As Pride Month begins, we celebrate the progress made toward equality while acknowledging that LGBTQIA+ individuals, couples, and families still face unique legal challenges. Despite the landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges that established marriage equality nationwide, gaps in legal protection remain that can affect everything from healthcare decisions to inheritance rights. Having proper estate planning is not just important—it's essential for ensuring your wishes are honored and your loved ones are protected. The Evolving Legal Landscape for LGBTQIA+ Families While significant legal advancements have been made for LGBTQIA+ individuals and families, the legal landscape remains complex and varies by state. Marriage equality was a tremendous step forward, but it didn't solve all the legal challenges faced by the community. For example, in some states, legal recognition of non-biological parents in same-sex relationships can be tenuous without proper documentation. Healthcare directives might be questioned if estranged biological family members challenge a partner's right to make decisions. Assets without proper beneficiary designations could end up with distant relatives instead of long-term partners. Many LGBTQIA+ adults in the U.S. are in committed relationships or raising children. They are also often less likely to have estate plans in place compared to their heterosexual counterparts, leaving them particularly vulnerable to legal complications. Relying solely on marriage equality for protection is insufficient. Without comprehensive planning, you risk leaving crucial decisions about your health, assets, and loved ones to a system that may not align with your wishes. But with proper Life & Legacy Planning, you can create legal safeguards that respect your unique family structure and ensure your voice is heard. Traditional Estate Planning vs. Life & Legacy Planning Traditional estate planning typically focuses on creating basic documents like wills and powers of attorney. While these documents are important, they may not address the unique considerations of LGBTQIA+ individuals, couples and families, and can even provide a false security that results in a failure of the documents, when it’s both too late and when they are needed most. For instance, a standard will may distribute assets according to your wishes, but it doesn't prevent the probate process—a public proceeding where estranged family members could contest your decisions. Traditional planning also tends to be transaction-based, with minimal updates over time, despite changing laws, assets and life circumstances. In contrast, our Life & Legacy Planning at Kaplan Estate Law LLC takes a more comprehensive approach. This planning methodology considers not just your financial assets but your entire legacy—including your values, experiences, and hopes for future generations. It's designed to evolve with you throughout your lifetime, adapting to changes in your relationship status, family structure, and the legal landscape. Life & Legacy Planning includes several key elements that traditional planning often overlooks: First, it starts with education about what would happen to you and your loved ones if you become incapacitated or die without a plan. This understanding forms the foundation for making empowered and informed decisions about the planning you want and need. Second, Life & Legacy Planning includes a thorough inventory of your assets—not just financial assets but also your intangible assets like values and life lessons you want to pass on. Third, it addresses healthcare decision-making comprehensively, ensuring your chosen advocate can speak for you without unnecessary legal hurdles. Fourth, Life & Legacy Planning ensures your plan will be reviewed and updated as laws change and your life evolves, so it works when you and your loved ones need it to. Most importantly, when you work with me to create your Life & Legacy Plan, we’ll take into account the unique challenges you and your loved ones might face, creating robust protections tailored to your specific situation. Essential Protections for LGBTQIA+ Individuals and Families For LGBTQIA+ individuals and families, certain legal protections are particularly crucial. Let's explore the key elements that should be part of your Life & Legacy Plan: Healthcare Documents: Healthcare power of attorney and living will documents are vital. These ensure your chosen person can make medical decisions if you cannot, preventing biological family members from overriding your partner's authority. They also specify your wishes regarding life-sustaining treatment, sparing your loved ones from having to make difficult decisions without guidance. Financial Protection: Financial powers of attorney allow your designated representative to manage your finances if you become incapacitated. Without this document, your partner or chosen family might have no legal right to access your accounts to pay bills or manage your affairs, even if you've been together for decades. Inheritance Planning: While marriage provides some inheritance rights, a comprehensive trust can offer stronger protections. Trusts can help avoid probate, provide privacy, and ensure your assets pass to your chosen beneficiaries regardless of potential challenges from family members. Protecting Non-Traditional Families: For same-sex couples with children, additional protection is critical. This might include adoption paperwork, parenting agreements, or guardianship designations to ensure your children remain with your partner or chosen guardian if something happens to you. Digital Legacy Planning: In today's digital world, your online presence and digital assets need protection too. Properly documenting access information and your wishes regarding social media accounts, cryptocurrencies, and digital files is increasingly important. Creating Your Life & Legacy Plan Creating your plan begins with finding the right advisor—someone who understands the unique considerations of LGBTQIA+ individuals, couples, and families. At Kaplan Estate Law, we create comprehensive plans that address not just the standard elements of estate planning but also the specific concerns of the LGBTQIA+ community. The process starts with a Life & Legacy Planning Session, during which we'll discuss your family structure, goals, and concerns. I'll explain what would happen to your loved ones and assets under current law if you became incapacitated or passed away without a plan. Then, together, we'll design a plan that reflects your wishes and provides maximum protection for your family. Once your plan is in place, we'll meet regularly to review and update it as needed. Laws change, life circumstances evolve, and your plan should adapt accordingly. This ongoing relationship ensures your plan remains effective and relevant throughout your life. How to Get Started Now Pride Month is a time to celebrate identity, love, and family in all its diverse forms. It's also an ideal opportunity to ensure those you love most are legally protected. By creating your Life & Legacy Plan with me, you can have confidence that your wishes will be honored and your loved ones will be cared for, regardless of how laws or attitudes may change in the future. Take the first step toward comprehensive protection for yourself and your loved ones. Click here to schedule a complimentary 15-minute call and get started today.

Vacations are a time to relax, unwind, and create beautiful memories with your loved ones. But before you set off on your adventure, it's essential to ensure that your legal affairs are in order so you can fully relax during your travels. Can’t imagine doing one more thing before you take some much-needed time away? Don’t worry! At Kaplan Estate Law LLC, we are here to guide you through these important tasks, so you can enjoy your vacation worry-free. Plus, these steps only take a little time to complete and can provide you with peace of mind knowing that you have made proper arrangements if the unexpected happens to you or your family while you’re away. Let’s dive in! (No pool puns intended!) 1. Create Powers of Attorney Whether you’re traveling overseas or just a few hours away, it's crucial to have Powers of Attorney in place for both health care and financial matters before you leave. A Healthcare Power of Attorney designates someone you trust to make medical decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated during your vacation. While no one plans to become incapacitated, a slip on the diving board, an injury while boating, or a parasite caught from local cuisine (eek!) can happen. Similarly, a Financial Power of Attorney empowers a trusted individual to manage your financial affairs for you. With a Financial Power of Attorney, you can give someone the authority to manage your investments or pay your bills away while you’re gone, or just have it as a safety net in case you become incapacitated or can’t be reached while traveling. By having these documents prepared ahead of time, you can ensure that no matter what hiccups you run into on your travels, your wishes for your health will be respected and your financial affairs will be handled according to your instructions, even when you're away. 2. Nominate Permanent Legal Guardians for Your Kids As a parent, naming a Permanent Guardian for your children is one of the most important decisions you can make. While it's a difficult topic to consider, designating a Permanent Legal Guardian ensures that your children will be cared for by someone you trust if the unexpected happens while you're on vacation. It’s a good idea to take a little time to choose someone who shares your values, loves your children, and is willing to take on the responsibility of raising them. However, anyone you trust to raise your kids is a better choice than leaving the decision up to a judge who doesn’t know you or your family. By documenting your chosen Guardian, you make sure your children will be cared for by someone who loves them and knows them if the unthinkable happens to you, and you can always update your choice at any time in the future as your children and their relationships change over time. 3. Designate Short-Term Guardians for Your Kids In addition to naming a Permanent Guardian, it's equally crucial to designate short-term Short-Term Legal Guardians for your children. Short-Term Guardians step in when the Permanent Guardian lives far away, or in case of a short-term, immediate emergency. You can give multiple people the authority to be your child’s Short-Term Guardian, including relatives, neighbors, or nannies. When planning a vacation, it’s a good idea to name any adults who your child will be staying with while traveling with you or staying home. For example, if your child is spending the week at their grandparents’ house, you should name their grandparents as Short-Term Guardians and give them medical Power of Attorney for your minor child. If your child is traveling with you, naming any adult travel companions as Short-Term Guardians and giving them medical Powers of Attorney is a wise choice in case a Guardian or Medical POA is needed for your child while on your trip. Discuss this arrangement with the individuals you've chosen and make sure they’re aware of their roles and responsibilities. By establishing Short-Term Guardians and Medical POAs, you can ensure that your children are well-cared for in the event of an emergency. 4. Tell the People You Trust About Your Plans Last but not least, make sure that the people you trust know about your travel plans and the preparations you’ve made, including where you’ll be staying and how to get in contact with you. Let them know about any legal documents you've put in place, and how to access them if needed. Share this information with your chosen Guardians, family members, and close friends. By keeping everyone in the loop, you can ensure that your wishes are known and your loved ones can act swiftly and effectively in case of an emergency. You should also provide your loved ones with my contact information in case they need copies of your Powers of Attorney or kid’s Guardianship documents or need them delivered digitally. Estate Planning for The Life (And Vacation) You Deserve As you pack your bags and prepare for your vacation, don't overlook the importance of handling your legal affairs. Taking the time to create Powers of Attorney, Permanent and Short-Term Legal Guardians for your children, and communicating your plans to trusted individuals can provide you with peace of mind and save your family incredible stress if there’s an emergency while you’re away. To ensure that these documents are prepared correctly and in accordance with Illinois law, I encourage you to contact our office. We start by guiding all of our clients through a unique process I call the Life & Legacy Planning Session. During the Session, I get to know you and your family on a personal level and review exactly what you own and who you love to make sure everything and everyone is protected and cared for in the best way possible when you pass away or if you become incapacitated. And if we find that things wouldn’t go the way you wanted if something happened to you, I can help you create a custom estate plan that leaves no rock unturned. Don't let the joy of vacation be overshadowed by the “what if’s.” Contact me today for a free 15-minute call to learn more or e-mail lauren@kaplanestatelaw.com.

