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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

Posted on May 22, 2008
Sometimes you file papers to open an estate, and then new information appears. Consider a recent case I had -- decedent left four adult children, but the executor (decedent's daughter) was unsure whether decedent had also adopted three other minor children (her wards) prior to her death...

Huck Finn and Holographic Wills

Posted on May 19, 2008
I'm rereading Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which is great fun. In Chapter 25, Huck and Jim's traveling companions, the scam artists known as the Duke and the Dauphin, impersonate the brothers (Harvey and William) of a recently deceased rich man named Peter Wilks...

EIN PDQ FAQ

Posted on May 18, 2008
I was hoping to have a new podcast up today, but technical difficulties -- my microphone isn't working -- have prevented that. I'll try to get the problem fixed, but thought I'd address the "taxes" part of my Death & Taxes mandate by discussing EINs...

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Intentional Interference with an Inheritance, and the Ellis Case

Posted on May 08, 2008
Besides an action to contest a Will, a frustrated beneficiary may attempt to proceed with a tort known as "intentional interference with an inheritance." In some cases, this may be the ONLY way in which the potential beneficiary can proceed. In the Nemeth case (425 N...

Wills with Testamentary Trusts

Posted on May 05, 2008
I usually talk about estate planning in terms of two different approaches: Simple: having a simple Will, where you give away all of your property outright vs. More involved: having what's known as a pourover Will and a separate living trust. You give your property away in your living trust -- you leave it to a trustee, who holds it for one or more beneficiaries But there's also a middle way, which involves having only a Will, but incorporating trusts into that Will...

Nabokov's Laura and the Disobedient Executor

Posted on April 28, 2008
I've talked before -- most recently, here -- about executors who don't obey the wishes of decedents, and refuse to burn their works. Vladimir Nabokov's case (which involves this scenario) has been in the news lately, in a two-part series in Slate entitled The Fate of Nabokov's Laura: Part 1 Part 2

Estate Planning 101 -- Health Directives

Posted on April 25, 2008
A discussion of Illinois health-related directives such as powers of attorney and living wills. MP3 File

Cook County Probate Procedure Changes

Posted on April 23, 2008
A couple of things involving probate in Cook County that have changed recently (or maybe I just became aware of): 1. Fee increase. It now costs $304 in fees to open a probate estate worth more than $15,000, up from $279. The entire fee schedule can be found here (as a PDF)...

John McCain: The Prenup President?

Posted on April 21, 2008
This short blog entry on Slate regarding John McCain's income taxes is interesting. Not for what it says about Senator McCain's income, but for the following: John McCain?s released two years of tax returns today to little fanfare. We learn that he earned $405,000 in 2007...

Podcast #3 - Living Trusts

Posted on April 19, 2008
This time the topic is living trusts. The music is #40 (In Yugoslav Style) from Mikrokosmos, by Bela Bartok. MP3 File

30 Rock, Dr. King, and The Estate Tax

Posted on April 18, 2008
Last night's episode of 30 Rock (still, I think, the funniest show on TV) featured TV executive Jack Donaghy (played by Alec Baldwin) trying to convince Tracy Jordan (played by Tracy Morgan) to become the celebrity voice of the Republican party. Jordan's resulting commercial, meant to appeal to what he first refers to as "blackmericans," is pretty funny: My fellow black Americans...

Will Contests and Philip Roth's The Ghost Writer

Posted on April 16, 2008
I recently finished reading Philip Roth's The Ghost Writer, which is the first book in his Zuckerman trilogy (or trilogy and epilogue, as I guess it's now known, since it contains four books and Roth evidently doesn't like the word "quartet"). It's a short but engaging work about a young novelist (Nathan Zuckerman) who pays a visit to a very well-respected older novelist (E...

The Oak Park Ban on "For Sale" Signs -- The Controversy Continues

Posted on April 12, 2008
I've complained loudly in the past about Oak Park's unconstitutional ban on "for sale" signs. The issue has arisen once again -- here are links to the present controversy: It's time to rethink For Sale signs, by Ed Messina (3/18/08) Rethink 'For Sale' signs? Think again, by Dan Lauber (3/25/08) Galewood integrated without engineering, by Ed Messina (4/1/08) No, it's not time to go back to For Sale Signs, by Kurt Hedlund (4/8/08) Galewood used OP techniques to integrate, by Kurt Hedlund (4/8/08) The most frightening thing to me about the above exchange is the editor's note at the end of Mr...

Podcast Status

Posted on April 12, 2008
A couple of things: 1. The podcasts don't take very long to record, but they take a while to write (no, for the most, I'm not improvising). I'll try to get the next one up this coming week, hopefully by Saturday at the latest. 2. You can now download the Death and Taxes podcast on iTunes...

