If you are an Illinois resident you don't
need a Will or Living Trust if all of the following applies to you - Illinois intestacy
provisions distribute property as follows for those without a Will:1. Either a) you wish to leave your property at death half to your spouse and half to your children (including adoptees), or all to either if you don't have one or the other, or if you don't have either, to your parents and their descendants or more distant relatives, or b) property you don't want to leave in this manner will be distributed at death by way of trust, life insurance, retirement plan death benefit, joint tenancy with right of survivorship, payment or transfer on death account, or other contractual beneficiary designation.
2. You don't need to make specific bequests of estate property - instead letting your heirs divide or liquidate it as required to equalize distribution.
3. You don't need a trust to shelter your property from potential estate tax exposure of your heirs. This would be the case if it would be unlikely that any heir, at the time of his death, had the right to possess, or appoint to his estate or creditors, more than $2,000,000 of property, including life insurance death benefits and retirement account balances, less any lifetime taxable gifts made by the heir.
4. You don't need to select the person responsible for settling your estate. If you don't designate an executor or trustee by Will or Living Trust the probate court will appoint an estate administrator from the following list, in the following order: surviving spouse, child, grandchild, parent, sibling, more distant relatives, or someone nominated by one of them. Keep in mind that a Will or Living Trust allows you to a) waive the filing of security on the bond of the executor or trustee, and b) select guardians to serve in the event of legal disability of yourself or any minor or disabled child.
5. You don't need to leave property in trust (instead of outright) at your death. Trusts made part of your Will or Living Trust can do the following (in addition to sheltering it from exposure to estate taxes in your beneficiaries' estates, as discussed in #3, above):
a. benefit remainder beneficiaries you specify after the death of your primary beneficiaries,
b. protect trust assets from your beneficiaries' trade or judgment creditors,
c. better provide for disabled beneficiaries, or those unable to manage their own property,
d. benefit multiple generations,
e. insulate trust assets from divorced spouses of your beneficiaries, and
f. give you a measure of control over how your assets are used after your death.