I work with parents on this exact question all the time, and especially this time of year, sitting right between Mother's Day and Father's Day, the love you have for your children tends to be at the forefront of your mind. But there's a question I find most parents haven't actually answered yet, even the ones who think they have. When I sit down with parents, I find most have thought about who would take care of their children if something happened to them, maybe during a quiet moment on a long drive, or in a conversation with a partner that reached an agreement in their heads but never quite made it onto paper. Here's what I tell them, and what most parents don't realize: that agreement in your head, or the agreement with your godparents, doesn't exist in the eyes of the law. If something happened to you tonight, the decision about who raises your children wouldn't belong to you anymore. It would belong to a court, and a judge who doesn’t know you or your children, or what matters to you. Here's what that actually means, and what you can do about it right now. The Decision That Gets Handed to a Stranger When You Don't Make It When I ask parents what they think would happen, most assume the right people would just step up. A sibling, a grandparent, a godparent, a step-parent, a close friend. The people who love your children would figure it out. That's not how the law works. When there is no named guardian, a judge appoints one. That judge has never met you or your children. They don't know your family's values, your relationships, or who your kids would feel safest with. They don’t know what you care about, how you would want healthcare decisions made for your kids, or education choices. What they see is a petition from one family member and a competing petition from another, each one certain they are the right choice. Family conflict over custody of the kids (and often the money left behind for them) is one of the most painful things that can happen to a family already in grief. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, close friends, people who genuinely love your children, can end up in a legal dispute at the worst possible moment in their lives. The outcome is not guaranteed to be what you would have chosen. The bottom line: Without a legally named guardian, the decision about who raises your children belongs to a judge, a court system, a process you never want the people you love to get trapped within. The people you trust most may have no legal standing to step in, no matter how obvious the choice seems to everyone in your family. The First 72 Hours: The Window Nobody Plans For In my planning sessions, I find most parents think about the long-term question: who would raise our children through childhood? Almost none of them think about what happens in the first 72 hours after an emergency. Who has the legal authority to pick your children up from school if you were hospitalized tonight? Who can authorize emergency medical care if your child is injured before anyone has had a chance to call a lawyer? Who can step in immediately, not after a court process, but right now? This is the gap I close with families before the crisis, while we still have time to design around it. Here is the scenario I walk parents through. Something happens to both of you on a Tuesday evening. Your children are with a sitter. Emergency responders arrive. There is no document anyone can find that names those who should take the children. The sitter has no legal authority. The neighbors have no legal authority. Even the grandparents who live twenty minutes away have no legal authority to take custody in that moment. The authorities follow protocol. Your children are placed in the temporary care of strangers, not because anyone failed them, but because nothing was in place to tell the system what to do. Your will, assuming it names a guardian, is sitting in a filing cabinet somewhere or a lawyer's vault. The person you named still has to be appointed by a court before they can take custody. That process takes weeks or months, not hours. A complete plan names two things: the person who would raise your children long-term, and the people who are authorized to provide immediate care in the hours before that longer process unfolds. Without both, there is a gap. And gaps are where already hard situations get much harder. This is where having a Kids Protection Plan changes what those first hours actually look like. You'll name someone who can help your family activate everything you put in place. The grandparents who arrived in the middle of the night don't have to figure out what you would have wanted. The named guardian doesn't have to wonder if anyone has the paperwork. The bottom line: The immediate guardian question, what happens in the first 72 hours, is just as important as the long-term one. Most parents have planned for neither. The Real Reason Most Parents Keep Putting This Off When parents come to me, having put this off for years, I ask them why. The most common reason is that the decision feels permanent. And permanent feels like pressure. What if the person you choose isn't right in ten years? What if your relationship with your sibling changes? What if naming someone means having an awkward conversation with the family member you didn't choose? Here's what I tell them: naming a guardian is not a permanent, unchangeable decision. I help my clients update this decision as their children grow, as relationships shift, and as circumstances evolve. What matters is documenting a decision today, based on the people and relationships you have right now. As for the discomfort of choosing between family members or friends: that discomfort is real, and it deserves a real conversation. But leaving the decision to a court doesn't protect anyone from awkwardness. It simply removes you from the process entirely and hands the question to a judge who doesn't know any of you. What I tell my clients: Naming a guardian is a decision you can revisit and update. Not naming one is a decision you cannot take back. The Questions That Matter More Than "Who Do I Trust Most?" When I walk parents through this, most start with trust, and that's the right instinct. But trust alone doesn't answer the question. The right guardian is the person who would raise your children closest to the way you would raise them yourself. Here are the questions I walk my clients through, out loud, with their partner, and ideally with the person they are considering: Values and parenting style. Does this person share your values in the ways that matter most, around faith, education, discipline, and community? Would your children recognize themselves in the home this person would create? Willingness and actual capacity. Have you asked them directly? A guardian who is surprised by their nomination is not the same as one who said yes with a full understanding of what that role means. Practical reality. Where does this person live? Would your children need to leave their school, their community, their friends? Is this person in a stage of life where they can realistically take on children? Age and long-term health. A grandparent may be the most emotionally obvious choice, but may not be the most practical one over the full arc of your children's childhood. Sibling relationships. If you have more than one child, will this person be able to keep them together? Are there any circumstances under which your children might be separated? Backup guardians. What happens if your first choice can't serve? Illness, a change in circumstances, or a shift in the relationship could make your primary guardian unavailable. Naming one or two backups ensures there is always someone with clear legal authority to step in. If you're naming a couple. Relationships change. If the couple you name separates or divorces, who becomes the guardian? Do they share responsibility? These are questions worth answering now, in writing, rather than leaving to a court later. One more thing I make sure my clients understand: a godparent is not a legal guardian. It's one of the most common misconceptions in estate planning. Verbal agreements, informal understandings, and family assumptions carry no legal weight. The only thing that matters is a properly executed legal document. There are no perfect answers to these questions. But I walk my clients through them carefully because the goal isn't to find the most responsible person in your family. It's to find the person whose home, values, and life most closely match the one your children already know. The bottom line: The guardian question is not simply "who do I trust?" It's "who would raise my children the way I would?" Those are often the same person. But asking the deeper question makes sure you're choosing for the right reasons. Why This Isn't a Conversation to Have Alone In my experience, naming a guardian is one of the most important decisions a parent will make. It is also one of the most connected decisions in an entire plan, and it doesn't work in isolation. The person who raises your children and the person who manages money for your children may not be the same person, and separating those roles is often exactly the right move. The best caregiver in your family may not be the best financial manager. A well-designed plan lets you make those two decisions independently. It also raises a harder truth: a guardian named in a plan with no resources behind it is in an impossible position. Naming the right person means very little if there isn't a financial plan supporting them. These decisions: who cares for your children, how their lives will be funded, and what happens in the first 72 hours, don't exist in isolation. They connect to each other in ways that aren't obvious until something goes wrong. In my work with families, I see these connections every day. The guardian conversation is part of a larger planning process, not a standalone checkbox. When I work with parents on this, I make sure the right people are named, the right resources are in place, and that the people you're counting on actually know what you want. A plan nobody knows about is not a plan. And the relationship doesn't end when the documents are signed. When something happens, your family knows to call me. I know your plan, I know the people you named, and I am there for your family in the moment when you cannot be. That is the part of this work that no document, on its own, can do. There's one more piece I bring up that most parents never think to ask about: you can also formally name the people you would never want raising your children. Not just who you want, but who you don't. When I do this with my clients, the document makes it highly unlikely that someone you'd never choose would even come forward as a candidate. What You Can Do Right Now If you have children at home and haven't named a guardian, or if you have, but only in a will and not part of a complete Kids Protection Plan, I want to help you change that. Not because something is about to happen. Because if something did happen, you want to be the one who made that decision, not a judge who has never met your family. I help families create a Life & Legacy Plan that addresses who raises your children, who cares for them immediately in a crisis, and how they will be provided for financially. I don't create one-size-fits-all documents, and the relationship doesn't end at signing. I take the time to understand your specific family, design a plan that actually works when the people you love need it most, and stay in a relationship with you so that when something happens, your family has someone to call who already knows what you wanted. Schedule a complimentary 15-minute initial call, and let's make sure your children are protected, starting today.

