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Taxation & Estate Planning

Death and Taxes Blog

Commentary on estate planning, estate administration, and real estate issues from a Chicago-area attorney.
By Joel A. Schoenmeyer

Post Frequency: 2/day

Last Entry: May 07, 2013 at 12:00:50

Know What to Ask Before Hiring an Estate Planner

Posted on April 23, 2009
I'm a regular reader of Lifehacker, even though about 80% of the posts there are way over my head (when I hear "linux," I think of a Peanuts fan with a speech impediment, not an open-source operating system or what have you). Anyway, a recent Lifehacker post (here) is entitled "Know What to Ask Before Hiring a Financial Planner...

Reopening (or just opening) a Probate Estate

Posted on April 23, 2009
The estate of Kathleen Savio, Drew Peterson's third wife, was re-opened last year. Estates are typically re-opened when new assets are found -- in this case, the new asset is a potential wrongful death judgment against Mr. Peterson. I've dealt with re-opened estates in other contexts, though...

Closing a Probate Estate, Part 2

Posted on April 16, 2009
So (picking up from Part 1) -- you've sent a final report and an accounting to the beneficiaries. Now what? Well, you also need to get signed receipts from them. For beneficiaries who receive a specific item of property or set amount of money in the decedent's Will, a very simple receipt will suffice...

Closing a Probate Estate, Part 1

Posted on April 14, 2009
I wanted to discuss, in a few parts, what happens when the administration of a probate estate is completed. How is a probate estate officially closed out? Note that this analysis only applies if the estate is in what's called "independent administration," which most Illinois estates are...

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Wall Street Journal Estate Tax Editorial

Posted on April 09, 2009
I?ve said it before, I?ll say it again: I?m opposed to the estate tax, and think we should get rid of it. But ? as I?ve also said before and will say again ? I don?t understand why opponents of the estate tax have to engage in bald-faced lies in order to make their point...

Representation, Part 2: Contingent Fee

Posted on March 20, 2009
I accept contingent fee cases in the probate context, in a couple of different situation: 1. Where a client wishes to contest the validity of a Will; or 2. Where a client has a potential claim against an estate. In these cases, my fee -- instead of being charged hourly at $225 per hour -- is 30% of whatever I am able to collect from the estate for my client...

Illinois Estate Tax Case

Posted on March 19, 2009
This is clever -- the Illinois Estate and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Act (35 ILCS 405/) requires the payment of tax equal to the "state tax credit." That's a defined term in Section 2(a) of the Act: "State tax credit" means: (a) For persons dying on or after January 1, 2003 and through December 31, 2005, an amount equal to the full credit calculable under Section 2011 or Section 2604 of the Internal Revenue Code as the credit would have been computed and allowed under the Internal Revenue Code as in effect on December 31, 2001...

Representation, Part 1: Beneficiaries

Posted on March 18, 2009
In most probate cases, I represent the personal representative (executor or administrator). However, I'm seeing a big increase in the number of beneficiaries who want to hire me to represent them in connection with a probate estate. Why would you, as a beneficiary, want an attorney? Just to make sure that your rights are protected, and that you understand the process...

Loans to Family Members, Part 2

Posted on March 17, 2009
Last week I mentioned the income tax problems associated with a loan to a family member. It is important to realize that market interest rates are determined by reference to what are known as "applicable federal rates" for short-term (3 years or less), mid-term (between 3 and 9 years) and long-term (more than 9 years) loans...

The Oracle of Oak Park?

Posted on March 12, 2009
I know predictions are a fool's game, but I can't help but toot my own horn about this October 2005 post: The Risky Business of Crazy Mortgages Cybele Weisser has a scary article entitled "Crazy Loans: Is This How the Boom Ends?" in this month's Money magazine -- it's available online here...

Loans to Family Members, Part 1

Posted on March 10, 2009
Want to make an estate planner cringe? Mention that you made a loan to a family member at a below-market interest rate (or, even better, a no interest loan). Why do estate planners hate this type of arrangement? The main reason is Internal Revenue Code Section 7872 (and the failure of most people to realize that these arrangements create income tax issues)...

The Estate Planning - Probate Connection

Posted on March 09, 2009
It's important for both the client and the estate planning attorney to think carefully about how bequests will work. Let me give an example: right now I'm dealing with a probate case involving a Will. The Will makes specific bequests to a number of individuals, many of them in foreign countries, in amounts ranging from $100 to $500 (most of the bequests are for $100)...

Creditors and Non-Probate Assets in Illinois

Posted on February 24, 2009
I'm going to try something a bit different here. I recently put together a rather lengthy article on creditors and non-probate assets in Illinois. I'm going to post a link to it here as a PDF -- I'd love to hear if anyone has comments about it.

E-Filing to Come to Cook County

Posted on February 19, 2009
I've previously spoken about ways in which computer filing could streamline the Cook County Probate Court, saving attorney time and client money (here and here). I thought this was just my crazy dream, but lo and behold, a friend of mine alerted me to the fact that Court Clerk Dorothy Brown will be introducing E-Filing starting in April 2009...

