simply put, Sean is an estates and trusts and corporate attorney.
Sean L. Robertson, Esq.
Robertson Law Group, LLC
Offices in Naperville, Chicago Ridge, and Naperville
630-364-2318 or 312-498-6080
RobertsonLawGroup@gmail.com
Key words: Chicago Ridge, Chicago, Southside of Chicago, Joliet, Will County, Oak Lawn, Bridgeview, South Loop (Chicago), Homer Glen, New Lenox, Orland Park, Wills, Trusts, Probate, Power of Attorney (Property & Healthcare), Naperville, Lisle, Downers Grove, Woodridge, Aurora, Montgomery, Sugar Grove, and Plainfield.
Probating Real Estate or Not?
When the first spouse dies, living spouses often times do not think about changing their real estate deeds to reflect that one spouse is deceased. In my prospect's example, her simple question about a $800 refund was really a question of whether we must establish a probate estate or will a simple small estate affidavit be sufficient? In her case, her and her husband's name were titled in both of their names as "Joint Tenants". In Illinois, Joint Tenants is a way of owning real estate with your spouse where as if one spouse deceases, the other spouse's one-half interest immediately transfers to the surviving spouse. Thus, in our example, my prospect must not undergo probate court because as a matter of law, she owns her home in her personal name only due to Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship. Therefore, automatically upon her husband's death, his interest was transferred to her.
What happens when Surviving Spouse dies?
The children, brothers, or sisters must probate the house and hire an attorney and undergo a legal process called probate court. Probate court is a court that hears inheritance issues such as who is the rightful owner of the parent's home when a will was not made. In Illinois, when one does not complete a will, the property must go through probate court and Illinois law assumes that the surviving spouse (if any) gets one-half of the property and the children will split the other one-half of property. If there is no surviving spouse like our example above, than all the children will split the profits equally.
How Much Does Probate Costs?
The answer depends on the complexity of the family relationships and whether the family gets along with one another. A typical probate estate may costs from $3,000 to $6,000 or more depending on the assets and nature of the probate estate case. The fees are generally around $600 to $1,000. Obviously, if any issue such as heirship is contested, a probate estate may costs in excess of $15,000 to $100,000s in attorney's fees and costs.
This Article is written by Sean L. Robertson, an attorney that concentrates in wills, trusts, probate, guardianship, corporate and asset protection law. Simply put, Sean is an estates and trusts and corporate attorney.
Sean L. Robertson, Esq.
Robertson Law Group, LLC
Offices in Naperville, Chicago Ridge, and Naperville
630-364-2318 or 312-498-6080
RobertsonLawGroup@gmail.com
Key words: Chicago Ridge, Chicago, Southside of Chicago, Joliet, Will County, Oak Lawn, Bridgeview, South Loop (Chicago), Homer Glen, New Lenox, Orland Park, Wills, Trusts, Probate, Power of Attorney (Property & Healthcare), Naperville, Lisle, Downers Grove, Woodridge, Aurora, Montgomery, Sugar Grove, and Plainfield.
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