Pet Trust Act

Trusts for pets are now enforceable in Illinois. Before recent legislation providing for this such trusts were problematic in that the beneficiary (the pet) could not sue to enforce the trust and no one else had a right to after the grantor's death.  Visit Chicago Wills, Estates &Trusts for more information.

Uniform Transfers to Minors Act

Minors do not have legal capacity to contract or deal with assets. They have no capacity to sue or be sued. For this reason minors do not usually hold title to property in their own name. Instead title to a minor's assets is usually held by a guardian or property is given to a trustee to hold for the benefit of the minor. Guardianships and trusts are expensive and for that reason, among others, are not suitable for smaller amounts of money or other property. For this reason Illinois and most other states have statutes similar to the Uniform Transfer To Minors Act.

In Illinois the Act allows a transfer to be made to a custodian for the benefit of the minor. The Act specifies the consequences of the transfer and the rights and duties of the parties. There are no documentation requirements beyond the form of the transfer itself. There are particular requirements for different kinds of property, but generally the document of transfer must state that the transfer is being made to a named custodian to hold for a named minor and the document must state the transfer is being made under the Illinois Uniform Transfers to Minors Act.

The transfer can be made to any adult or a trust company except in certain cases such as a transfer from a trust or estate where the adult must be a member of the minor's family. The transferor can be the custodian.

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About Chicago Estate Planning Lawyer Don Thompson

Chicago Estate Planning attorney Donald M. Thompson is licensed to practice law by the Supreme Court of Illinois, U. S. District Court in Chicago, U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, and the U.S. Tax Court. He is a member of the Federal Trial Bar. He is a 1966 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School where he was in the top quarter of his class and received the Mandel Legal Aid Award. He was assistant professor of law at I.I.T.-Chicago-Kent College of Law from 1966 to 1970 teaching tax and property subjects.

He is a member of the Chicago, Illinois State, American and 7th Federal Circuit bar associations. He serves on the Chicago Bar Association's tax, trust probate, securities law and corporation law committees and is past chairman of the corporation law and legal education committees.

He is a member of the Chicago Bar Association's estate planning, probate, corporation and tax referral panels. He is an Arbitrator for the National Association of Securities Dealers and the Circuit Court of Cook County.