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Posted on February 18, 2009
I am what might be called an "old school" or "first generation" videogame player. I owned an Atari 2600 as a kid, and spent a lot of time at arcades and the like playing games like Pacman and Galaga. I still play a little, with my 7-year-old daughter...

More on Attorney Fees and Billing Arrangements

Posted on February 17, 2009
I wanted to follow up on my recent post regarding alternative billing arrangements. I think it really comes down to this: in the past 10+ years, when the economy has been good, attorney hourly rates have skyrocketed. Each year associates traditionally receive raises as they goes from being a 1st year to being a 2nd year, a 2nd year to a 3rd year, etc...

Tough Times and Probate

Posted on February 11, 2009
This is a Canadian article, but it applies the same here in the US -- "Tough times making even probate practice riskier." The main thing I've seen is more financial stress on the heirs. Most of them didn't expect a huge windfall, but probate has been turned from a net gain to a net loss (at least in the short term)...

Intestacy Reform

Posted on February 10, 2009
Evidently Massachusetts recently made some extensive changes to its Probate Code -- the story is here. I don't know much about the other provisions, but the provision that says "[i]n the case of no will, the spouse gets the entire estate if the children are all of the marriage" is a good one...

All of Me and Honestly Dearest, You're Dead

Posted on February 09, 2009
The Wall Street Journal has recently mentioned one movie and one book that relate to estate planning and probate. 1. All of Me. Mentioned by Joe Morgenstern in a sidebar in this column. Here's part of Mr. Morgenstern's summary: [Lily Tomlin] plays Edwina, a dying millionaire spinster who arranges to have her soul transplanted into the body of a beautiful young woman...

Alternative Billing Arrangements

Posted on February 06, 2009
This article -- on the topic of the possible death of billable hours -- is pretty interesting. I wrote about billing arrangements (and the problems with them) here. As I said there, I'm not sure that billable hours per se are the problem. Rather, the problem is attorneys who bill clients for ...

More domain names for sale

Posted on February 05, 2009
A while back, I sold a couple of domain names I wasn't using (www.probateblog.com and www.estateplanningblog.com). Now I have a couple more available, perfect for the Illinois estate planning or probate professional: www.illinoisestateattorney.com and www...

Same-Sex Marriage Probate Decision in New York

Posted on February 04, 2009
When I advise same-sex couples on their estate planning, one of the issues we have to discuss is how the couple is viewed by siblings and parents. This is important because, in the past, family members have sometimes been successful in overturning a gay or lesbian testator's Will in cases where the Will left everything to the testator's partner...

It's always good to run across

Posted on February 03, 2009
It's always good to run across people who write about estate planning/probate issues, and are good on the substantive side of things in addition to being good writers. Matt Wallace, an attorney in Port Huron, Michigan, is such a person. Here are a couple of recent articles from his column, Planning Matters: How to avoid problems with probate, property Children's accounts may need to be probated

Probate in DuPage County, Illinois

Posted on February 02, 2009
Most of my posts relate to Cook County probate, but today I'd like to spend some time talking about probate in DuPage County. Some notes: Forms for DuPage County are available here. One important note: for testate estates, Cook County requires you to prepare a "Copy of Will" form, signed by the attorney and petitioner, to which you must attach...

Roland Burris: Estate Planner

Posted on February 02, 2009
These are trying times for Illinois residents. They should be the best of times (with our own former Senator in the White House), but Governor Blagojevich changed all that. Now I have to field calls from out-of-state relatives, asking me what's going on with our political system...

Cook County's "Norris" Rule

Posted on January 30, 2009
For the most part, closing a probate estate is pretty easy. The executor or administrator signs a document called a final report, and this document -- along with receipts from each beneficiary -- is submitted to the court. That being said, one of the Cook County Rules of Court (this one -- 12...

Boot Camp for Executors and Trustees

Posted on January 29, 2009
I'll have more details about this later, but I will be presenting a day-long (six-hour) seminar entitled "Boot Camp for Executors and Trustees" on Friday, April 17 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (with a one-hour break for lunch, which is included in the seminar price...

Scott Boras and Ethics in Negotiation

Posted on January 28, 2009
As regular readers know, I'm a huge baseball fan (go White Sox!). I even enjoy reading about "behind the scenes" stuff, like player negotiations, roster construction, free agency, etc. (I sometimes think I enjoy the hot stove league more than I enjoy the regular one...

The Residential Real Property Disclosure Act and Fiduciaries

Posted on January 16, 2009
Illinois typically requires the seller of real estate to furnish a disclosure, pursuant to this statute, regarding the condition of the property being sold. That makes sense, doesn't it? However, when the property in question is part of a decedent's estate, disclosure is more difficult (if not impossible)...

If I Ran the Cook County Probate Court, Part 2

Posted on January 15, 2009
I blogged here about how I would simplify the court process if I ran the Cook County Probate Court. Sitting in court this morning -- for an HOUR -- made me think of one other idea: computer scheduling. The judges could use a Google Calendar-like application to allow attorneys to schedule routine court hearings online...

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