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Recent Blog Posts
4 Tips for Avoiding Estate Contests for Kane County Residents
Estate contests can be messy. When a will or trust is questioned and challenged, it affects every beneficiary. These conflicts have been known to precipitate rifts between family members that may never heal. You probably want estate administration to be easy for your beneficiaries so that they can accept their gifts and remember you fondly. When someone calls the validity of your estate plan into question, the dispute can take years to resolve in some cases. This type of litigation can also become extremely costly for all involved. Fortunately, there are ways to substantially reduce the odds of an estate contest. If you suspect that there may be any conflict, you should alert your estate planning lawyer so they can take additional steps to prevent a challenge.
Ways to Prevent Potential Future Challenges to Your Estate Plan
Even if you think that your intended beneficiaries will get along and administer your estate in good faith, you cannot predict what could happen after you have become incapacitated or passed away. Some tips for creating a strong estate plan include:
How to Manage the Challenges of Post-Divorce Co-Parenting
If you and your spouse have children together and you are considering a divorce, there is a good chance you are concerned about how the two of you will raise your children in the wake of your split. Presuming you wish to share parental responsibilities with your spouse—which is the recommendation of the courts in most divorce cases involving children—you and your spouse will need to work together as co-parents.
Successful co-parenting can be more challenging than it initially seems, but it can be done. It will be up to your and your spouse to come up with customized co-parenting arrangements that match your specific circumstances, but here are a few things to consider as you start the process.
Your Parenting Agreement Should Be Specific
Hopefully, your spouse is willing to cooperate with you because it is better for your children if the two of you are making parenting decisions together rather than having the court decide on things for you. As you sit down to figure out what will work best for your co-parenting situation, be sure to make joint decisions that address:
Should the Family Home Be Sold During a Divorce?
When a married couple experiences relationship problems, they may encounter multiple different types of issues as they determine whether to attempt to repair their marriage or proceed with a divorce. As spouses begin the process of separating their lives from each other, they will need to make decisions about how to handle ownership of the property they own. During the property division process, a variety of different assets and debts will need to be considered, including the couple’s marital home.
Addressing Ownership of the Marital Home During Divorce
Since the home that a married couple owns is likely to be one of their most valuable assets, it will be important to determine how ownership of the home will be handled going forward and how all types of property can be divided fairly between the spouses. If a couple purchased their home during their marriage, it will be considered marital property, even if it is only titled in the name of one spouse. If one spouse owned a home before the couple was married, it will typically be considered their separate property that will not need to be divided during the divorce process, although the homeowner spouse may be required to reimburse the other spouse for any contributions they made that increased the value of this asset.
Can Spousal Support Be Modified in the Years Following a Divorce?
The decisions made during a couple’s divorce are usually meant to be permanent. However, since these decisions are based on the parties’ circumstances at the time of their divorce, a court’s orders may need to be adjusted if circumstances change. Spousal support is one issue that may need to be revisited in the years following a couple’s divorce. For those who pay or receive spousal support, it is important to understand when modifications may be made to these orders.
Modification or Termination of Spousal Maintenance
Illinois law refers to payments made by one spouse to the other after divorce as spousal maintenance. These types of payments are also commonly known as spousal support or alimony. The purpose of spousal maintenance is to ensure that both parties will be able to support themselves and continue living at the standard they were used to during their marriage. Most of the time, spousal support will only be appropriate if there is a significant disparity between the incomes earned by the parties, including in cases where a spouse is a stay-at-home parent who does not earn enough income to fully cover their ongoing expenses.
Why Is it Important to Make sure a Power of Attorney Is Durable?
During the estate planning process, many people will focus on the legacy they will leave behind and how they can use their assets to provide for their loved ones. However, an estate plan can also address how certain matters will be handled during a person’s lifetime, including how their assets will be managed and how their medical treatment will be handled as they get older. Making decisions about these issues can be especially important for elderly adults, and a person will want to make sure their needs will be met and their wishes will be followed, no matter what happens. One of the best ways of doing so is to create durable powers of attorney.
What Is a Durable Power of Attorney?
As a person gets older, or if they encounter a situation where they need assistance from others, they can create powers of attorney and name a person they trust who will be able to make certain decisions for them. When a person creates this type of legal agreement, they will name an “agent” who is authorized to make decisions on their behalf. The agent may be a family member or close friend, and the person may grant their agent broad authority to do what they believe is best, or they may provide specific instructions for how certain issues should be handled.