Pleading Requirements in Will Contests, and Why Litigation Is So Expensive

Posted on April 08, 2008
Clients often ask me, "why is probate litigation so expensive?" The main reason is that the law tends to behave like an unruly beast. Some questions posed to me are easy to answer -- if you want to know the requirements for executing a valid Will in Illinois, I can give them to you...

Real Estate Transfer Taxes

Posted on April 03, 2008
Real estate transfer taxes vary greatly in the Chicagoland area. Here is a list (in PDF form). Note, however, that this list doesn't include any changes since July of 2007. For instance, it's missing the recent change (effective 4/1/08) to Chicago's transfer taxes...

Podcast #2

Posted on April 01, 2008
The topic this time is Wills. The music is Le Petit Rien (The Little Nothing), by Francois Couperin. MP3 File

Estate Planning and Boston's Freedom Trail

Posted on March 31, 2008
Last week my family visited Boston for a little spring break R&R (is it really spring break when the temp barely breaks 50? better than snow, I suppose). I'd never been to the city before, and we had a nice time visiting friends and seeing the sights along the Freedom Trail...

Some thoughts on, what is reasonable compensation?

Posted on March 28, 2008
One of the questions asked most often of me is this: "I am acting as executor (or administrator or trustee), and want to take compensation. How much compensation is appropriate?" For the most part, the law isn't helpful on this point. Most Wills and trusts talk about "reasonable compensation," language echoed in the Probate Act: Sec...

The Cronin House and Unique Real Estate

Posted on March 24, 2008
I've written before about unique real estate -- for instance, here and here. I spent Easter in my hometown (Marshall, Michigan), and found that one very unique piece of real estate is on the market for only the second time in about 100 years. It's called the Cronin House, and it's offered (here) for $1...

Powers of Attorney for College Students

Posted on March 20, 2008
Last week I was getting my teeth cleaned (no cavities -- yippee!). My dental hygienist has a college-age daughter, and one of her friends recently had a drinking "accident" (fell while drunk, and had to be hospitalized with a broken leg). Because this friend is 18 years old, his parents didn't find out about the hospitalization until their son told them (presumably he didn't want them to be surprised by the hospital bills)...

Duty to File ALL Wills?

Posted on March 18, 2008
Section 6-1(a) of the Illinois Probate Act requires that "[i]mmediately upon the death of the testator any person who has the testator's will in his possession shall file it with the clerk of the court of the proper county...." It's a felony (under section 6-1(b)) to "wilfully alter[] or destroy[] a will without the direction of the testator or wilfully secrete[] it for the period of 30 days after the death of the testator is known to him...

If I Ran the Cook County Probate Court

Posted on March 17, 2008
Cook County has a pretty major backup in the probate area -- four judges now handle all decedent's estates cases. That's a lot, considering that they handle new case as well as ones that are dragging on from prior years. As a result, the timeframe for opening an estate has expanded...

Podcast #1 Notes

Posted on March 12, 2008
Podcast #1 is up and running -- see below. Here's the plan with respect to future podcasts: #2: Wills #3: Living Trusts #4: Health Directives #5: The Estate Tax #6: Simple Gifting #7: Not-so-simple Gifting #8: Probate Basics #9: Trust Administration #10: Probate and Trust Litigation I'm new to this, so comments are much appreciated...

Podcast #1

Posted on March 12, 2008
MP3 File

Housing Price Statistics

Posted on March 10, 2008
Almost three years ago -- soon after I started writing this blog -- I posted about how real estate sales statistics tend to shed more heat than light. Here's that post. This still happens in a down market, like the one we have now. Each Sunday, in a feature called Price Pulse, The Chicago Tribune real estate section runs the numbers for a different area of Chicago...

Facebook and "My Own Last Wishes"

Posted on March 09, 2008
I've been spending a lot of time on Facebook lately, as my classmates and I reconnect and make plans for the (gulp) 20th reunion of the Marshall (Michigan) High School Class of 1988, this summer or fall. As you may know, Facebook allows you to add applications to your profile page -- for photos, music, something called SuperPoke (don't ask), etc...

Down to "The Wire"

Posted on March 09, 2008
I have praised "The Wire" before (here and here) -- I think it's the best thing I've ever seen on TV. Tonight is the series finale. It will probably be impossible to understand what's going on if you are new to the show, but there's always DVD. "The Wire" isn't a law show per se -- although the show does touch on legal institutions -- but its creator and some of its writers have taken a unique legal position (known as jury nullification) in this article in Time magazine: If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented...

Update #2: Britney Spears

Posted on March 06, 2008
This is more of a cross-update. I have blogged about Ms. Spears and her prenup on a number of occasions (most recently, here and here), and I blogged about Amy Winehouse and her out-of-control behavior here. Ms. Spears has been exhibiting similar behavior, and her family actually did step in -- her father was appointed as conservator of her estate, and his position has been extended to July 31 (per this article)...

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