Under Illinois law, an individual holding a power of attorney is a fiduciary as a matter of law. The person designated as a power of attorney agent owes a fiduciary duty to the principal—the person making the designation.
One of the most fundamental choices you can make as you’re thinking about how to pass your assets on to heirs, is whether you hold assets in a revocable trust or more simply give them via a will. Both approaches have advantages, although trusts can provide significantly more benefits.
The proliferation of digital footprints in our online communities raise demand for consumer tools and options for dealing with digital assets upon incapacity and death.
Lawmakers in Washington are making it easier for Americans struggling with the fallout from the coronavirus to draw on the trillions of dollars in their 401(k)s and other retirement accounts.
When is the last time you updated your will? Could your beneficiaries have changed? If you have a trust, did you actually fund it? Is your plan ready for the new SECURE Act? Here are five mistakes you don’t want to make.
One of the key functions of the family law system is to ensure that children are looked after appropriately. This is the basis for the doctrine of legal guardianship.
Adding an adult child to your house deed, or giving them the home outright, might seem like a smart thing to do. It usually isn’t.
Estate planning attorneys are getting mobbed with questions. Here is some timely advice from three attorneys on what families and business owners should be doing to prepare, in case the unimaginable happens.
If you’ve heard of trust funds but don’t know what they are or how they work, you’re not alone. Many people know just one key fact about trust funds: they’re set up by the ultra-wealthy as a way to protect passing on significant sums of money to family, friends or entities (charities, for example) after they pass away.
Besides seeking to draft or alter wills and trusts, many clients were changing trustees, executors and the agents they assigned to oversee their finances and health care, if they were unable to make decisions themselves.
