Practice Areas
Estate Planning, Trusts and Estates
Our attorneys have been practicing estate planning in West Suburban Chicago, in Chicago itself, and for clients all over greater Chicagoland – and nationally – for more than 30 years. We combine over 60 years of experience in this area. Both attorneys are nationally recognized experts in this field having been elected to the American College of Trust and Estates Council (“the gold standard for estate planning attorneys” – Wall Street Journal).
We find out what the client’s wishes are – and then offer solutions and implementation of those wishes which will also minimize taxes and provide administrative simplicity. Minimize your worry and risk – let us help you design the right plan for your unique situation.
Our basic tools are the revocable Declaration of Trust, and the companion “core documents” that is a Pour-over Will, Powers of Attorney for Property and Health Care, the Living Will and the adult Guardian Designation.
Our estate planning services extend, however, to income, gift and estate tax planning, and may include a number of advanced planning strategies intended to minimize values for tax purposes, redirect income tax liability, and shelter assets from creditors. We design and help you to implement all necessary documents and structures to maximize tax efficiency and minimize the risk of disputes.
We quote fixed prices which estimate the costs up-front for various types of planning documents, and use technology to reduce the time it takes to produce and deliver documents. You can have finished drafts in 5 to 10 working days delivered to you (to clients and their financial advisors) instantly via secure email transmission. We will include a computer-generated color flow chart to assist you in more easily understanding complex plans which may have a life spanning 3 or more generations.
Estate Plan Funding
Planning does not end with the execution of documents. Post-execution Funding is vital to the proper working of the Plan. Too often, the work of re-titling assets into the name of newly created trusts, is left incomplete, or not attended to at all.
We bring closure we bring to this part of the planning process. Using technology to assist us and keep our clients informed, any paralegal in the firm (and any attorney) is able to access a “real time” record of what is happening on a client’s file. Financial planners or other professionals working with us in the planning arena will enjoy this same immediate update capabilities, and will never be delayed while someone “... looks for the file to see what the status is.”
Ask us for our Funding Fee Guide – you will know what you are getting into at the beginning of the process. Often, we can guide you in doing the transfers and retitling yourself for even less than our quoted charges.
Trust and Estate Administration
Everybody dies.
When a family member passes away, do you want to wait weeks to get the necessary court documentation to handle their assets? Or, based on up-to-date estate planning documents – would you like to be in control within a matter of days?
Advising the surviving family members of their job as trustee, and of their duties and responsibilities in the on-going administration of trusts and estates is an important part of the firm’s practice. Our attorneys handle virtually all aspects of estate and trust administration – and have years of experience representing both fiduciaries and beneficiaries
Plan documents and their execution have often been compared to blueprints. It is only after the death of the client that the actual construction of the structure the plan documents represent can begin.
We offer complete legal services subsequent to the death of a client, including the preparation of all death tax returns, probate administration, and advising clients with respect to their rights as surviving spouse, trust beneficiary or as a fiduciary of an estate or trust.
Each attorney brings over 30 years of experience in planning and administration to bear in any estate, so that beyond these “basic” estate services, we are able to integrate and implement many post-mortem planning opportunities for the client. Increasingly, we are asked for a second opinion about the most efficient and cost-effective way to implement a plan drawn up by another attorney.
Our ideas may result in reduction of estate taxes, suggesting and implementing redirection of income tax liabilities, introducing flexible options in an instrument that has otherwise foreclosed options, planning for beneficiaries with creditor issues, and the like. Many of these additional planning options can cure a less-than-optimal plan. Many more are appropriate because of changes in circumstances which could not have been anticipated when documents were first executed.
We look at estate and trust administration, then, not as an end, but as a new beginning of opportunities for the client and the client’s family.
Business Representation and Formation
Our business practice – restricted as it is to privately owned entities – is closely related to the work we do in the estate planning arena.
We frequently counsel families with respect to the ownership and disposition of closely held businesses, creation and operation of family limited partnerships, limited liability companies, buy/sell agreements, general contractual matters, loan and security agreements, mergers, acquisitions and sales, and the creation and operation of charitable trusts and foundations. We provide a coordinated approach to an estate plan that combines a sensitivity to the needs of the business entrepreneur, the need to plan for succession, the desire to minimize taxes, and the ability to follow through to see that all these goals are accomplished.
We provide business documents and guidance in the same streamlined and responsive fashion as our work on estate planning and administration. We are usually able to quote flat-fees for our work.
Tune-Ups
Review of Existing Estate Plan Documents
Have your circumstances changed since you signed your Will or set up your Trust? Are your documents still up to date? Do they reflect the latest thinking in the area? Have you done all you can to minimize your tax exposures, limit the risk of family disputes, and protect your family assets?
Let us review your current documents and make recommendations. Flat fee available.
Supervision and Review of Business Management, Annual Meetings, Etc. Closely-Held Corporations, LLCs and Family Limited Partnerships.
If you have a closely-held business, if you set up an LLC or FLP to achieve discounts, you were advised – or should have been advised – that the business entity will be respected only if YOU have respected it, held meetings, treated the business as a business. Have you dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s? We can put you on a quarterly plan to make sure appropriate recordkeeping, appropriate business meetings with agendas and action plans, and all the expected documents to support your tax and business goals are in place.
Flat fee service is available.
Additional Unique Services
Mediation of Family Issues and Disputes
All families are dysfunctional – they are merely unique in their dysfunction. Let us meet to help head-off and resolve disputes short of the courtroom. Formal certification as mediators for filed litigation is pending, however, wouldn’t it help matters to talk to someone up front before you determine litigation is really necessary?
Second Opinions
Because of the depth of experience our attorneys have in this area, they can help you see the forest for the trees when it comes to deciding how to handle family assets and family issues. You would not have surgery without a second opinion, why spend money if there is a simpler way to handle an issue.
Our second opinion work extends to review of estate tax returns and gift tax returns – if this is not an area you are familiar with, why not have experienced attorneys admitted to Tax Court review the returns before they are filed?
Representation of Agents Acting Under Powers of Attorney and Custodial Care Agents
Are you the child with the time and patience to deal with your aging parents’ needs? Are you helping them with their checkbook and investing? Are you dealing with a surviving parent who needs increasing levels of care? Is it time to take away the car keys? Let us help you to help your parents while making sure that the proper “paper trail” is kept to protect you from later charges of overreaching.