Whether it’s to qualify for Medicaid, avoid probate, or reduce your tax burden, transferring ownership of your home to your adult child during your lifetime may seem like a smart move. But in nearly all cases, it’s actually a huge mistake, which can lead to dire consequences for everyone involved. With this in mind, before you sign over the title to your family’s beloved homestead, consider the following potential risks. 01 | YOUR ELIGIBILITY FOR MEDICAID COULD BE JEOPARDIZED With the cost of long-term care skyrocketing, you may be worried about your (or your senior parents’) ability to pay for lengthy stays in an assisted-living facility or a nursing home. Such care can be extremely expensive, with the potential to overwhelm even those families with substantial wealth. Since neither traditional health insurance nor Medicare will pay for long-term care, you may look to Medicaid to help cover the costs of long-term care. To become eligible for Medicaid, however, you must first exhaust nearly every penny of your savings. In light of this requirement, you may have heard that if you transfer your house to your adult children, you can avoid selling the home if you need to qualify for Medicaid. You may think transferring ownership of the house will help your eligibility for benefits, and this strategy may seem easier and less expensive than passing on your home (and other assets) through estate planning. However, this tactic is a big mistake on several levels. It can not only delay—or even disqualify—your Medicaid eligibility, it can also lead to other serious problems. Here’s why: In February 2006, Congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act, which included a number of provisions aimed at reducing Medicaid abuse. One of these provisions was a five-year “look-back” period for eligibility. This means that before you can qualify for Medicaid, your finances will be reviewed for any “uncompensated transfers” of your assets within the five years preceding your application. If such transfers are discovered, it can result in a penalty period that will delay your eligibility. Any transfers made beyond that five-year window will not be penalized. The length of the penalty period is calculated by dividing the amount of the uncompensated transfer by the average cost of one month of private nursing home care in the state you live in. These days, the average cost of nursing home care is roughly $10,000 a month. Given these figures, this means that for every $10,000 worth of uncompensated transfers made within the five-year window, your Medicaid benefits will be delayed for one month. So if you transferred the title to a home worth $500,000 within the look-back period, your Medicaid benefits would be delayed for 50 months. In light of this, if you transfer your house to your children and then need long-term care within five years, it could significantly delay your qualification for Medicaid benefits—and possibly even prevent you from ever qualifying. 02 | YOUR CHILD COULD BE STUCK WITH A MASSIVE TAX BILL Another drawback to transferring ownership of your home in this way is the potential tax liability for your child. If you’re elderly, you’ve probably owned your house for a long time, and its value has dramatically increased, leading you to believe that by transferring your home to your child, he or she can make a windfall by selling it. And by transferring the property before you die, you may think that you can save your child both time and money by avoiding the need for probate. Probate is the court process used to distribute your assets according to the wishes outlined in your will or according to our state’s intestate succession laws if you don’t have a will. Depending on the complexity of your estate, probate can be a long and expensive process for your loved ones; however, that expense is likely to be relatively minor compared to the tax bill your heirs could face. That’s because if you transfer your home to your child during your lifetime, he or she will have to pay capital gains tax on the difference between your home’s value when you purchased it and the home’s selling price at the time it’s sold by your child. Depending on your home’s value, that tax bill can be astronomical. In contrast, by transferring your home at the time of your death via your estate plan, your child will receive what’s known as a “step-up in basis.” This tax savings is one of the only benefits of death, and it allows your child to pay capital gains taxes when he or she sells your home, based only on the difference between the value of the home at the time of inheritance and its sales price, rather than paying taxes based on the home’s value at the time you bought it. For example, say you originally purchased your home for $80,000, and when you die, the home had appreciated in value to $250,000. Your daughter inherits the home upon your death, and then she sells it five years later for $300,000. With the step-up in basis in effect, she would only owe capital gains taxes on the $50,000 of difference between the home’s value when it was inherited and when it was sold. However, if you transferred ownership of the home to her while you were still living, your daughter would lose the step-up in basis, and would face a capital gains tax bill of $220,000. Capital gains tax is only one kind of tax that could be impacted by a transfer of your home during your lifetime. You may also destroy valuable property tax basis, which could cause a re-assessment of your home for property tax purposes, depending on the county or state your home is located in. There are much better ways to avoid probate using estate planning, such as by putting your home into a revocable living trust, in which case your home would immediately pass to your loved ones upon your death, without the need for any court intervention. As your attorney, we can help you choose the most advantageous estate planning strategies to minimize your beneficiaries’ tax liability and ensure they get the most out of their inheritance, all while allowing them to avoid court and conflict. 03 | YOUR HOME COULD BE VULNERABLE TO DEBT, DIVORCE, DISABILITY, & DEATH There are a number of other reasons why transferring ownership of your house to your child is a bad idea. If your child takes ownership of your home and has significant debt, for example, his or her creditors can make claims against the property to recoup what they’re owed, potentially forcing your child to sell the home to pay those debts. Divorce is another potentially thorny issue. If your child goes through a divorce while the house is in his or her name, the home may be considered marital property. Depending on the outcome of the divorce, the settlement decree may force your child to sell the home or pay his or her ex spouse a share of the home's value. The disability or death of your child can also lead to trouble. If your child becomes disabled and seeks Medicaid or other government benefits, having the home in his or her name could compromise their eligibility, just like it would your own. And if your child dies before you and owns the house, the property could be considered part of your child’s estate and end up being passed on to your child’s heirs, leaving you homeless. THERE’S SIMPLY NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PROPER ESTATE PLANNING Given these potential risks, transferring ownership of your home to your adult child as a means of “poor-man’s estate planning” is almost never a good idea. Instead, you should consult with us to find alternative solutions. We can help you find much better ways to qualify for Medicaid and other benefits to offset the hefty price tag of long-term care, and at the same time, we will keep your family out of court and conflict in the event of your death or incapacity. As your attorney, we offer a variety of different estate planning packages at a variety of different price points as part of our Life & Legacy Planning Process. With our guidance and support, we will not only help you protect and pass on your home, but all of your family’s wealth and assets, while also enabling you to better afford whatever long-term healthcare services you might require. Contact us or e-mail lauren@kaplanestatelaw.com to learn more.

