Recent Articles

What is a Pot Trust?

Joel A. Schoenmeyer
September 24, 2011 14:21

You might think a pot trust would be a trust designed to hold your maui wowie and/or Bob Marley memorabilia. But in fact, this type of trust is designed to promote fairness in families with a big age gap between children. In many cases, a husband and wife will divide their property equally...

My Proposed Pension Amendment to the Illinois Constitution

Joel A. Schoenmeyer
September 22, 2011 15:36

Another day, another Illinois pension scandal. This one comes to us courtesy of the Chicago Tribune (click the link for the full story). Evidently former labor leader Dennis Gannon was re-hired by the Chicago Streets and Sanitation Department for one day, and then placed on an indefinite leave of...

On The Mend, Part 3: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Joel A. Schoenmeyer
September 20, 2011 21:17

I'm currently recovering from unexpected surgery - I spent the Labor Day weekend (and a few days after) in the hospital having my gall bladder removed. I'm trying to use this as an opportunity to rest and relax, but I'm always drawn to entertainments that feature inheritance, Wills, trusts, and the...

Closing the Only-Recently-Insolvent Estate

Joel A. Schoenmeyer
September 14, 2011 23:08

If you know a probate estate is insolvent (i.e. that the estate's debts exceed its assets), you typically won't (or at least shouldn't) open the estate in the first place. You have no incentive for doing so, since you as beneficiary will receive nothing. But sometimes you open a probate estate...

On The Mend, Part 2: Ready Player One

Joel A. Schoenmeyer
September 14, 2011 20:12

I'm currently recovering from unexpected surgery - I spent the Labor Day weekend (and a few days after) in the hospital having my gall bladder removed. I'm trying to use this as an opportunity to rest and relax, but I'm always drawn to entertainments that feature inheritance, Wills, trusts, and the...

On The Mend, Part 1: Downton Abbey

Joel A. Schoenmeyer
September 13, 2011 14:05

I'm currently recovering from unexpected surgery - I spent the Labor Day weekend (and a few days after) in the hospital having my gall bladder removed. I'm trying to use this as an opportunity to rest and relax, but I'm always drawn to entertainments that feature inheritance, Wills, trusts, and the...

Advancements 101: Memorializing the Advancement

Joel A. Schoenmeyer
September 01, 2011 14:18

In my last post I talked about the different ways you can treat an early (lifetime) gift to a child. Assuming you decide to treat the gift as an advancement, the next question is: how do you memorialize this fact? I think the best thing to do is to have a written agreement. In it, you make...

Advancements 101: Handling Unequal Lifetime Gifts to Children

Joel A. Schoenmeyer
August 30, 2011 21:17

I don't recommend it, but sometimes parents feel compelled to make gifts to only some of their children. This usually isn't because they love one child more than any other; rather, it's because one child "needs" the gift more than their other children. Maybe the child is a public school teacher...

Rush University Medical Center v. Sessions: Claims Against a Living Trust

Joel A. Schoenmeyer
August 24, 2011 14:07

One of my research interests is claims against a decedent's non-probate property -- I've even written an article about the topic (which I posted here, as a PDF). The issue is this: we know (because of Article XVIII of the Illinois Probate Act) how claims are handled in a probate estate. But what...

Estate of Parker and Limitations on Claims

Joel A. Schoenmeyer
August 23, 2011 02:19

Ugh. Estate of Parker is a new First District Appellate Court case, and it's a real slog to get through. How old is this case? Old enough that it's an appeal from a decision by Judge Malak, who's been retired for quite some time now. How long is the opinion? 30(!) pages. (PDF is here.) There's a...