Lake Forest Illinois Trusts and Estates Law Blog

Thinking ahead is a valuable tool regarding wealth preservation. The Illinois estate planning process can help transfer wealth to heirs or beneficiaries in as tax efficient a manner as possible. The Internal Revenue Code is complex and often difficult to understand, and it is subject to ongoing revisions as well. This is why it pays to consult with someone who is well-versed in such issues before determining a best course of action regarding an estate plan.

Passing one's assets to a future generation is a personal process that is unique. There is often no set solution to a particular problem. An estate owner must execute as solid a plan as possible at a given time, then stay on top of it to periodically review the plan and make changes or updates as needed.

Building a plan to transfer your assets to those you love takes time and attention, especially if you anticipate family conflicts around the process. Unfortunately, transferring property within a family can lead to major disputes, draining away resources while the parties argue. If you have concerns about maintaining peace in your family after you pass away, now is the time to look at some tools you may use to transfer your property and avoid probate.

If you pass away and still possess your property legally, it will probably pass through probate. Probate is the process the courts use to distribute your property after you pass away, but there are ways to avoid it, at least partially. Probate may take more than a year to complete, which may cause significant tensions among beneficiaries. By distributing your property in other ways, your beneficiaries may not have to wait to receive their portion and there is less room for dispute.

In Illinois and everywhere else, financial analysts predict that more than $60 trillion of wealth will be transferred posthumously within the next 25 years. Many millennials will be among those who inherit some of this wealth. This is reason enough for those in this age group to learn as much as they can about estate planning, and to avoid hesitating in executing their own plans, which appears to be common among them.

Why? There are numerous possible answers to the question. For one, many millennials say they do not want to worry about such things, at least until they have families of their own. Others say they are simply too young and have not acquired "enough" assets to consider an estate plan a high priority. The problem with this mindset is that it seems to assume longevity in life.

Estate plans are meant to protect you and your assets while setting up instructions for who is going to get what after you pass away. Before you get things set up, you must consider your goals and the options available to make them happen.

As you're working through it all, ensure that you haven't made mistakes that could be damaging to you or your beneficiaries. Even though some of these might seem minor, they can be very costly.