Tax season just made you look at your financial life honestly. All of it. Tax season forced it. You gathered documents, tracked down account statements, reviewed what you own and what you owe. Right now, in May, you are more financially clear-headed than you will be at almost any other time this year. And here’s the thing most people don’t do next: they close the folder. They file the return, pay what they owe, and move on without ever asking the one question that matters most. If something happened to you tomorrow, would the people you love be okay? Not just emotionally. Legally. Financially. Would they have access to your accounts, authority to make decisions, and the protection of a plan that actually works? That question has an answer. But you have to ask it while the documents are still in front of you. You Just Did the Hard Part. Here’s What Most People Skip. The financial clarity that comes with tax season is something most families never tap into for anything beyond the return itself. And that’s a real missed opportunity because the same information you just assembled is exactly what an estate plan needs to stay current. Think about what may have changed in the last year: You opened a new investment account, changed jobs, or rolled over a retirement plan You bought a home, inherited money, or received a significant gift You had a child, got married, or went through a divorce Your income went up, and so did what you’d leave behind A parent died, and you became the next generation in line Any one of these changes can quietly break an estate plan that made perfect sense when it was created. And yet most people’s plans never get updated after they’re drafted, because nothing feels urgent enough to prompt a review. Life gets busy. The folder goes back in the drawer. Tax season removes that excuse. The documents are in front of you. The questions are already in your mind. The only thing missing is one more conversation. The bottom line: Right now is the best time all year to ask whether your estate plan still matches your life, and to actually do something about it. The Form That Could Override Everything You’ve Planned Here’s something your tax return reveals that your estate plan may not know about: every retirement account, life insurance policy, and annuity you own transfers based on a beneficiary designation form - not your will, not your trust, not what you intend. Those forms override everything else. It doesn’t matter what your estate planning documents say. If your 401(k) still names your ex-spouse, a deceased parent, or no one at all, that’s where the money goes, regardless of what your will says. Courts have upheld this outcome even when it was clearly not what the account owner would have wanted. The form wins. If you named your children as direct beneficiaries without considering their ages, their circumstances, or the tax implications, a lump-sum distribution could land in their hands at the worst possible time or generate a tax bill that takes a serious bite out of what you intended to leave them. A $300,000 retirement account paid directly to a young adult child in a single year could easily cost them $75,000 or more in federal income taxes alone (roughly a quarter to a third of the inheritance, gone before they can use it). The problem is that people update their tax withholding every year but never look at their beneficiary designations. These forms were filled out years - sometimes decades - ago, and they sit quietly in HR systems and insurance policies, waiting to create a crisis. The bottom line: Your tax return shows you exactly which retirement accounts and life insurance policies you have. Now is the time to check who is actually named on every single one and whether that’s still what you want. What Your Tax Return Is Telling You That Your Estate Plan Doesn't Know Certain lines on a tax return are signals that your estate plan needs attention, even if you don’t realize you’re looking at them. A new dependent on your return means a child who has no legal protection if both parents become incapacitated tonight. There’s no document that gives a grandparent, aunt, or trusted friend the immediate legal authority to pick that child up from school, consent to medical treatment, or keep them out of foster care. A change in filing status from married to single may mean a former spouse still controls your medical decisions through an outdated healthcare proxy (a document that doesn’t automatically expire after a divorce in most states). New business income appearing on your return means there are assets with no succession plan. If something happened to you, who would step in? Who has the authority to keep things running, pay your employees, or decide whether to sell? These changes appear on paper. They don’t automatically update your estate plan. An attorney reviewing your estate plan has no way of knowing your life has changed unless you tell them. And most people never do. The bottom line: If anything significant showed up on this year’s return that wasn’t there last year, that’s a signal your estate plan may need to catch up, and sooner than you think. Why This Isn’t Just Pulling Out a Folder A real estate plan check-up is not a document review. It’s a conversation about whether your life is protected the way you think it is, and the answer is often not what people expect. The right questions look like: Has your family situation changed in a way that should change who you’ve named as guardian, trustee, or executor? Are your powers of attorney and healthcare directives still current, or were they drafted under laws that may have since changed? Are your assets titled correctly? Owning a home in your name only, without a plan, can send it through probate regardless of what your trust says. Do the people you’ve named actually know what you’d want them to do, and do they know where to find everything? Documents alone don’t protect your family. Plans fail not because they were wrong when they were drafted, but because no one kept them current, no one could find them, or no one was there to guide the family through a crisis. That’s the difference between a document and a real plan. The bottom line: Having the right documents is the starting point. Having a plan that's current, accessible, and backed by someone your family can call - that's what actually protects them. What You Can Do Right Now The financial clarity you have right now won’t last. It never does. But if you use this window - while the documents are fresh and the questions are still in your mind - you can make sure the people you love are genuinely protected. At Kaplan Estate Law LLC, we help you create a Life & Legacy Plan that actually works when your family needs it to. Not just documents in a drawer, but a complete plan that stays current as your life changes, and a trusted advisor your family can call when a parent dies, an accident happens, or a diagnosis changes everything. Schedule a complimentary 15-minute initial call to learn more.

Imagine this: something unexpected happens, and you're suddenly unable to care for your children. It's a parent's worst nightmare. In this situation, you'd want to know that your kids will be loved, cared for, and raised according to the values you hold dear. But have you taken the right legal steps to ensure that happens? Many parents mistakenly believe that simply naming guardians in their will is enough to protect their children. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. There are common mistakes that can lead to legal battles, family conflicts, and even put your kids' well-being at risk. What if something happened to you tomorrow? Would your children end up in the care of strangers, even temporarily, because you didn’t have a plan in place for their immediate care? Don't let that happen. By working with us, you can avoid these pitfalls and create a rock-solid guardianship plan that provides true peace of mind – knowing that, no matter what, your children will always be raised by the people you love most. The 10 Common Mistakes Parents Make When Choosing Guardians 1) Thinking a Will is Enough A will is essential, but it only kicks in after you're gone. It doesn't cover situations like sudden illness or incapacity. You need separate guardianship documents specifically designed to address these "what if" scenarios while you're still living. 2) Planning Only for the Long-Term If something were to happen to you today, who would take care of your kids right now? Don't just plan for the long haul – you also need to designate short-term guardians to prevent your children from being placed with strangers, even temporarily, while the authorities sort things out. 3) Not Naming a Guardian at All This might seem unthinkable, but it happens. If you don't formally name a guardian, you're leaving one of the most important decisions of your life up to the courts. This could mean your children end up with someone you wouldn’t have chosen. 4) Overlooking Backup Guardians Life is unpredictable. Your first-choice guardians may not always be available or able to step in. Always name multiple backup guardians to ensure there's a safety net if your primary choice is unable to serve. 5) Choosing Guardians Based on Financial Ability Alone Money matters, but it shouldn't be the only factor when choosing who will raise your children. Your children's well-being depends on being raised in a loving, supportive environment aligned with your values. Consider factors like location, lifestyle, parenting philosophies, and the overall compatibility of your chosen guardians with your family. And remember, you can always choose a separate financial guardian, or appoint a Trustee of a Trust, to specifically manage any money you leave behind for your children – this can be a separate role from their daily care. 6) Assuming Godparents are Legal Guardians Many people use the terms "godparent" and "legal guardian" interchangeably, but they aren’t the same. Verbal agreements or informal designations hold no legal weight. To make your wishes legally binding, you need formal guardianship documents prepared by an experienced professional. 7) Not Thinking Beyond Guardianship Guardianship isn't just about who will raise your kids – it's also about who will make important financial and healthcare decisions on their behalf. You'll need powers of attorney and other legal tools to ensure these matters are handled according to your wishes. 8) Failing to Communicate Your Wishes Don't leave anything to chance. Clearly document your values, your parenting preferences, and any specific instructions you want your guardians to follow. This guidance will provide invaluable support as they navigate the challenges of raising your children. 9) Not Reviewing and Updating Your Plan Life is constantly evolving. Your family dynamics change, your children grow, and laws are updated. It's vital to review and update your guardianship plan regularly to ensure it still reflects your current circumstances and wishes. 10) Naming a Couple Without a Contingency Plan Relationships evolve. Sadly, even the most solid couples can face unexpected challenges like divorce or separation. It’s vital to think about what would happen to your children if your chosen guardians were to split up. Would one person become the sole guardian? Would they share custody? Outlining these details now can prevent future conflict and heartache. There’s a Better Way: Create a Kids Protection Plan A Kids Protection Plan provides comprehensive protection for your children, so you never make one of the ten mistakes and put your children at risk of being raised by someone you’d never want to raise them (or worse, ending up in the foster care system). Unlike a traditional estate plan that simply names guardians, a Kids Protection Plan creates a complete safety net that addresses both immediate and long-term care needs. Every Kids Protection Plan I create with clients in Chicago includes legal documents that ensure your children won’t be placed in the care of strangers or the foster care system, even temporarily. It provides detailed instructions for emergency responders and caregivers, and identifies temporary guardians who can step in immediately. Perhaps most importantly, it creates a roadmap of your values, hopes, and dreams for your children's upbringing. With a Kids Protection Plan, you're not just naming someone to take your place - you're providing them with the guidance and legal authority they need to raise your children exactly as you would want. Ready to Protect Your Kids? Your children are your most precious asset. Don't leave their future to chance. With our Life & Legacy Planning, you can rest assured knowing that your children will always be in the most capable and loving hands, no matter what life throws your way. Ready to take control and build that plan? Schedule a free 15-minute call with me today. I'll answer your questions, address your concerns, and help you take the first step toward securing your children's future. Check out our new Guide - 7 Must-Dos When Naming Guardians For Your Kids

