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LakeLaw – An interstate attorney firm specializing in Bankruptcy Law with locations in Waukegan, La Crosse, Kenosha, Chicago and Skokie.

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Home : Practice Areas : Probate

Probate • Estate Planning • Trusts • Asset Protection

Estate Plans for Everyone

At Lakelaw we believe that everyone should have an estate plan. We will prepare a simple will for an individual, typically for $500 and for a married couple, typically for $750. As a public service, we include health care powers of attorney ("living wills") and general powers of attorney for our clients at no additional charge. For people with more extensive needs, we can prepare living trusts, family limited partnerships and assist with other estate planning tools designed to meet your needs and wishes as well as minimize taxes and legal expense.  Since we practice both in Illinois and Wisconsin, we are particularly well suited to assisting people with property in both Illinois and Wisconsin.

We also assist executors and administrators in handling the details of their loved one's estate in times of need. We know that this is a difficult time and we do everything we can to make this an easier experience.

Lakelaw’s Top 10 Reasons to Have an Estate Plan

10.     If you don’t have an estate plan, the State has a plan for you – and it’s not necessarily the plan you would choose for yourself.

 9.      If you have a will, you can select who will be the executor of your estate.  Otherwise, the Probate Court will do it for you.

8.      If you have a will, you can excuse bond for the executor.  Otherwise, your estate will have to pay for an expensive bond to secure faithful performance of the administrator’s duties, cutting into what otherwise would be available for your loved ones.

7.      Your will can designate a guardian for your minor children and even express your religious and other preferences for raising your children.  Otherwise, it’s up the Probate Court.  Your kids might get lucky, but then again, they may get a relative you didn’t have in mind.

6.      Your will can set up a trust for your minor children or grandchildren.  The Probate Court would never know what you might have had in mind and can’t do that.

5.      Your will can designate a portion of your estate to be given to the charity of your choice.  The Probate Court would never know your intentions and can’t do that.

4.      Your estate can be organized through a living trust and avoid most of probate altogether.

3.      The trust in your will can protect your children or other designated beneficiaries from claims of their creditors.

2.      Proper estate planning can save estate taxes especially in large estates. No estate planning almost always increases costs of administration and can result in substantial tax liability.

1.      It’s your life after all!!

We invite you to complete our questionnaire to discuss, without obligation, your estate plan, with us at Lakelaw

Our attorneys have also been honored to be selected as a fiduciary (executor or trustee) in many of his clients' estate plans. David Leibowitz’ has experience as a bankruptcy trustee giving him excellent experience to fulfill this important and vital fiduciary obligation. In addition, David has been a lecturer at Illinois Institute for Continuing Education seminars on Elder Law and Asset Protection (www.iicle.com).

Case Studies

  • Lakelaw has been representing a young woman whose husband’s untimely death has left her in charge of a substantial business. In addition to handling all aspects of probate administration, we have assisted her in real estate sales and refinancing, business evaluation, business brokerage as well as all tax aspects of the probate estate.

  • Lakelaw was upon to stop a foreclosure against a home owned by a decedent where the mortgage lender failed to give notice to the nominated executor, even though the will was on file. Now we have assisted her in selling the house, locating the decedent’s assets, and liquidating and preserving an estate where none was anticipated.

  • Lakelaw represented three adult acknowledged but not legitimate children of a decedent in a contested probate proceeding against the legitimate children of the decedent. We overcame questions of paternity using all modern scientific methods, including DNA testing, to establish the rights of our clients as heirs.

  • Lakelaw represented two adult children of a decedent in a contested probate proceeding against the decedent’s second husband.  The decedent’s husband claimed all rights to the decedent estate until his death whereas the decedent’s trust, drawn by the husband’s attorney, provided for a vested share of the trust to be paid immediately to the children.  We forced the Estate to sell the property and the daughters now have recovered their rightful inheritance

David Leibowitz has also been honored to be selected as a fiduciary (executor or trustee) in many of his clients' estate plans. His experience as a bankruptcy trustee has given him excellent experience to fulfill this important and vital fiduciary obligation.

Sharanya Gururajan has developed knowledge and experience in probate administration, particularly in contested probate matters, both in Lake County and Cook County, Illinois.

Carrie Zuniga devotes substantially all of her attention to estate planning in Illinois after having received her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Illinois School of Law and having taken a substantial concentration of course work in estate planning and estate taxation matters.

Useful Links

 

Probate / Estate Administration / Wills / Trusts / Power of Attorney / Health Care Power of Attorney / Durable Power of Attorney / Guardian / Disabled Person / Disabled Adult / Guardianship Trustee / Fiduciary / Elder Law / Heirship Disputes / Contested probate / Will Contests / Undue influence / Testamentary capacity / Duress / Fraud / Probate claims / Estate disputes