Blog Articles
Info About Wills, Trusts, and More…
Hello and welcome! I am Eileen Kerlin Walsh, and I will bring you valuable and topical information on Estate Planning. Estate Planning is the legal process of protecting your assets and your loved ones in the event of disability or death.
Why do you need an estate plan? If you don’t have a valid Will or Trust, Illinois law determines how your assets pass, to whom and when. Having no estate plan can lead to unnecessary taxes, creditors, probate court and other undesirable results. This is the most costly way to pass assets to your loved ones. You can do much better and my column will show you how!
How to Help Your Loved Ones (and Your Life Savings) Avoid Probate
Today, many people use a revocable living trust instead of a will, joint ownership, or beneficiary designation as the foundation of their estate plan. When properly prepared, a trust avoids the costly public, and often time-consuming, court processes of...
Assisting Your Clients: Planning for Conflict-Prone Families
The following provides reasons why people may contest a will or trust and what your clients can do now to attempt to avoid conflict after they have passed away. You care deeply about your clients. As an extra step, you can dig deeper and learn about your clients’...
Assisting Your Clients: Three Types of Trusts to Plan for Minor Children and Grandchildren
There are certain reasons that establishing an estate plan can be of the utmost importance. Having minor children or grandchildren is one of those reasons. Most parents do not have time to keep up with their own tasks, let alone consider what would happen if they died...
Assisting Your Clients: Do Not Let Your Clients Leave Their Loved Ones with a Sticky Mess
Ice cream is a delicate balance of fat globules, ice crystals, air bubbles, and sugar suspended in a watery base. Once the temperature climbs above freezing, the ice crystals start to melt. Air bubbles expand. Fat molecules soften. Without its frozen framework, your...
Assisting Your Clients: Adding Toppings to Your Clients’ Estate Plans
Most clients start with a “vanilla” estate plan to cover the essentials. They can then add “toppings” such as inheritance timing and conditions or charitable components that turn a basic plan into one that is made to order for them. However, before opening up the...
Assisting Your Client: National Ice Cream Month: Sweeten Relationships with Estate Planning
Different Flavors of Transferring Money and Property Outside of Probate Americans love ice cream. Estate planning? Not so much. The average American eats roughly 19 pounds of ice cream per year,[1] and around 90 percent of households regularly keep ice cream in the...
Property Sisters: Planning for Real Estate in a Foreign Country
The allure of a foreign land—perhaps where the weather is milder, the pace of life slower, and the cost of living lower—is a dream for many Americans who want to escape our country’s fast-paced, high-cost living. That dream can become a reality, and a tangible...
Is There an Income Tax Time Bomb Lurking In Your Estate Plan?
As the federal estate tax exemption has ballooned from $5 million in 2011 to $13.99 million today, the need for estate tax planning has drastically decreased. However, with a top marginal income tax rate of 37 percent, the focus of estate planning has shifted to a new...
Estate Planning Awareness – The Lesson Plan for Your Estate
In honor of Estate Planning Awareness Week, we are taking this opportunity to make sure you have the foundational estate planning documents to ensure your own successful future. Below are some basic questions and answers about estate planning and how estate planning,...
Does Treating Your Children Fairly Mean Unequal Inheritances
When thinking through their estate plan and how they want their assets(money and property) managed after they pass away, most parents wish to treat their children equally, often out of a sense of fairness. However, sometimes being fair or doing what is right by your...