To find out if a decedent left a will or trust you can do the following:

- Go through the decedent’s belongings and look for a will or trust.- Look for a safe deposit key or bank records showing there is a safe deposit box. People often keep wills or trusts in safe deposit boxes.

- Ask all the other family members and acquaintances of the decedent if they know anything about a will or a trust.

- Ask them if they know anyone else who would know.

- Ask them if they know who the decedent’s attorney, accountant, and tax preparers were. Then ask those people.

- Go through the decedent’s belongings and look for bills from an attorney or checks to an attorney, accountant, or tax preparer.

- Get copies of documents involving the decedent’s real estate. If you cannot find them among the decedent’s records, get them from the Recorder of Deeds. They will often show the attorney who prepared them.

- If you can identify a lawyer, accountant or tax preparer, ask them about a will or trust.

- Look for the decedent’s tax returns. They may reveal something, like a deduction for legal fees for a will or safe deposit box costs.

- Whoever has the will of an Illinois decedent is obligated to file it with the clerk of the probate court where the decedent lived.

- Wait 30 days and then check with the clerk.

Ask anyone who had contact with the decedent what they know about a will.

Read more about Finding out of there is a will or Trust.

If you need assistance with your estate planning affairs, contact Chicago Estate planning lawyer Don Thompson at 312-782-0844 or email him at donthompsonlaw@sbcglobal.net.

These are trusts which the person who created the trust cannot revoke or amend. A transfer of assets to such a trust results in a gift to the beneficiaries of the trust for tax purposes. The assets transferred are usually out of the transferor’s taxable estate.

If you need assistance setting up an irrevocable or other type of trust in Chicago, contact Chicago trust lawyer Don Thompson at 312-782-0844 or email him at donthompsonlaw@sbcglobal.net.

If the trust continues after the beneficiary reaches 21, the gift tax annual exclusions are no longer available.

If you’re interested in setting up a trust of any sort in Chicago, such as the 2530(c) trust for minors, call Don Thompson at 312-782-0844 now.

This is another form of marital trust. Q-tip refers to qualified terminal interest property – property that is not given anywhere near outright to the surviving spouse but still qualifies for the marital deduction. If this provision of the law is used the surviving spouse need only get all the income from the trust. He or she need not be given the right to say who gets the trust assets on his or her death, although he or she can be given that right. This is great if you don’t want your surviving spouse’s second spouse or their kids to get your property.

This type of trust also gives the executor of your estate additional flexibility for post mortem planning. Your executor is the person you name to establish the validity of your will, collect your assets, pay your bills and distribute the balance as you direct. He or she has the right to elect how much of the trust will be taxable and how much will be tax free due to the marital deduction.

NOTE: There currently is no Federal or state estate tax or generation skipping tax. The gift tax is still in effect. Whether or not the estate and generation skipping taxes will be reinstated this year is not known. Many people expect that they will be reinstated, but what will happen is not known. What the rates and exemptions will be if the taxes are reinstated is also not known. Click here for more on

Call Chicago estate attorney Don Thompson at 312-201-1436 for all of your Chicago probate and estate planning needs.

The other kind is an irrevocable life insurance trust. The insured gives up all rights over the policy and transfers it to a trust of which he or she is not trustee or a beneficiary. The object is usually to remove the proceeds from the taxable estate of the insured and sometimes the surviving spouse as well and to provide for trustee management of the proceeds. Special provisions of a technical nature called Crummey powers can be used to allow yearly gifts to the trust up to $5000 per trust beneficiary to be made free of gift tax to pay premiums on the policy. The gift tax is avoided on transfer of an existing policy into the trust by borrowing against the policy’s cash value of the policy. Frequently a new policy is purchased and transferred to the trust so there is no gift tax problem on creation of the trust.

NOTE: There currently is no Federal or state estate tax or generation skipping tax. The gift tax is still in effect. Whether or not the estate and generation skipping taxes will be reinstated this year is not known. Many people expect that they will be reinstated, but what will happen is not known. What the rates and exemptions will be if the taxes are reinstated is also not known.

To learn more contact Chicago estate planning lawyer Don Thompson.

If the children are given a right to withdraw the money contributed to the trust for a limited time after the contribution, then their interest in the contribution is a present interest and the contribution qualifies for the gift tax annual exclusion. The right to withdraw the contribution is called a Crummey power after a case by this name in which the principal was established.

The beneficiary who has power to withdraw the contribution or leave it in the trust is said to have a power of appointment. The beneficiary can appoint who gets the contribution – in effect either the beneficiary or the person who gets the trust assets after the beneficiary’s interest ends. Unfortunately exercise of a power of appointment in favor of someone else – or expiration of the right to exercise the power with the result that someone else then gets the property – constitutes a gift. When the trust income beneficiary decides not to withdraw the contribution and his or her right to withdraw expires the result is that the contribution stays in the trust as principal and ultimately passes to the remainderman. This is a gift to the remainderman. Since the remainder is not a present interest this gift does not qualify for the yearly exclusion.

Continue reading: Crummey Trust/Crummey Powers

By using this type of trust parents can pass double the tax free amount to their children. If the first to die merely left everything to the surviving spouse then only one tax free amount would pass to the children on the death of the surviving spouse. Everything else would be subject to tax.

Naturally this type of device is useful only for taxable estates. And it works only if the assets are split between both spouses so that the first to die has the tax free amount to pass to the children’s trust.

The surviving spouse can be the income beneficiary of the children’s trust.

The A Trust is often called a marital trust and the B Trust is often called a family trust.

When the surviving spouse’s rights to the A Trust are limited to income and the executor of the estate is given an option to elect how much of the trust will be used for the marital deduction, it is called a Q-Tip Trust.

Contact Chicago wills and trusts lawyer Don Thompson today for further information about setting up an A-B trust.

NOTE: There currently is no Federal or state estate tax or generation skipping tax. The gift tax is still in effect. Whether or not the estate and generation skipping taxes will be reinstated this year is not known. Many people expect that they will be reinstated, but what will happen is not known. What the rates and exemptions will be if the taxes are reinstated is also not known. More information here.

For further information about charitable trusts in Chicago contact IL trust attorney Don Thompson.

Professional trustees charge for their services and this means the trust must be large enough to pay the fees.

Trustees are subject to the supervision of the courts and their duties can be enforced by legal action.

To learn more about estate planning in Illinois or to decide whether to use a professional trustee of someone you know contact Chicago estate planing attorney Don Thompson.

These should not be confused with joint wills. When both spouses share one will it is called a joint will. Joint wills, for a variety of reasons, should not be used.

Contact Chicago Estate Planning Lawyer Don Thompson to learn more about joint trusts and joint wills.