As we head into wedding season, if you are a newlywed or are about to tie the knot, add “estate planning” to your do list. And yes, we imagine that at this happiest time of your life, planning for your potential incapacity and eventual death is probably the farthest thing from your mind, but getting it handled as part of your wedding planning is the greatest gift you can give your soon-to-be spouse. First, be aware of the impact of doing nothing. If you were to become hospitalized for any reason prior to your wedding day, the person you love most in the world would not have the legal authority to make your medical decisions and may not even have the authority to see you in the hospital. Your beloved would have no access to your bank accounts and could even be put into a position of having to move out of your shared home abruptly in the event of your death. Indeed, once your marriage is official, your relationship becomes entirely different from both a legal and financial perspective. With this in mind, in part one we discussed the first three of six essential items you need to address in your plan, and here we cover the final three. 04 | DURABLE FINANCIAL POWER OF ATTORNEY As we touched on last week in part one, estate planning is not just about planning for what happens when you die. It is equally important—if not even more so—to plan for your potential incapacity due to a serious accident or illness. If you become incapacitated and have not legally named someone to handle your financial and legal interests, your spouse would have to petition the court to be appointed as your guardian or conservator to handle your affairs. Though your spouse would typically be given priority, this is not always the case, and the court could choose someone else. And the person the court appoints could be a family member you would never want having control over your life. In any case, if you have not chosen someone to make your financial and legal decisions in the event of your incapacity, the court will choose for you. To ensure your spouse has the ability to make these decisions, you should create power of attorney documents to give him or her this legal authority. You actually need two of these documents, and the first one is a power of attorney for property. A power of attorney for property would grant your spouse the immediate authority to manage your financial, legal, and business affairs in the event of your incapacity. With a power of attorney for property, your spouse would have a broad range of powers to handle things like paying your bills and taxes, running your business, collecting government benefits, and selling your home, as well as managing your banking and investment accounts. Granting power of attorney is especially important if you live together before you get married because, without it, the person named by the court could legally force your soon-to-be spouse out with little to no notice, leaving your beloved homeless. The second document you will need is a medical power of attorney, which we will discuss next. 05 | MEDICAL POWER OF ATTORNEY AND LIVING WILL In addition to the power of attorney for property, you will also need to create a medical power of attorney. A medical power of attorney is an advance healthcare directive that would give your spouse (or someone else) the immediate legal authority to make decisions about your healthcare and medical treatment should you become incapacitated and unable to make those decisions for yourself. For example, a medical power of attorney would allow your spouse to make decisions about your medical treatment if you are in a serious car accident or hospitalized with a debilitating illness. Without a medical power of attorney in place, your spouse would have to petition the court to become your legal guardian. As we discussed in part one, even though your spouse is generally the court’s first choice for guardian, you should spare your spouse the time, money, and trauma involved with the guardianship process by creating a medical power of attorney and naming him or her as your agent. While a medical power of attorney allows your spouse to make healthcare decisions on your behalf during your incapacity, a living will is an advance directive that explains how you would want your medical care handled, particularly at the end of life. A medical power of attorney and a living will work closely together, and for this reason, they are sometimes combined into a single document. Within the terms of your living will, you can spell out things, such as if and when you would want life support removed should you ever require it, whether you would want hydration and nutrition supplied, and even what kind of food you want and who can visit you in the hospital. 06 | NAME LEGAL GUARDIANS FOR YOUR MINOR CHILDREN If either you or your spouse has minor children from a prior relationship, or if you are planning to have kids of your own soon, it is imperative that you select and legally document long-term guardians for your children. Guardians are people legally named to care for your children in the event something should happen to you and your spouse. And do not assume that just because you have named godparents or have grandparents living nearby that is enough. You must name guardians in a legal document, or you risk creating needless conflict and a long, expensive court process for your loved ones. When working with us at Kaplan Estate Law, naming legal guardians for your kids could not be any easier or more convenient. Indeed, creating the legal documents that will ensure your children will be raised to adulthood by the people you trust most and are never placed in the care of strangers (even temporarily) is one of our specialties. And we accomplish this using our comprehensive system called the Kids Protection Plan. The Kids Protection Plan provides you with all of the legal planning tools needed to make sure there is never a question about who will take care of your kids if you and your spouse are in an accident or suffer some other life-threatening emergency. Even if you have already named guardians for your kids in your will, either on your own or with the help of a lawyer, we often find that these plans contain at least one of several common mistakes that can leave your kids at risk. Do not wait to take care of this urgent matter. In fact, if you have minor children, your number-one planning priority should be naming legal guardians to care for your children should anything happen to you. And if you need any help with this process, reach out to us and we will be glad to walk you through it. A TRUSTED ADVISOR FOR YOUR NEW FAMILY Getting married is an exciting first step for your new family, and you should start things off right by getting your estate plan properly prepared. But here is the thing about estate planning—it is not just about creating a set of documents and then filing them away in a drawer and never looking at them again until something happens. Like your family, your planning needs are constantly evolving, so you must ensure your plan is regularly updated as your assets, family situation, and the laws change. If you do not keep your plan updated, it will be totally worthless when your family needs it. At Kaplan Estate Law, we have built-in systems and processes to ensure your plan is regularly reviewed and updated, so you do not need to worry about whether you have overlooked. What’s more, our planning services go far beyond simply creating documents and then never seeing you again. Indeed, we will develop a relationship with you and your family. This is so we can get to know you, your wishes, and be there for you throughout the many stages of life—and above all, be there for your loved ones if and when you cannot be. Contact us today to get things started or e-mail lauren@kaplanestatelaw.com.

As we head into the start of wedding season, if you are a newlywed or are about to tie the knot, it's the perfect time to think about estate planning. And yes, we imagine that at this happiest time of your life, planning for your potential incapacity and eventual death is probably the farthest thing from your mind right now, but getting it handled as part of your wedding planning is the greatest gift you can give your soon-to-be spouse. First, be aware of the impact of doing nothing. If you were to become hospitalized for any reason prior to your marriage day, the person you love most in the world would not have the legal authority to make your medical decisions and may not even have the authority to see you in the hospital. Your beloved would have no access to your bank accounts and could even be put into a position of having to move out of your shared home abruptly in the event of your death. If the idea of these potential realities is terrifying to you, call us today to get a “pre-marriage” plan in place, and then, after your marriage, we can update it. Indeed, once your marriage is official, your relationship becomes entirely different from both a legal and financial perspective. With this in mind, if you’ve recently said “I do” or have plans to do so in the near future, here are six essential items you need to address in your plan. 1 | BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS FOR NEWLYWEDS (ESTATE PLANNING BASICS) One of the easiest—and often overlooked—estate planning tasks for newlyweds is updating your beneficiary designations. Some of your most valuable assets, such as life insurance policies, 401(k)s, and IRAs, do not transfer via a will or trust. Instead, they have beneficiary designations that allow you to name the person (or persons) you’d like to inherit the asset upon your death. You should name your spouse as your primary beneficiary (if that’s your wish), and then name at least one contingent, or alternate, beneficiary in case your spouse dies before you. And if you have kids, remember to never name a minor child as a beneficiary of your life insurance or retirement accounts, even as a contingent beneficiary. If a minor is listed as the beneficiary, the assets would be distributed to a court-appointed guardian, who will be in charge of managing the funds until the child reaches the age of majority, at which point all benefits are distributed to the beneficiary outright. If you want your child to inherit your life insurance or retirement account, you should set up a trust to receive those assets instead. And if you have significant retirement account assets, you may not even want those assets to go outright to your spouse (or future spouse), but instead, you may want to use a trust to distribute your retirement account assets. If you don’t want your retirement assets to go outright to your named beneficiaries and want them to have the maximum tax advantages, contact us for a Life and Legacy Planning Session. 02 | DO NEWLYWEDS NEED A WILL? A last will and testament allows you to designate who should receive your assets upon your death. If you are newly married in Chicago, you likely want your spouse to receive most, if not all, of your assets, and if so, you should name him or her as the primary beneficiary in your will. Although your spouse would likely inherit all of your assets should you die without a will, known as dying intestate, depending on state law and whether or not you have children, your assets may not get divided according to your wishes, so it’s always a good idea to create a will (or update your old one) when you get married. And to ensure that your will is created and executed properly, you should always work with trusted legal counsel like us, and never rely on generic, fill-in-the-blank documents you find online. Trust us—you don’t know what you don’t know here. Online legal document services may be better than nothing for some people, but they may actually be worse than nothing for those who truly want to ensure they’ve considered all of the options. For instance, an online document service cannot help you anticipate and plan for all the potential issues related to your family dynamics and assets that can arise and lead to conflicts and disputes between your loved ones. Yet that’s exactly what you would get when you work with a trusted legal advisor like us and use our comprehensive inquiry process. Additionally, if you intend to leave assets to someone other than your spouse in your will, or for some reason plan to leave your spouse out of your will, be sure to check our state’s laws governing marital property. In some states, a surviving spouse is entitled to a certain percentage of your assets regardless of what’s in your will. Finally, although a will is an essential part of nearly every estate plan, as you’ll see below, having a will alone is rarely enough to ensure your spouse and other loved ones stay out of court and out of conflict when something happens to you. 03 | WHY NEWLYWEDS SHOULD CONSIDER A REVOCABLE LIVING TRUST Upon your death, assets included in a will must first pass through the court process known as probate before they can be transferred to your spouse or any other beneficiary. Probate can take months or even years to complete, and it can even sometimes lead to ugly conflicts between your spouse and other family members. Not to mention, your spouse will likely have to hire an attorney to represent him or her during probate, which can result in significant legal fees that can deplete your estate. Furthermore, a will only governs the distribution of your assets upon your death. It offers you zero protection if you become incapacitated and are unable to make decisions about your own medical, financial, and legal needs. If you become incapacitated with only a will in place, your spouse would have to petition the court to be appointed as your guardian to manage your affairs. Here’s the bottom line: If your estate plan consists of a will alone, you are guaranteeing your spouse and family will have to go to court if you become incapacitated or when you die. To avoid the time, cost, and conflict inherent to an estate plan consisting solely of a will, you should consider creating a revocable living trust, along with your will. If your assets are properly titled in the name of your living trust, they would pass directly to your spouse upon your incapacity or death, without the need for any court intervention. What’s more, in the terms of your trust, you can even outline the specific conditions that must be met for you to be deemed incapacitated, which would allow you to have some control over your life in the event you become incapacitated by illness or injury. This is in contrast to a will, which only goes into effect upon your death and then merely governs the distribution of your assets. Finally, if you are getting married and have minor children from a previous marriage, there is an inherent risk of conflict between your soon-to-be new spouse and your children because your children and new spouse have conflicting interests about what happens to your assets in the event of your death or incapacity. If you want to ensure a lifelong relationship of harmony and ease between your children and your soon-to-be spouse, or new spouse, contact us—we have very specific strategies we can use to support that outcome. At Kaplan Estate Law, we focus on estate planning for young families and newlyweds in Chicago, helping couples create plans that keep their loved ones out of court and out of conflict. If you are newly married or planning a wedding and want to create a thoughtful, legally sound estate plan, we help couples throughout Chicago get everything in place. Contact us to schedule a complimentary Initial Consult. This is the first step in considering all of your assets, all of your family dynamics, and getting clear on the right plan, at the right price, for the people you love. Next week, we’ll continue with part two in this series on six estate planning essentials for newlyweds. If you have any questions, e-mail us at lauren@kaplanestatelaw.com.

