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Recent Blog Posts
Landmark Case in Cook County Changes Divorce Law
Up until recently, Illinois has stopped the guardians from seeking divorces for their mentally-ill wards. Anyone who is mentally disabled would not be able to divorce their spouse, unless their spouse initiated the action. But on October 4th, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled on a case which may allow some to seek divorce.
The ban covered all people who had severe brain damage yet did not describe a range for people who can make their wishes known. People who suffer from Alzheimer's or whose mental adversity can come and go were also controlled by this ban.
While the ban tried to protect the people who love and care for those with mental hardship, the Supreme Court maintains that the opposite might be just as true. Judge Charles Freeman wrote in the decision that the ban can leave vulnerable people "at the complete mercy" of spouses who abuse them or manipulate them financially.
Now, the court will have to decide on a case to case basis rather than having a catch-all regulation. The guardians can file for the divorce and the judge presiding will have to look at evidence objectively if the person cannot represent their own wishes. This was the direct result of a ruling involving a Cook County couple, Jan and Marcia Karbin. Marcia Karbin suffered brain damage from a car crash in 1997. After financial disputes with her husband, she asked her guardian to file for divorce, and now she can.
Still No Word on Divorce for Stars Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher
About a year after their six year marriage fell apart, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher still have not made any public moves towards a divorce, amicable or otherwise. Demi Moore announced that the marriage was over last November after Ashton Kutcher was named in a sexual affair with Sara Leal. Kutcher is now linked to actress Mila Kunis, with whom he has previously co-starred on television and in movies.
Mail Online hints at a potential secret behind the absence of divorce proceedings, although both stars have taken the high road since their split, declining to publicly malign one another. Rumor has it that the stars may not be able to get a divorce because they may not have been legally married. This is quite the revelation, however it does ultimately explain why both parties have been so quiet about the divorce.
The Basics of a Revocable Living Trust vs. a Will
There are two different tools of estate planning which sound the same but serve different purposes beyond leaving behind property to beneficiaries. The two types of documents that can leave behind your wishes are living trusts and wills. Not only can both name beneficiaries to property, including young children, but both are revisable as your wishes change throughout your life. The ability to revise a document is also termed revocable in legal terms.
The difference between a trust and a will are in smaller details. For example, with a trust, you have the ability to avoid probate altogether. Probate is the very lengthy process of testing if a will in valid so that the property can be transferred to the new owners. The process itself is lengthy and expensive. A trust can also reduce any beneficiaries from contesting the estate in court because the integrity of the trust is absolute.
Stay at Home Mom Denied Access to Household Funds
When one parent makes the sacrifice to stay at home and care for the family instead of pursuing a career and an income, that parent should be celebrated for making his or her family a priority, and their dedication to family should be rewarded. However, there are unions where this type of surrender is not only unappreciated but outright ignored and punished.
Such was the case with the marriage of Margaret and Drake. Margaret was a stay at home mother for the majority of the twenty seven years she was married to Drake. Margaret had a college degree, but Drake had always been a good financial provider for their family. He provided the monetary support and she provided the household management support.
After the children left home, Drake began to suggest that Margaret get a job. This was a difficult task for the middle aged homemaker. She had not had any work experience other than caring for her family and she had never worked in the field in which she'd received her degree. She finally obtained a job in a department store, a position for which she was underpaid.
The Technical Aspects of Probate
Taking care of your material possessions is important if you have loved ones that need to be protected. If you have drafted a will, then whoever you assign as your personal representative will be in charge of whether probate court is necessary in regards to your remaining estate. If you have not designated one in a will, then the probate court may assign someone impartial to manage your estate. This person will then be responsible for your earthly goods to make sure they are legally transferred to others.
The probate court acts to oversee your property after your death. While all probate courts are different state to state, there are some processes which remain the same. The probate court swears in your personal representative to manage your estate. The court also is in charge of notifying your heirs, creditors and others that you are indeed, dead. They also inventory the property of the estate to verify that the assets are still real and have not been dispersed. The ultimate step of a probate court is to pay off debts, pay applicable taxes, and distribute the remaining estate to the heirs.
X + Y = Celebrity Wedding Success
The last place you might expect to find a New York Times science reporter and a statistician perusing is the celebrity gossip mags. But that's exactly how reporter John Tierney and statistician Garth Sundem were able to come up with a formula that can predict the life span of a celebrity marriage.
