Estate Planning & Probate / Estate & Trust Litigation
We deliver specialized estate planning solutions and administration services to individuals with substantial taxable estates to large institutional fiduciaries to provide a seamless transfer of ownership that minimizes costs, taxes, and delays, and to maximize the transfer of wealth to future generations.
We will counsel you on the methods and vehicles used for asset disposition and probate avoidance, thoroughly discuss the benefits of each, and employ the best strategies to put together a sensible plan tailored to your situation. Once a plan is in place we will help you review it to determine if modification is needed to keep up with changes in your circumstances or changes in the law. Plans include:
- Wills and Specialized Trusts
- Powers of Attorney and Health Care Directives
- Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Planning
- Limited Liability Companies
- Family-Limited Partnerships
- Private Charitable Foundations
- Special Needs Trusts
- Asset Protection
We serve as general counsel to executors and administrators in estate administration and probate. When appropriate, we can serve as executors or trustees, counsel beneficiaries and fiduciaries, and provide estate representation in tax audits.
We have extensive experience representing corporate and individual trustees, fiduciaries, personal representatives, charitable organizations, and individual, corporate and institutional beneficiaries in estate and trust litigation matters of:
- Fiduciary Malfeasance
- Recovery of Imprudent Investment Losses
- Will and Trust Construction
- Citation to Discover Assets
- Asset Recovery
- Will and Trust Contests
- Contested Probate Proceedings
- Disputed and Litigated Guardianships
REPRESENTATIVE CASES
- Swenson v. Oxford Bank & Trust We won a jury verdict of more than $300,000 (representing all damages requested) for our client Swenson, for Oxford Bank's breach of fiduciary duty in managing his retirement portfolio.
- Petersen v. Wallach We represented Petersen, a beneficiary, in Appellate Court in obtaining malpractice compensation caused by negligently rendered estate planning advice by Wallach to her deceased mother which resulted in unnecessary estate/death taxes of $240,000. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that beneficiaries financially harmed by estate planning attorney's negligence have the ability to sue, overturning the lower court's ruling that automatically barred such negligent claims six years from the date of the negligent advice.
- Estate of Kirchwehn We represented a successor trustee in a civil appeal in a contested will construction regarding testator's exercised power of appointment. The Court held that the will was unambiguous, indicating that the testator intended to exercise power of appointment in favor of the named appointees.
- Estate of Robertson We represented a plenary guardian of a disabled person before the Appellate Court in a contested guardianship brought by the disabled person's granddaughter. The Court affirmed judgment of the Circuit Court in appointing guardianship to our client, the disbled person's daughter-in-law, citing evidential support.
- Estate of McCubbin We represented an administrator of an estate of a deceased person, a physician, in Appellate Court against claims that the estate was entitled to profits realized by the deceased person's medical practice since his death and that his clinic was an asset of the estate which should be sold. The Court held that goodwill attendant to the physician's medical practice and opportunity to operate the practice for profit did not survive the physician's death and did not become part of his personal estate.