Because estate planning involves thinking about difficult topics like death, incapacity, and aging, it’s something many people understandably put off. As a Chicago estate planning attorney working with young families, I see this all the time—and unfortunately, that delay often creates unnecessary stress, expense, and complications for the people you love most. To make matters more confusing, the rise of online estate planning platforms like LegalZoom®, Rocket Lawyer®, and Trust & Will® has led many to believe estate planning is just about filling out forms. But in reality, creating a plan that actually works when your family needs it requires a much deeper understanding of how the law applies to your specific assets, relationships, and goals. In fact, without a thorough understanding of how the legal process works upon your death or incapacity, along with knowing how it applies specifically to your family dynamics and the nature of your assets, you’ll likely make serious mistakes when creating a DIY will or trust. And the worst part is that these mistakes won’t be discovered until you are gone—and the very people you were trying to protect will be the ones cleaning up the mess. Estate planning is definitely not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Even if you think your particular situation is simple, that turns out to almost never be the case. To demonstrate just how complicated estate planning can be, last week in part one , we highlighted the first five of 10 of the most common estate-planning mistakes, and here we wrap up the list with the remaining five mistakes. 06 | Not Updating Beneficiary Designations In addition to reviewing and updating your core estate planning documents like your will, trust, and power of attorney, it’s crucial that you also update the documentation for your other assets, especially those with beneficiary designations. Some of your most valuable assets, like 401(k)s, IRAs, and life insurance policies, do not transfer via a will or trust. Instead, these assets have beneficiary designations that allow you to name the person (or persons) you’d like to inherit the asset upon your death. Oftentimes, people forget to change their beneficiary designations to match their estate planning goals, which can lead to disaster. For example, if you get remarried and forget to update your 401(k), your ex-spouse from 20 years ago could end up inheriting your retirement savings. Additionally, some people assume that because they’ve named a specific heir as the beneficiary of their IRA in their will or trust that there’s no need to list the same person again as beneficiary in their IRA paperwork. Because of this, they leave the IRA beneficiary form blank or list “my estate” as the beneficiary. But this is a major mistake—and one that can lead to serious complications and expense for your loved ones. It makes no difference who is listed as the beneficiary in your will or trust; you must list the person you want to inherit the asset in the beneficiary designation, or your heirs will have to go to court to claim the asset. And you should never name a minor child as a beneficiary of your life insurance or retirement accounts, even as the secondary beneficiary. If a child inherits assets, the assets become subject to control of the court until they reach the age of 18, and then, the assets are distributed outright without any protection or direction . If you want a minor to inherit assets, you can create a special trust to hold the asset until the child comes of age, and name someone you trust to serve as a successor trustee to manage the assets until that time. At Kaplan Estate Law LLC, we can support you to choose the appropriate trust for this purpose to ensure your child gets the maximum benefit from their inheritance. 07 | Improper Execution You could have the best estate planning documents in the world, but if you fail to sign them, or sign them improperly, they will fail. This might seem trivial, but we see it all the time. A loved one dies, their family brings their estate planning documents to us, and we can’t help them because the documents were either not signed or were signed improperly. To be considered legally valid, certain estate planning documents like wills must be executed (i.e. signed, witnessed, and/or notarized) following very strict legal procedures. For example, many states require that you and every witness to your will must sign it in the presence of one another. If your DIY service doesn't mention that condition (or you don’t read the fine print) and you fail to follow this procedure, the document can end up worthless. 08 | Choosing the Wrong Executors or Trustees In addition to laws regarding execution, state laws are also very specific about who can serve in certain roles like executor, trustee, or financial power of attorney. In some states, for instance, the executor of your will must either be a family member or an in-law, and if not, the person you choose must live in the state. If your chosen executor doesn’t meet those requirements, he or she cannot serve. Moreover, some states require the person you name as your executor to get a bond, which is like an insurance policy before he or she can serve. Such bonds can be difficult to get for someone who has a less-than-stellar credit score. If your executor cannot get a bond, it would be up to the court to appoint your executor, which could end up being someone you would never want managing your assets or a third-party professional, who could drain your estate with costly fees. 09 | Unintended Conflict Between Family Members Family dynamics are—to put it lightly—quite complex. This is particularly true for blended families, where spouses have children from previous relationships. If you try to go it alone using a DIY document service, you won’t be able to consider all of the potential areas where conflict might arise among your family members and plan ahead to avoid such disputes. After all, even the best set of documents will be unable to anticipate and navigate these complex emotional matters—but we can. Every day we see families end up in lifelong conflict due to poor estate planning. Yet, we also see families brought closer together as a result of handling these matters the right way. When done right, the estate planning process is actually a major opportunity to build new connections within your family, and we are specifically trained to help you with that. 10 | Failing to Properly Name Guardians for Minor Children If you are a parent with children under the age of 18 at home, your number-one estate planning priority should be selecting and legally documenting both long and short-term guardians for your kids. Guardians are the people legally named to care for your children in the event something happens to you. If you’ve named guardians for your minor children in your will—even with the help of another lawyer—your kids could still be at risk of being taken into the care of strangers. For instance, if you’ve named guardians for your kids in your will, what would happen if you became incapacitated and were no longer able to care for them? Did you know that your will only becomes operative in the event of your death, and it would do nothing to protect your children in the event of your incapacity? Or perhaps the guardians you named in your will live far from your home, so it would take them several days to get there. If you haven’t made legally-binding arrangements for the immediate care of your children, it’s highly likely that they will be placed with the authorities until those guardians arrive. And does anyone even know where you will is located and how to access it? How can they prove they are your children’s legal guardians if they can’t even find your estate plan? These are just a few of the potential complications that can arise when naming legal guardians for your kids, whether in your will or as a stand-alone measure. And if just one of these contingencies were to occur, your children would more than likely be placed into the care of strangers. At Kaplan Estate Law LLC, we offer a comprehensive system known as the Kids Protection Plan, which is included with every estate plan we prepare for families with young children. If you have already named long-term guardians in your will or as a stand-alone measure, either on your own or with a lawyer, we can review your existing legal documents to see whether you have made any of the most common mistakes that could leave your kids at risk. From there, we will revise your plan and put the proper protections in place to ensure your children are fully protected. Life & Legacy Planning: Do Right By Those You Love Most The DIY approach might work for simpler projects, but estate planning is one area where thoughtful, personalized guidance makes all the difference. If you’re looking for a Chicago estate planning attorney to help you put the right plan in place—or to review an existing plan—we’re here to help. At Kaplan Estate Law LLC, we guide you through a Life & Legacy Planning Session designed to give you clarity around your assets, your options, and what would actually happen for your loved ones in different scenarios. And if you already have a plan in place, reviewing it with a Chicago estate planning attorney can help ensure everything is properly aligned, updated, and fully working the way you intend. At Kaplan Estate Law LLC, we believe estate planning is about more than documents—it’s about making intentional decisions today to protect the people you love and create a legacy that reflects what matters most. Contact us today for a free initial consult to get your plan started.

