What Is Estate Planning?

You can save your loved ones a lot of money and frustration by devising a plan for the management of your health care and property in the event you become severely disabled or pass away. An Illinois lawyer who does estate planning can help you with:

• Advance health care directives that give instructions on how you want your health care managed if you become incapacitated and unable to speak for yourself
• Powers of attorney that appoint someone to manage your property and sign legal papers for you if you become severely incapacitated
• Wills and probate that transfer your property to selected beneficiaries upon your death
• Trusts that provide for the care of minors or disabled persons, minimize taxes or protect against creditors
• Strategies to avoid probate that transfer property at death - insurance, gifts, joint ownership of property, bank accounts
• Medicaid eligibility planning

Advance Directive for Health Care

An Advance Directive for Health Care contains written instructions that tell how you want your health care to be managed if you become so ill you can't speak for yourself. Illinois law permits three types of advance directives:

• Health Care Power of Attorney: You can authorize someone to make health care decisions for you if you become so sick you are unable to make these decisions yourself
• Living Will: You can indicate whether you want life prolonging procedures, like artificial respirators, to be withheld if you develop a terminal condition and are near death. Even if you have a living will, food, water, and pain and comfort medication are provided
• Mental Health Treatment Preference Declaration: You can indicate whether you want to receive electroconvulsive treatment (ECT) or psychotropic medicine or be admitted to a mental health care facility for up to 17 days if you develop a mental illness that prevents you from making these decisions. You may also authorize someone to make mental health care decisions for you if you become unable to make them 

Powers of Attorney

In Illinois, you can sign a durable power of attorney to appoint someone to handle your assets if you become incapacitated. At a minimum, a power of attorney should include the power to:

• Manage and transfer all assets
• Deal with the IRS
• Make gifts on your behalf
• Create and amend any trusts you set up

You don't need to transfer any assets at the time you sign a power of attorney, but it's a good idea to keep the person you've chosen informed about your ongoing financial matters.

Making a Will

In Illinois, you can make a valid will if you are at least 18 years old and of sound mind and memory. The will must be in writing and signed in front of two witnesses who aren't beneficiaries of the will.

In the will you can

• Distribute your property
• Select a guardian for your minor children
• Name an executor to manage the probate of your will and the distribution of your property after your death

You can change your will by making a new will that replaces or revokes the old one or by making an addition to the will, called a codicil. Changes such as a marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of a child, new property ownership or moving to another state should cause you to review your will and consider whether it should be changed to fit your new situation.

An Illinois lawyer who does estate planning can explain the consequences of some of the most basic choices you must make, such as whether property you want to leave to your minor children should be put into a trust at your death. It makes sense to consult with an Illinois estate planning lawyer and have him or her draft your will so you avoid costly mistakes and achieve your intended results.

Dying without a Will

If you die without a will (known as dying intestate) in Illinois, your assets will be divided among members of your immediate family. If you have a spouse and at least one child, one-half of your estate will be given to your spouse and one-half to your children (to be shared equally among them). If you have a spouse but no children, your entire estate will go to your spouse.
If you have no spouse or children, your estate will go equally to your parents and siblings. If you have no spouse, siblings or parents, your estate will pass to any descendants of your grandparents, such as aunts, uncles, cousins and other next-of-kin.

Related Resources on Lawyers.com^sm

- Contact an Estate Planning attorney in your area for specific advice, and read about Selecting a Good Estate Planning Lawyer
- Need a form? Access hundreds of Personal Legal Forms, including an Living Will, Power of Attorney and Last Will & Testament
- Read Trust Basics, Gloria Allred Wills & Estate Planning Tips and other Estate Planning articles and information
- Legal Dictionary
- Visit the Legal Forums for discussions on Estates, Wills & Probate topics