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An Illinois land trust is not a real trust. In a real trust a trustee takes title to assets and exercises all the rights of an owner over the assets. The trustee is responsible for managing and maintaining the assets. In a land trust this is not the case.

The land trustee takes and holds title to land and does nothing else. The beneficiary or beneficiaries of the trust exercise all the other aspects of ownership. The land trust is created by deeding land to the trustee. The deed is usually called a deed in trust. The former owner and the trustee enter into an agreement usually called a land trust agreement. The trustee is usually a bank with trust powers and the bank’s standard forms are used. The trustee charges a fee to set up the trust and also a yearly fee.

This is a written agreement entered before a marriage that usually deals with what happens to the parties’ assets and income in the event of divorce or death. For instance, it can specify what a surviving spouse gets on the death of the other spouse. It can increase or decrease inheritance rights.

To be enforceable each party should have separate legal counsel, each party should make full disclosure of all income, assets and other material facts, and no duress should be involved. This is also called a pre-nuptial agreement.

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