What You Need to Know About Using Social Media During Your Divorce
Social media is an important part of most people’s lives. It has been especially helpful for many during the COVID-19 pandemic since it has allowed people to remain connected with friends and family. However, sharing personal information and details about your life can have some unexpected consequences, especially if you are going through a divorce. You will want to understand how the information you share online may affect your case, and this will help you protect your rights and interests as you work to dissolve your marriage.
Social Media Tips for Divorcing Spouses
It is important to remember that anything you post online could potentially be seen by your spouse and their attorney. Even if you send private messages to others or share updates or photos in a private group, someone may forward this information to your spouse. To avoid potential issues, you will want to make sure you do not send or share any messages or photos that you would not want to have to explain in divorce court. You will especially want to avoid:
What Happens if a Parent Is Unable to Pay Child Support?
In any divorce or family law case involving children, child support will be an important factor. Both parents will be required to provide financial support for their children that will address the children’s ongoing needs, including basic expenses such as food, shelter, and clothing, as well as costs related to medical treatment, childcare while parents are working, and children’s activities. Once child support orders are issued, a parent will be required to make payments on time and in full. However, circumstances may arise that may affect a parent’s ability to make ongoing payments, and both parties will need to determine how to address these situations.
Enforcement of Child Support Orders
A parent may face a number of consequences if they fail to pay child support as required. The parent who receives support may have a number of options for enforcement of the court’s orders. A parent will be required to make up any payments that have not been made, and interest and fees may also be applied to the amount owed. A parent who fails to pay child support may also be held in contempt of court. A judge may decide to place the parent on probation and impose certain requirements, or a parent may even be sentenced to up to six months in prison while allowing for regular periods of release to ensure that the person can work and earn income to be put toward paying child support. If a parent is at least 90 days delinquent on child support payments, the court may suspend their driver’s license until they fully comply with support orders.
What Will a Parenting Plan Address in an Illinois Divorce?
Getting a divorce can be difficult for anyone, but these situations can become much more complex for couples who have children. In addition to separating their lives from each other, parents will need to make decisions about how they will share in the responsibilities of raising their kids, and they will also need to create schedules detailing when children will live in each parent’s home or spend time with them. Coming to an agreement on these issues is not easy, especially when a couple’s relationship has broken down to the point where they have chosen to end their marriage. However, whether a divorce is amicable or contested, it is often best for parents to do everything they can to work together and determine how they can put their children first. This will allow them to create a parenting plan that will provide them with a full understanding of how child-related matters will be handled going forward.
How Trusts Protect Your Privacy in Kane County
When a will is filed with the probate court, it becomes public record. Anyone who so wishes can view the contents of a will once it has been submitted to probate. This means that everyone from a disinherited relative to your beneficiary’s creditors can see to whom you have left money or property - as well as how much or what assets. This can sometimes place beneficiaries in an uncomfortable or legally risky position should someone seek to contest the will. By using a trust, however, you can keep your family’s inheritance private. A qualified estate planning attorney can give you more information about protecting your family’s privacy and preventing conflict by using a trust.
Who Can See My Trust Documents?
It is only when a will is filed in a probate court that it becomes public record. Unlike a will, a trust does not need to be filed in any court. There is ordinarily no judicial involvement needed when a trust is used for testamentary purposes. Under normal circumstances, the only people with access to view your trust document should be your named beneficiaries, your successor trustee, and others you have elected to involve in the management of the trust.
Top 4 Reasons for Divorce Litigation in Kane County
Divorce is hardly ever a pleasant affair. Even amicable divorces can be challenging on a number of levels. However, when a couple is able to settle the issues surrounding their divorce through negotiation or mediation, it can save them time, money, and stress. Unfortunately, this is not always possible. Uncontested divorces require a level of cooperation and reasonableness from both spouses that is not always achievable.
Although divorce litigation can be difficult, there are a handful of reasons it may become necessary. If you anticipate that your divorce will be contested, it is especially important to seek out strong legal representation. You will need a knowledgeable advocate to protect your interests during this conflict.
Why You Might Go Through Divorce Litigation
It can be immensely frustrating when all you want is to resolve your divorce as quickly and easily as possible, but your spouse is making that impossible by behaving unreasonably. When you cannot reach an agreement, it may be necessary to go to court and ask the judge to make decisions instead. Major reasons spouses end up contesting their divorces include:
From our office in Geneva, we serve clients throughout Northern Illinois, including Plainfield, Sugar Grove, Shorewood, Joliet, Rockdale, Crest Hill, Aurora, Big Rock, Plano, Yorkville, Bristol, Naperville, Will County, and Kane County.
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