Schaumburg Wills and Trusts Attorney

Estate Planning Lawyers Providing Legal Help in Schaumburg

Estate planning is key to ensuring that your family will be taken care of after you die. However, a comprehensive estate plan can also provide benefits for you and your family members while you are alive. Wills and trusts are two tools that an experienced lawyer can help you incorporate into your estate plan.

At A. Traub & Associates, we appreciate how personal and delicate the discussion surrounding a person's death can be. Consequently, when working to devise an estate plan, we will make every effort to ensure that all of your questions are answered and that you fully understand the options available to you. With our assistance, you can develop a plan that will provide you and your loved ones with solace and ensure that matters will be handled correctly both during your life and after you pass away.

Issues to Address in Your Will

In your last will and testament, you will set down your final wishes detailing how your estate will be handled after you die. In your will, you can:

• Provide instructions for how the assets you own will be allocated to different heirs, which may include family members, other loved ones, or charitable organizations. You can leave specific instructions, such as by stating that certain family members will receive certain items, or you may allocate percentages of different assets between certain heirs.
• State that you wish for a certain person or people to assume guardianship of your children if you die before they reach adulthood.
• Leave directions about your funeral and the disposition of your remains, including through burial or cremation.
• Name a person as the executor of your estate who will be responsible for overseeing the probate process, managing your final affairs, and carrying out your instructions for distributing your assets to your heirs.

Using Trusts in Your Estate Plan

Along with your will, you may choose to place your assets in different types of trusts. This can provide some protection for your assets, and it can ensure that they will be passed down to your beneficiaries correctly. When creating a trust, you will place certain assets under the control of a person or entity known as a trustee, and you will give specific instructions regarding when and how those assets should be distributed among your beneficiaries. You have multiple options when creating a trust, and depending on your assets and your needs, you may choose to use:

• Living trusts - With these types of agreements, you may serve as the trustee of your trust, and you may also be a beneficiary, which will ensure that you will still be able to manage your assets and use them to address your needs. Since a living trust is usually revocable, you can make changes when necessary. Following your death or incapacitation, a successor trustee will follow your instructions for distributing your remaining assets to different beneficiaries.
• Irrevocable trusts - To provide protection for your assets, you may wish to create a trust in which the terms of the agreement cannot be modified.
• Special needs trusts - With this type of trust, you can provide assistance to a family member or another loved one with disabilities or other special needs, and by ensuring that the trust's assets will be used for specific purposes, you can make sure your loved one will continue to be eligible for different types of government benefits.
• Charitable trusts - To support causes you believe in, you can use a trust to donate your assets to charity, while also meeting your own needs or the needs of your loved ones.

Not only are trusts highly flexible, but they also enable you to pass on your assets to whomever you choose while maintaining confidentiality and avoiding probate.

Contact a Schaumburg Wills and Trusts Lawyer

It is important to make decisions about how matters will be handled after you die. At A. Traub & Associates, we can provide invaluable legal assistance to help you create a will, and we can also advise you on the benefits that different types of trusts may provide for you and your loved ones. We are here to answer your questions about the estate planning process and put your concerns to rest as you prepare for the future. To set up a private consultation, reach out to us at 630-426-0196 today.