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Woolard v. Woolard, 547 F.3d 755 (7th Cir., 2008). A trustee for a minor under a trust authorizing distribution to the beneficiary, a legally appointed guardian or a custodian under a Uniform Gifts to Minors Act breaches his or her fiduciary duty to the beneficiary by making distributions to the beneficiary’s father without getting any evidence of how the distributions were applied for the benefit of the beneficiary. The provision in the Trust and Trustees Act allowing distribution to an adult relative does not apply when the trust instrument contradicts it. (The father of the beneficiary created the trust).

Estate of Hudson, 385 Ill.App.3d 1112, 324 Ill.Dec. 904, 896 N.E.2d 1123 (5th Dist., 2008). A claim against a decedent’s estate for child support is not the same as a claim for a child’s award under the Probate Act.  The court has discretion to offset the child’s award against the award for child support, but that is not mandatory.

Polly v. Estate of Polly, 385 Ill.App.3d 300, 324 Ill. Dec. 564, 896 N.E.2d 350 (1st Dist., 2008). Claims by a surviving spouse under a pre-marital agreement against the deceased spouse’s estate must be filed within the period for filing claims under the Probate Act which has a 2 year limit, rather than the statute of limitations period applicable to contracts.

Kandi v. U.S., 295 Fed.Appx. 873, 102 A.F,.T.R.2d Par. 2008-5342 (9th Cir., 2008). The sole owner of a limited liability company is personally liable for the company’s unpaid payroll taxes.

Estate of Light, 385 Ill.App.3d 196, 324 Ill.Dec. 43, 895 N.E.2d 43 (3rd Dist., 2008). A bequest of all personal and chattel property contained in a home which was given to the same person does not include securities, the certificates for which were found in the home. Both terms include only tangibles, at least when described as being in a specific location. When real estate subject to an encumbrance is devised, the devisee takes subject to the encumbrance. Real Estate taxes are such an encumbrance and the devisee is not entitled to reimbursement from the estate.

There is allowed as a deduction from the taxable estate any gift to a qualified group organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literary or educational purposes. A gift to a trustee for the benefit of any such organization also generates the deduction. A gift of a remainder interest also generates the deduction. A gift of a remainder interest also qualifies. For instance if you will assets to a trustee on your death to be held for the benefit of your spouse while he or she is alive and then to be paid to a charity. The value of that interest at the time of your death is deductible. Actuarial tables provided by IRS are used to make the valuation.

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. Read about Estate tax status.

For more information, contact Chicago estate planning lawyer Don Thompson.

Estate of Hale, 383 Ill.App.3d 559, 322 Ill.Dec. 325, 890 N.E.2d 1244, (1st Dist., 2008). The statutory custodial claim under Section 18.1 of the Probate Act for care of the decedent may be subject to a statute of limitation for filing, but that statute does not apply to the period of care the claim will cover since the claim comes into existence only upon death.

Landheer v. Landheer, 383 Ill.App.3d 317, 322 Ill.Dec. 684, 891 N.E.2d 975 (3rd Dist., 2008). The Consumer Fraud Act states that the drafting of a living trust by a non-lawyer constitutes the unlawfal practice of law. Therefore when a non-lawyer family member prepares a trust amendment for a grantor the amendment is void, unless the family member acted soleley as a scrivner.

Bergland v. Dept. of Public Health, 382 Ill.App.3d 519, 323 Ill.Dec. 84, 892 N.E.2d 1076 (3rd Dist., 2008). Under the Nursing Home Care Act a patient has a right to  see his or her medical records. A health care surrogate appoointed pursuant to the Surrogate Act also has this right, but not after the resident has been discharged.

The big news for estate planners in the U.S. tax legislation passed last year isn’t the $5 million estate-tax exemption — though that number is far higher than expected — it’s the $5 million lifetime gift-tax exclusion. That is so much higher than it has been historically, and provides so many opportunities for estate planning for the ultra-rich, that planners for high-net-worth clients are salivating.

“I don’t think anybody in Congress realized this,” said Michael Gooen, a tax and estate attorney at Lowenstein Sandler. The point is that not only will the $5 million estate-tax exemption ($10 million for a couple) remove the vast majority of formerly taxable estates from the estate tax, but rather that the higher gift-tax exclusion means that people with far larger estates than that — think $50 million, $100 million, and up — have the ability to shift assets out of their estates tax-free while they’re alive. “You are going to see a flurry of estate planning,” Gooen said.

To understand what a big deal these new rules are, go back to the history of the estate and gift tax. The estate-tax exemption had been steadily rising since the Bush tax cuts went into effect, from $675,000 in 2001 to $3.5 million in 2009; after the oddity of no estate tax in 2010, the tax was due to return with an exemption of $1 million in 2011. The gift-tax exclusion, meanwhile, went from $675,000 in 2001 to $1 million in 2002, and had stayed at that level ever since. In both cases, the maximum tax rates levied on amounts above those figures had dropped from 55 percent to 45 percent in 2009. The gift tax fell further, to 35 percent, in 2010. For 2011 and 2012, the estate tax and gift tax have the same exclusions and rates: $5 million and 35 percent. That means wealthy people, who might face the estate tax in 20 or 30 years, or more, can get vast assets — and, more importantly, the appreciation on those assets — out of their estates while they are alive.

“We’ve started calling it the Christmas miracle. It is unprecedented, and the opportunities that we have for people are spectacular,” said Andrew Katzenstein, a partner in the personal planning department at Proskauer in Los Angeles. “It takes everybody closer to estate-tax repeal without using the word ‘repeal’.”
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