The original formula they developed five years ago used multiple variables, including each member of the couple's attractiveness, the length of their courtship and their amount of fame. Recently they've announced a new and improved formula that only uses five variables. The five are: length of time dating, combined ages of the couple on the date of marriage, the amount of skin the bride shows on the first page of a Google image search, the ratio of the mention of the bride in the New York Times to her mentions in the Enquirer, and if the mentions appear more in the tabloids, which means the prediction is a short live marriage. The female's celebrity is the fame that really matters, they say.
Childless People Benefit Greatly from Powers of Attorney
Susan Sommers is a fashion consultant in her sixties. She has a sister but no children or husband. Her sister Louise is likewise childless. Together they took care of their mother who died a while ago at the age of 94. The sisters made sure that their mother's rights were upheld and her needs were properly addressed. But what will happen to Susan Sommers or her sister, when they can't take care of themselves or each other any longer?
The problem doesn't concern only the Sommers sisters. Nowadays, there are more childless people than in the past. In 2010, almost 19% of 40-44-year-old women were childless, almost 9 percentage points more than in 1980.
Children are usually the "de facto" caregivers of their parents, if they become incapacitated or otherwise require assistance with matters the parents can't cope with themselves. But childless people obviously don't have that alternative. That is why it's important that especially people without children secure their rights with the help of professional lawyers. In Illinois, it's possible to appoint someone you trust to make healthcare decisions on your behalf or to take care of your financial and property affairs in the event of your incapacity. Your "agent" can be almost anyone, from family members to friends and neighbors. Legal documents can also detail many types of other preferences, for example, a particular type of assisted living facility. Without the documents, a court appointed guardian might take control of your affairs and not necessarily make decisions you approve of.
Estate Planning in the Digital Age: New Challenges
Traditional estate planning has always involved the creation of documents designed to avoid costly and lengthy probate proceedings and minimize taxes, such as wills, trusts, and other related documents. However, estate planning attorneys are facing new challenges as an increasing amount of people store their financial information online and handle their assets digitally. As these digital assets are typically secured behind usernames, passwords, and security questions that surviving spouses and family members may not be aware of, dealing with or even finding these assets following a person's death can be difficult or even impossible in some circumstances.
According to a recent article in Smart Money, 36% of adults aged 45 and older are now doing banking online, and those numbers continue to grow. Unfortunately, traditional estate planning documents tend not to address online accounts, and the estate-planning industry has been slow to advise its clients about the need to address and deal with these digital assets so as to properly preserve them for their heirs in the future, and to ensure that those assets are not lost altogether.
The Benefits of Divorce
According to the Huffington Post, the widespread social presumption is that families in which parents are married are better for children than families in which the parents are divorced. Divorce, of course, "accompanies a range of challenges and problems, including a drop in living standards, the disruption of existing family rhythms and the presence, in all too many cases, of high conflict between the parents." But the general understanding that divorce is the worst-case scenario for children is changing. Divorce can yield some surprising benefits for the family, the least of which is the cessation of constant fighting between married parties.
The most obvious benefit of a divorce for the children of a broken marriage is the child no longer has to live in a house with warring individuals, who most likely—intentionally or not—force the children to choose sides. Yet benefits of divorce involving children aren't just for the kids: providing that the divorce was relatively amicable, or that both parents have a vested interest in parenting, divorce can lead to more personal time for both parents, when the child is at the house of the other. According to the Huffington Post, "an unspoken truth for many divorced parents is that when their child is with their ex-spouse they feel some relief" from the intensity of parenting one-on-one.
It's Never Too Early - or Too Late - to Avoid End-of-Life Taxes
No matter what stage you are at in life, avoiding end-of-life taxes is a smart move. By taking certain steps, you can reduce your income taxes, federal estate taxes, and state estate and inheritance taxes. Although a recent Chicago Tribune article states that these techniques work best for a U.S. citizen who is married to his or her U.S. citizen spouse, with living descendants, they can also work as a starting point for people in other, more complex, situations, as well.
First, granting a power of attorney for your spouse will allow him or her to make financial, tax-saving decisions in the event that you become incapacitated. This saves your spouse from having to pursue lengthy guardianship proceedings in court and potentially miss important tax deadlines at the end of the year.
Next, ensure that you and your spouse have separate investment accounts. This move allows you to freely transfer assets back and forth between spouses so as to minimize taxes in various situations.
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