Estate planning attorney serving Metro East Illinois
Flat-fee pricing. Evening and weekend appointments. Personal, plain-language service.
Complete estate planning for Illinois families
Estate planning isn’t just for the wealthy — and it’s not just about what happens when you die. A complete estate plan protects you while you’re alive, ensures your wishes are carried out at death, and spares your family from unnecessary cost, delay, and conflict. We build complete plans for Metro East Illinois families with flat-fee pricing and no hourly billing.
Last Will & Testament
Names your beneficiaries, designates an executor, and — critically for parents — names a guardian for your minor children. The foundation of any estate plan.
Revocable Living Trust
Holds your assets during your lifetime and transfers them at death without probate. Keeps your estate private, saves your family time, and avoids court supervision.
Durable Power of Attorney for Property
Designates someone to manage your finances if you become incapacitated. Without one, your family may need a court-supervised guardianship to act on your behalf.
Power of Attorney for Health Care
Names someone to make medical decisions for you if you cannot make them yourself. Works alongside your healthcare directive to ensure your wishes are honored.
Living Will & Healthcare Directive
Documents your specific medical wishes — including end-of-life preferences — so your family and doctors know exactly what you want without having to guess.
Pour-Over Will
Used alongside a living trust to capture any assets not transferred into the trust during your lifetime. Ensures nothing falls through the cracks at death.
What happens without a plan
When someone dies without a will in Illinois, the state decides what happens to their assets according to a fixed formula called intestate succession — regardless of their wishes. If minor children are involved, a court appoints their guardian without any guidance from the parent. Assets may pass to relatives who were never intended to receive them, and the probate process can drag on for months or years at significant cost to your family.
A Power of Attorney failure is equally serious. Without a Durable POA in place before a crisis, your spouse or children have no legal authority to manage your finances if you become incapacitated. They must petition the court for guardianship — a public, expensive, and time-consuming process that a single document prevents entirely.
Estate planning is not about death. It is about protecting the people who depend on you — at every stage of life.
Estate planning guides for Illinois families
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Evening and weekend consultations available. Flat-fee pricing — no surprises.