LEGACY PLANNING THROUGH TRUSTS 

As we age and accumulate assets, our estates become more complex and may require the guiding hand of an attorney to organize those assets utilizing one or more trust agreements.

If you are married to your childhood sweetheart and have healthy, intelligent and emotionally balanced children, your needs may be minimal.  Consider yourself blessed!

At the other extreme, if you and your partner have had multiple marriages and have produced (or adopted) children from some or all of these unions, a series of proper trusts will go a long way to ensure that your estate is divided upon your passing among your heirs exactly as you had intended with a minimum amount of internal strife.

 CO-HABITATION

In these times, more and more couples of all ilk are electing to co-habitate without the benefit of marriage.  The reasons for choosing and living this lifestyle are legion. 

Perhaps you and your partner are two professionals who choose not to marry in order to limit the liability to which your combined estate is exposed by keeping your assets separate.  If one of you is sued due to a professional liability issue, there will still be the assets and income of the other upon which you can depend for a living.

It may be that you have both been married before and your children are grown...and you really don't see the need at this point in your lives for the legal complications of a formal marriage agreement.  We see this happening not only with "Baby Boomer" couples who might have lived this lifestyle prior to first being married, but also in the elderly who live together for a variety of rationales, both emotional and financial.

Or it simply may be the case that because of your sexual orientation, the laws in the state in which you reside do not recognize same-sex marriages and will not allow you to enjoy a legal marital union.

Whatever the reason, you will presumably wish to ensure that your partner is materially provided for after your passing and has the legal rights of a married partner in certain situations.   

 For example, if you should happened to be hospitalized, your domestic partner has no visitation rights in many circumstances precisely because he/she is not the legal marital partner.   An appropriate trust might open that door.

LEGAL REFERRALS

While we do not have attorneys on staff to service our clientele, we have compiled a list of technically competent legal counsel in and around the Chicagoland area.

If you need legal assistance, please do not hesitate to request that we recommend  the names of a few attorneys who are capable of satifying your needs.

And of course, we are more than delighted to work in concert with your existing counsel in fleshing out your plan.