Because estate planning involves actively thinking about and planning for frightening topics like death, old age, and crippling disability, many people put it off or simply ignore it all together until it’s too late. Sadly, this unwillingness to face reality often creates serious hardship, expense, and trauma for those loved ones you leave behind. To complicate matters, the recent proliferation of online estate planning document services, such as LegalZoom®, Rocket Lawyer®, and Trustandwill.com, may have misled you into thinking that estate planning is a do-it-yourself (DIY) affair, which involves nothing more than filling out the right legal forms. However, proper estate planning entails far more than filling out legal forms. In fact, without a thorough understanding of how the legal process works upon your death or incapacity and applied specifically to your family dynamics and the nature of your assets, many people make serious mistakes when creating a DIY will or trust. And the worst part is that these mistakes won’t be discovered until you are gone—and the very people you were trying to protect will be the ones stuck cleaning up the mess. Estate planning is definitely not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Even if you think your particular situation is simple, that turns out to almost never be the case. To demonstrate just how complicated estate planning can be, here are 10 of the most common estate planning mistakes, starting with the worst blunder of all: failing to create an estate plan. 01 | Leaving No Estate Plan at All If you die without an estate plan, the court will decide who inherits your assets, and this can lead to all sorts of problems. Who is entitled to your property is determined by our state’s intestate succession laws, which hinge largely upon whether you are married and if you have children. Spouses and children are given top priority, followed by your other closest living family members. If you are single with no children, your assets typically go to your parents and siblings, and then more distant relatives if you have no living parents or siblings. If no living relatives can be located, your assets go to the state. It’s important to note that state intestacy laws only apply to blood relatives, so unmarried partners and close friends would get nothing. If you want someone outside of your family to inherit your assets, having a plan is an absolute must. If you’re married with children and die with no plan, it might seem like things would go fairly smoothly, but that’s not always the case. If you’re married, but have children from a previous relationship, for example, the court could give everything to your spouse and leave your children with nothing. In another instance, you might be estranged from your kids or not trust them with money, but without a plan, state law controls who gets your assets, not you. Moreover, dying without a plan could also cause your surviving loved ones to get into an ugly court battle over who has the most right to your property. Or if you become incapacitated, your loved ones could even get into conflict around your medical care. You may think this would never happen to your loved ones, but we see families torn apart by it all the time, even when there’s not significant financial wealth involved. At Kaplan Estate Law, we help Chicago families create plans that handle your assets and your medical care in the exact manner you wish, taking into account all of your family dynamics, so your death or incapacity won’t be any more painful or expensive for your family than it needs to be. 02 | Thinking a Will Alone is Enough Lots of people believe that a will is the only estate planning tool they need. While a will is a fundamental part of nearly every adult’s estate plan, which can ensure that your assets go where you want them to go in the event of your death, using a will by itself comes with some serious limitations, including the following: Wills require your family to go through the court process known as probate, which can not only be lengthy and expensive, it’s also completely open to the public and frequently creates ugly conflicts among your loved ones. Wills don’t offer you any protection if become incapacitated by illness or injury and are unable to make your own medical, financial, and legal decisions. Wills don’t cover jointly owned assets or those with beneficiary designations, such as life insurance policies and 401(k) plans. Wills don’t provide any protection or guidance for when and how your heirs take control of their inheritance. Naming guardians for your minor children in your will can leave them vulnerable to being placed in the care of strangers. Given these facts, if your estate plan consists of a will alone, you are missing out on many valuable safeguards for your assets, while also guaranteeing your family will have to go to court if you become incapacitated or when you die. Fortunately, all of the above issues can be effectively managed using a trust. That said, as you’ll see below, trusts are by no means a cure-all —these documents come with their own unique drawbacks, especially if you try to prepare one on your own. 03 | Creating a Trust & Not Properly Funding It Many people now know that a trust can keep your family out of court, and you may think you can just go online to set up your own trust, or have a lawyer do it with you as a one-size-fits all solution. And while that might be true, particularly if you have very simple assets and few family members, even in that case, you are likely to overlook one of the most important parts of creating a trust: “funding” it. An unfunded trust is a trust that exists, but that doesn’t hold any of your assets because you didn’t retitle them properly, or because you acquired new assets after creating your trust. This is all too common, and if this is true for you, it will leave your family with a big mess, even though you have officially created your trust. Funding your trust properly is extremely important, because if any assets are not properly funded, the trust won’t work, and your family will have to go to court in order to take ownership of that property. And when you acquire new assets after your trust is created, you must make sure those assets are properly funded into your trust as well. At Kaplan Estate Law, we will not only make sure all of your assets are properly titled when you initially create your trust, but we will also help ensure that any new assets you acquire over the course of your life are inventoried and properly funded to your trust. This keeps your assets from being lost, and prevents your family from being inadvertently forced into court because your plan was never fully completed. 04 | Not Leaving an Up-To-Date Inventory of Assets As mentioned above, even if you’ve properly funded your assets into your trust, your estate plan will be worthless if your heirs don’t know what you have or where to find it. In fact, there’s more than $58 billion dollars worth of lost assets in the U.S. Department of Unclaimed Property right now. And that’s all because someone died or became incapacitated without letting anyone know how to locate their assets. This is especially critical for digital assets like cryptocurrency, social media, email, and data stored in the cloud, because if you haven’t properly addressed these assets in your estate plan, there’s a good chance they will be lost forever if something happens to you. For all of these reasons, creating and maintaining a comprehensive inventory of all of your assets is a standard part of every estate plan we create. With our support, you can rest assured that your family will know exactly what assets you own and how to locate them should anything happen to you. 05 | Failing to Regularly Review & Update Your Estate Plan In addition to keeping an updated asset inventory, it’s vital that you regularly review and update all of your planning documents. Far too often people prepare a will or trust , then put it into a drawer or on a shelf, and forget about it. Yet, an estate plan is not a one-and-done deal. As time passes, your life circumstances change, the laws change, and your assets change, you must update your plan to reflect these changes—that is, if you want your plan to actually work for your loved ones and keep them out of court and conflict. We recommend reviewing your plan annually to make sure its terms are up to date. And be sure to immediately update your plan following major life events like divorce, births, deaths, and inheritances. We actually have built-in processes to make sure this happens—be sure to ask us about them. Beyond sheer necessity, an annual life review can be a beautiful ritual that puts you at ease, and helps you to set the course of your life and keeps your life on course, knowing that you’ve got your affairs in order, all handled, and completely updated each year. Next week, in part two, we’ll wrap up our list of the 10 most common estate-planning mistakes. Until then, if you are ready to get your estate planning handled and taken care of the right way with ease and affordability, start by contacting us for a Life & Legacy Planning Session . Your Life & Legacy Planning Session is custom-designed to your assets, your family, your wishes, and to educate you on the best way to reach your objectives for the people you love most. If you'd like to learn more, click here to schedule a free 15 minute Initial Consult or contact Lauren at lauren@kaplanestatelaw.com.

