OK, this will be my last post on Dunn v. Patterson (for a while, at least). Previous discussions: and .I spoke to someone with knowledge of the case, and learned the following:1. Lawrence Patterson was NOT named as a successor

The journalist side of me decided that I needed to do a little more digging regarding the Dunn v. Patterson case I discussed . I'm still trying to find out whether Patterson (the attorney) was named as a fiduciary in

I can't remember a recent judicial opinion I've disagreed with more than the Illinois 3rd District's opinion in . The facts of the case are fairly simple:Charles and Charlotte Dunn had Lawrence Patterson, an attorney, prepare estate planning documents for

Let's say that you've followed tips 1-4, and the claimant still won't go away. What choices do you have? There are two, really:1. Settle; or2. Go to trial.Tip #5 is to try and settle the claim.When real life people have

4. As I said previously, the key to dealing with claims is to go on the offensive. That means following up on the claims in court.Many times a claimant either won't have an attorney, or will have an attorney who

3. Last time I talked about how you can minimize the claims period by giving notice. If things break correctly, maybe the creditor won't even file the claim.But sometimes a creditor does file the claim -- informally, by sending it

2. Tips 2-4 are similar in that they all require that you (the personal representative) do a full-court press to deal with the claims. This is somewhat counter-intuitive -- I think we're all familiar with the idea of a defendant

1. The first thing you have to ask yourself is, "should we even open a probate estate right now?" If a decedent's estate appears insolvent (that is, the value of the potential claims exceeds the value of the decedent's property),

This post starts a series regarding reducing (or minimizing) claims in the probate estate context. A couple of notes before I begin:1. The claims I'm talking about here are your "typical" claims in probate, for a decedent's debts -- things

People often ask me things like, "Can't I do my Will on my own, using a computer program? Isn't it just a form?"The answer to the second part of that is easy -- not, it's not just a form. As

This is the third and final post in a series. Links: and .)As I said at the end of my post in part 2, we have a problem when the federal exemption amount and the Illinois exemption amount are different.

Ordinarily I hate using the phrase "death taxes," but I'll make an exception here because:1. "State estate taxes" is a horrible phrase to utter; and2. "State estate taxes" really isn't accurate, since some states have an inheritance tax (in place

Over the past 10 or 20 years, Illinois has worked to make it easier for ex-spouses to collect unpaid child support. Two ways in which this is done:1. Section 12-108 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, which eliminates the

Let me add a little bit of a wrinkle to the discussion in my last post, by introducing the concept of the state estate tax. This is extremely relevant to the new Illinois QTIP statute.Yes, most states (including Illinois) have

I'd like to spend a few posts talking about QTIPs. No, I'm not talking about the cotton swabs you aren't supposed to stick in your ear but do. Nor am I talking about the rapper from A Tribe Called Quest

The Economist's Charlemagne blog has a really interesting article this week about the European Commission's guidelines for inheritance involving assets in more than one EU country. The link is .As the article indicates, this is really a dispute between Britain

I previously wrote about at Avvo.com.Recently I had a question from an attorney who watched at . He was completing the forms to open a Cook County probate estate, and was perplexed when it asked for the Will number, written

Earlier this year, I decided to try and start a side business. The business related to my law practice, and the goal was to solve a problem: so-called "orphan" Wills. Some attorneys retain their clients' original Wills and other estate

A couple of things have happened recently in the Michael Jackson case, both of which favor his mother, Katherine ():1. Katherine (individually and as guardian of the minor children) was given a monthly allowance of more than $86,000 (yes --

prepared by Illinois Right to Life, was provided to me recently. They consider it a "life-affirming version of the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care," and indicate that it is a response to "the current medical and legal climate