Our team at O'Flaherty Law has written the following articles to help you understand how trusts should be used in your estate plan to:

• appoint loved ones to fiduciary positions; 
• arrange for the distribution of your assets according to your wishes after you pass; 
• avoid a costly and time-consuming probate case when you pass; 
• avoid costly guardianship proceedings if you become mentally incompetent;  and 
• relieve the emotional burden on your loved ones for end-of-life decisions.

‍

In this article, our Illinois trust attorneys explain how trusts can be used to avoid costly probate cases.

Probate is a court case that is generally necessary in Illinois whenever an individual passes owning any real estate outside of a trust or more than $100,000.00 of non-real estate assets outside of a trust. Probate cases last approximately a year, and tend to cost 5% to 10% of the value of the estate in attorney fees and court costs. While the probate case is ongoing, your loved ones will not have access to the assets that you wish them to inherit. Our Illinois trust attorneys can assist you in creating a trust and transferring your major assets into the trust, so that when you pass, your loved ones can administer your estate immediately and without the need to hire an attorney. 

‍

In this article, our Illinois trust attorneys explain how to effectively use trusts to avoid or minimize Illinois estate tax and federal estate tax.

First, we discuss how you can use AB Trusts to essentially double the amount of your Illinois estate tax exemption if you are married. We also show how to use irrevocable life insurance trusts to remove the death benefit of your life insurance policies from the value of your estate for estate tax purposes. Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, Grantor Retained Interest Trusts, and Grantor Retained Unitrusts are also worth considering, as they allow your assets to accumulate in value within the trusts without the accumulated value being part of your estate.