01
Trust Drafting & Design
Preparation of the revocable living trust instrument, structured around your assets, family circumstances, and objectives, with the dispositive terms that control how property is held and ultimately distributed.
Estate Planning & Private Client
Revocable Living Trusts
A revocable living trust lets you avoid probate while retaining control over your assets. We draft it, fund it, and coordinate it with the rest of your plan so it does the work it is meant to do, in your lifetime and after.
An Illinois will must be deposited with the circuit clerk at death, whether or not an estate is opened, and from that day it is public. A trust instrument is filed nowhere. A revocable living trust buys that privacy, and it buys time: the assets it holds pass to your successor trustee under a private document, outside a probate estate that stays open at least six months while creditors have their window to claim.
In life the trust changes nothing but the name on the title; you serve as trustee and report its income under your own Social Security number. Funding is what makes it real. A mortgaged home can be deeded to the trustee without triggering the due-on-sale clause, which federal law suspends when the settlor remains beneficiary and occupant. Retirement accounts cannot be retitled without a taxable distribution; they pass by designation, and naming the trust calls for see-through drafting under the ten-year payout rules.
It is neither a tax shelter nor a creditor shield. It is a title plan: an asset census, then the instrument, then the deeds and re-registrations, with a pour-over will as the backstop.
What we do
Revocable living trust services, from drafting and funding through successor administration.
02
Trust Funding & Retitling
Transfer of real estate, financial accounts, and business interests into the trust, and coordination of beneficiary designations, so the trust actually holds the assets it is meant to govern.
03
Pour-Over Will Coordination
A pour-over will that directs any assets not transferred during your lifetime into the trust at death, serving as a backstop so the plan still channels property to a single instrument.
04
Incapacity & Successor-Trustee Planning
Successor-trustee provisions that allow management of trust assets for your benefit if you become incapacitated, drafted to reduce the need for a court-supervised guardianship over your finances.
05
Beneficiary & Distribution Structuring
Distribution terms for beneficiaries, including provisions that hold assets in trust for minor children or for beneficiaries who should not receive property outright, written to your wishes.
06
Estate-Plan Integration
Coordination of the trust with your powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and broader estate and tax planning, so the documents work together rather than against one another.
07
Trust Amendment & Restatement
Amendment or full restatement of an existing revocable trust as your circumstances, family, or assets change, keeping the instrument current as a living part of your plan.
08
Trust Administration Support
Guidance for successor trustees on administering and settling the trust after incapacity or death, covering asset collection, beneficiary communication, and orderly distribution under the trust terms.
What you should know
How a revocable living trust actually behaves.
01
Control, with the paperwork to match
While you live, the trust is a grantor trust: it needs no taxpayer number of its own, files no return, and its income lands on your Form 1040 exactly as before. At your death it becomes irrevocable, obtains its own EIN, and begins filing Form 1041. Nothing about your tax life changes until then.
02
Funding is asset by asset
Real estate moves by a recorded deed to the trustee. Bank and brokerage accounts move by re-registration, and any transfer-on-death designation on them is cancelled so it cannot override the trust. A closely held interest moves by written assignment, and most operating agreements require the other owners' consent first. We check each against the census.
03
Private from the public, not from your heirs
A trust keeps the instrument out of the court file, but once it turns irrevocable at death the Illinois Trust Code requires the successor trustee to notify the beneficiaries of its existence and their right to a copy, and to account to them yearly. Privacy from the world comes with disclosure to those who inherit.
04
It is not a tax or creditor shield
Because you retain the power to revoke, the assets remain in your taxable estate and reachable by your creditors during life. Tax minimization and creditor protection call for other structures.
05
Incapacity needs a trigger you can prove
A successor trustee can take over without a guardianship only if the instrument says how incapacity is established. We define it by written certification from treating physicians rather than a court finding, and pair it with a HIPAA release so those physicians may speak to the successor. Without both, the bank waits for a judge.
06
Amend it the way the instrument says
Amendments follow the trust's own procedure, in writing, signed, and delivered as its terms direct; a margin note or a conversation with the trustee changes nothing. When the changes accumulate, a full restatement replaces the patchwork with one document and requires no retitling, because the trust itself continues and only its terms are new.
The arc of a trust
How this work runs
From title in your name to title that outlives you.