You've taken the important step of creating an estate plan, and it includes a trust—congratulations! This shows you care deeply about keeping your family out of court and conflict, ensuring your wishes are known and honored, and you do not want to leave behind a mess for the people you love. Great work. But here's something you may not realize: an estate plan, a will, or a trust isn't a "set it and forget it" type of thing. Your estate plan is a living set of documents and tools that need regular attention to ensure they work when your loved ones need them and that they don’t fail at the worst possible moment. Think about it this way: You wouldn’t drive the same car for ten years without regular maintenance—oil changes, tire rotations, and inspections—to make sure it’s still running smoothly and safely. Similarly, your estate plan, including your trust, needs routine checkups to ensure it’s still aligned with your life circumstances, assets, legal changes, and wishes. Let’s explore why regular estate plan reviews are crucial and how often you should be checking in on your plan. Life Changes, and Your Trust Should Too Life rarely stays the same for long. Since you created your trust, you've likely experienced changes in your personal and financial life. Each of these changes can impact how effective your trust will be in protecting your assets and providing for your loved ones. Consider major life events like marriage, divorce, or the birth of children or grandchildren. These milestones fundamentally alter your family structure and potentially your wishes regarding who should benefit from your estate. For example, if you've recently welcomed a new grandchild, you might want to include them as a beneficiary. Or if you've gone through a divorce, you'll likely want to remove your ex-spouse from your trust. Your financial situation evolves as well. Perhaps you've purchased new property, started a business, or received an inheritance. These assets need to be properly incorporated into your trust. Otherwise, they may end up going through probate, defeating one of the primary purposes of having a trust in the first place. Even changes in your relationships can necessitate updates to your trust. The person you appointed as successor trustee five years ago might no longer be the best choice. Without regular reviews, your trust may not accomplish what you intend, potentially leading to conflict among your loved ones or assets being distributed in ways you never would have wanted. Laws Change, Even When Your Wishes Don't Even if your personal situation has remained relatively stable, the legal and tax landscape constantly evolves. These changes can significantly impact how your trust operates and its effectiveness in protecting your assets. Tax laws, in particular, frequently change with new administrations and shifting political priorities. For instance, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 doubled the federal estate tax exemption, dramatically changing estate planning considerations for many families. If your trust was created before this change, it might contain provisions that are no longer necessary or beneficial under current law. State laws governing trusts and estates also change regularly. These modifications can affect everything from how your trust is administered to the rights of beneficiaries. Without regular reviews, your trust might not take advantage of beneficial new laws or might run afoul of new requirements. By reviewing your trust periodically, you can ensure it remains compliant with current laws and takes advantage of any new beneficial provisions. This proactive approach helps protect your assets and your loved ones from unexpected legal complications. How Often Should You Review Your Trust? Given the importance of keeping your trust updated, you might be wondering how frequently you should review it. While there's no one-size-fits-all answer, there are some general guidelines that can help you determine the right schedule for your situation. As a baseline, I recommend reviewing your trust every three to five years, even if you don't think anything significant has changed. This regular schedule helps ensure you don't overlook gradual changes that might have occurred in your life, your assets, or the law. However, certain life events should trigger an immediate review, regardless of when you last updated your trust: Marriage, divorce, or the death of a spouse Birth or adoption of children or grandchildren Death of a named trustee, guardian, or beneficiary Significant changes in your financial situation Moving to a new state, as trust laws vary by state Major changes in tax or estate planning laws The Consequences of an Outdated Trust Can Be Severe Failing to review and update your trust regularly can lead to serious consequences that undermine your initial reasons for creating it. These consequences can range from financial losses to family conflicts that could have been avoided with proper planning. One of the most significant risks is that assets you've acquired since creating your trust may not be properly funded into it. Trust funding—the process of transferring assets into your trust's ownership—is crucial for avoiding probate. If you've purchased new property, opened new accounts, or acquired valuable assets without transferring them to your trust, these items will likely go through probate despite your efforts to avoid it. An outdated trust can also lead to unintended beneficiaries receiving your assets. If you haven't updated your trust after major life changes, your assets might go to people you no longer wish to benefit—or might not go to those you do want to include. Family conflict is another potential consequence of an outdated trust. Unclear or outdated provisions can leave your loved ones arguing over what you really intended. These disputes can damage family relationships and lead to expensive, time-consuming litigation. Tax consequences can also arise from an outdated trust. Changes in tax laws might mean your trust no longer minimizes estate taxes effectively. Without updates to address these changes, your beneficiaries might face larger tax bills than necessary, reducing their inheritance. Finally, know that reviewing your trust doesn't always mean you'll need to make changes. Sometimes you'll find that your current trust still perfectly reflects your wishes and circumstances. Even then, the review process is valuable for refreshing your understanding of your plan and giving you peace of mind. Don't Leave Your Family's Future to Chance Your trust is more than just a legal document—it's a reflection of your care for your loved ones and your desire to provide for them even when you're no longer here. By reviewing your trust regularly, you demonstrate that same care and foresight. You also save your loved ones from potential confusion, conflict, and costly legal proceedings during an already difficult time. At Kaplan Estate Law LLC, we're here to support you in this ongoing process. I understand that reviewing legal documents isn't high on anyone's list of favorite activities, but I work to make the process as simple and painless as possible, and build it into my own service ongoing, once we are working together. Don't leave your family's future to chance. Schedule a plan review with me today and ensure the plan you've created will work exactly as you intend when your loved ones need it most. Book a call here to learn how to get started.

You’ve no doubt heard of a Will, a document that says what happens to your money and belongings after you die. You may even have a Will, or know you should get one. And maybe you’ve heard of a Trust and wondered what it is and how it works. You may have even done research on Google about how to do your own Will or Trust. In fact, it’s hard to poke around the internet and not  find do-it-yourself (“DIY”) Wills and Trusts services. Legal Zoom, TrustandWill.com , and even some media personalities offer cheap DIY documents. You can even create your own Will or Trust for free by downloading a few forms. What these websites won’t do, however, is explain the potential consequences that can happen if you use one of their services.  Legal Documents Have Legal Consequences The truth is that Trusts and Wills, and other documents that all adults should have in place, like a health care directive and power of attorney, are legal documents with legal consequences. They contain lots of legal language. Even if you understand the words, you may not fully understand the nuances in the terminology. There’s a reason lawyers have to complete college, graduate from law school , then pass a bar exam before they can practice. It takes time and effort to learn the law, the legal terminology, the application of the law, and the potential consequences if something goes wrong.  Even then, many lawyers who don’t specialize in estate planning, or Wills and Trusts, put in place legal documents that fail when you become incapacitated or die, for various reasons.  And, yet, you may be getting sold on the idea that you can draft legal documents on your own, using an online website.  The promise is you can save money, and completely protect yourself and your loved ones from expensive legal consequences of not having planning in place. Unfortunately, this isn't usually the case. A Real Life Cautionary Tale Let’s keep you from being fooled by illustrating what can happen when you draft legal documents on your own without understanding the consequences. What follows is a true story: A woman passed away and her husband came into his lawyer’s office to get legal advice on what to do next. The woman (we’ll call her “Jane”) received an inheritance from her first husband (let’s call him “John”). She was also close to her adult children and her grandchildren, and wanted to make sure they received what was left of her inheritance from their father. And while she intended to leave her second husband some money, she made it very clear to her family that she wanted to provide for her children and grandchildren. Jane was frugal. She didn’t want to spend money on an attorney. So she did some research on Google about Wills and Trusts, downloaded some forms, and wrote out her own documents. She learned from Google that a Trust can keep her family from going through a court process called probate, which would save them money and leave more for them to inherit. So she drafted her own Trust thinking that she’d achieve her goals and save money at the same time.  You may already see where this is going… When John’s lawyer read Jane’s DIY Trust, they realized that what Jane actually did was leave her entire inheritance  to her second husband. Jane legally disinherited her children and grandchildren. Jane’s DIY Trust was also subject to laws of a different U.S. State than the one she lived in, meaning that any legal process related to the Trust would be more complicated than it needed to be. Surely this was not the result Jane wanted. Jane not only disinherited her children, but she failed to transfer her house to the Trust, despite drafting and filing a deed on her own, and she left assets out of her Trust altogether. So while she thought she was doing the right thing, what she really did was leave her loved ones with a giant, expensive mess.  Not surprisingly, the family ended up in court and remained there for several years. You Don’t Have to Make the Same Mistakes Jane must have believed what she heard from well-meaning folks about doing a Will and Trust on her own. She probably thought she understood the legal documents she drafted and signed. She most definitely thought she was making things easy for her family and that she was giving her children money from their father. But Jane was fooled.   Don’t be Jane. If Jane had worked with an experienced estate planning attorney, she would have created a plan that would accomplish her goals, and keep her family out of court and out of conflict. She would have saved her family years of heartache and pain, not to mention the expense.  Jane’s story teaches us that it’s absolutely worth it to work with a lawyer whenever you’re dealing with a legal document - including a Will or Trust. Don’t “Trust” those (see what we did there?) who say you can do it cheaply or do it yourself. Don’t be Jane.  What to Do Instead You owe it to your loved ones to take the time and put in the investment to do your estate planning right, and keep it up over time.  In fact, it’s the last and greatest gift you can leave them. Having your affairs buttoned up so they don’t have a mess on their hands and are allowed to process their grief in peace is your final act of love.  If you want to leave your family the gift of your love, we can help. At Kaplan Estate Law LLC, we don't merely dispense legal counsel or draft documents; we safeguard your family. We look at your specific family dynamics and your goals and then work with you to create a plan that ensures you and your loved ones avoid the stress, conflict, and chaos that comes from DIY documents.  To learn more about how we approach estate planning from a place of heart so you can leave your family with love, schedule a complimentary 15-minute cal l with our office or email lauren@kaplanestatelaw.com .