- Stage 01
Balance-sheet census
Before a word is drafted, we inventory how every asset is actually titled, checking deeds, brokerage registrations, business interests, and beneficiary designations, because the trust can only govern what it will eventually hold. This census decides what funds the trust, what passes by designation, and what stays outside it.
- Stage 02
Instrument & backstops
We draft the trust with you as initial trustee, a successor-trustee succession that engages on incapacity without a guardianship, and dispositive terms shaped to your family. A pour-over will, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives are executed in the same sitting so the plan has no orphaned documents.
- Stage 03
The funding campaign
Then comes the work most plans skip. Deeds are re-recorded into the trustee's name, accounts are retitled, business interests are assigned, and designations are redirected, item by item against the census, until the trust holds what the instrument governs. An unfunded trust is a plan on paper only.
- Stage 04
Amendment & succession
The trust stays revocable, so it moves with your life, amended or restated as marriages, children, and assets change. When incapacity or death arrives, the successor trustee administers and distributes under the instrument, privately, with our counsel and without the probate court.
A trust governs only what it holds, so we do not leave until the title moves.
Frequently asked
Common questions on revocable living trusts.
What is a revocable living trust?
A revocable living trust is an arrangement you create during your lifetime to hold title to your assets, with yourself typically serving as the initial trustee. Because it is revocable, you keep the power to amend or revoke it and to manage the assets exactly as you do now. On your death, the assets the trust holds pass to your named beneficiaries under the trust terms, generally without passing through probate.
How does a revocable living trust avoid probate?
Probate is the court process for transferring assets titled in an individual's name at death. Assets properly transferred into a revocable living trust are titled in the trust rather than in your individual name, so at death they pass under the trust instrument to your successor trustee and beneficiaries instead of through the probate court. This can reduce the cost, delay, and public exposure that probate involves. The benefit depends on the trust actually being funded.
Do I keep control of assets in a revocable trust?
Yes. While you have capacity you serve as trustee, keep the checkbook, and may amend or revoke the trust by the method the instrument specifies. For income tax purposes the trust is you: no separate return and no separate taxpayer number. The one visible change is how title reads, and if you want a second signature available you can name a co-trustee to act alongside you without giving up any authority of your own.
Does a revocable trust reduce my estate taxes or protect assets from creditors?
Generally no. Because you retain the power to revoke the trust and control its assets, the assets remain part of your taxable estate and reachable by your creditors during your lifetime. A revocable living trust is primarily a probate-avoidance and incapacity-management tool. Where estate-tax minimization or creditor protection is the goal, other structures such as irrevocable trusts are typically used, often alongside a revocable trust as part of an integrated plan.
Why does a revocable trust have to be funded?
A trust only governs the assets actually transferred into it. Funding is the process of retitling accounts and property, and updating beneficiary designations where appropriate, so the trust holds them. An unfunded or partially funded trust leaves assets in your individual name, which can send them through probate and defeat the plan. We assist with the funding step and with a pour-over will as a backstop for assets not transferred during your lifetime.
What happens to a revocable trust if I become incapacitated?
A well-drafted revocable living trust names a successor trustee who can manage the trust assets for your benefit if you become incapacitated, often without the need for a court-supervised guardianship over your finances. This incapacity planning is one reason a trust can do work a will cannot, since a will operates only at death. We coordinate the trust with powers of attorney and healthcare directives so the plan functions across both lifetime incapacity and death.
Related
Adjacent estate planning & private client practices.
Wills & Powers of Attorney
Will drafting, financial and healthcare powers of attorney, and the directives that complete a revocable trust plan and govern decisions during life.
Explore →Irrevocable Trusts & ILITs
Irrevocable trust and life-insurance trust structures used where removing assets from the taxable estate and reducing tax liability is the objective.
Explore →Dynasty & Generation-Skipping Trusts
Dynasty and generation-skipping trusts that move wealth across generations with estate and gift tax planned at each transfer.
Explore →Charitable Foundations & Trusts
Charitable foundation and trust planning that sets a family's giving in a lasting structure while pursuing the associated tax benefits.
Explore →Reviewed by Jonathan D. Herpy, Sr., Senior Partner · Last updated October 2026 · Educational overview · Not legal advice