01
Will Drafting & Review
Preparation and review of wills that direct how your property is distributed, name an executor, and reflect your specific wishes rather than the default formula of your state's intestacy statute.
Estate Planning & Private Client
Wills & Powers of Attorney
The documents that decide who speaks for you and where your property goes. A will carries out your wishes, and powers of attorney keep financial and medical decisions in trusted hands if you cannot make them yourself.
Under the Illinois intestacy statute, a married person who dies with children and without a will leaves half the probate estate to the spouse and half to the children, and a minor child's share is held under court supervision until eighteen. The statute does not ask whether this is a second marriage or whether an eighteen-year-old should own a share of a house. A will is how you answer those questions.
Powers of attorney cover the years before. Illinois recognizes two statutory short forms. The property power requires your signature, one witness and a notary, and is durable by default, so the agent's authority survives your incapacity rather than ending with it. The health care power needs one witness and no notary. Both let you nominate the guardian a court should appoint if one is needed.
The failure modes are known. An attesting witness who is also a beneficiary forfeits the gift above an intestate share. A power the bank will not honor is a guardianship petition waiting to be filed. We draft against both, supervise the signing, and read each document against the trust and designations beside it.
What we do
Drafting, execution, and review of the core documents that put your wishes in writing and your decisions in trusted hands.
02
Financial Powers of Attorney
Durable financial powers of attorney authorizing a person you trust to manage money and property on your behalf, with the scope and timing set to what you intend and no broader.
03
Healthcare Powers of Attorney
Healthcare powers of attorney appointing an agent to make medical decisions if you cannot make them yourself, so care stays in the hands of someone who knows your wishes.
04
Advance Healthcare Directives
Living wills and advance directives that record your preferences for medical treatment and end-of-life care, coordinated with your healthcare power of attorney.
05
Guardian & Executor Nominations
Provisions nominating guardians for minor children and naming the executors and agents who will carry out your plan, with attention to successors if a first choice cannot serve.
06
Execution & Formalities
Signing and witnessing will run online through Proof once that service is live, under Illinois' electronic-wills and remote-witnessing rules, so each document meets the formalities required to be valid and enforceable and the risk of a later challenge is reduced.
07
Coordination With Trusts & Beneficiary Designations
Alignment of your will with any revocable or irrevocable trusts, retirement and insurance beneficiary designations, and account titling, so the pieces of your plan work together rather than against one another.
08
Periodic Review & Updates
Review and revision after marriage, divorce, a birth, a death, a significant change in assets, or a move to another state, so the documents keep reflecting your wishes and current law.
What you should know
The realities that shape a will-and-powers-of-attorney plan.
01
Who may witness, and who may not
An Illinois will needs two credible witnesses who sign in your presence. A witness who is also a beneficiary keeps no more than intestacy would have given, and a beneficiary's spouse is treated the same way. We use witnesses who take nothing under the will, so the attestation never has to be defended.
02
Who intestacy leaves out
Illinois intestacy runs to a spouse and descendants, then parents and siblings, then more distant kin. It never reaches a partner you did not marry or a stepchild you did not adopt. A will is the only instrument that can provide for either, and a gift to 'my children' does not include a stepchild.
03
Immediate or springing is your choice
The Illinois property form lets you decide whether the agent's authority begins at signing or only on a written finding of incapacity. A springing power feels safer and is slower, because the bank wants the physician's letter first. Many clients choose an immediate power and control its use by holding the signed original themselves.
04
What a guardianship actually involves
Without a power of attorney, authority over an incapacitated adult in Illinois comes only by guardianship. A physician must report on the respondent's condition, a guardian ad litem is appointed to investigate, and the summons is served on your relative in person before a hearing. The guardian then reports to the court every year.
05
The will does not control everything
Life insurance, retirement accounts, and anything with a transfer-on-death designation pass by the beneficiary form, not the will. Property held in joint tenancy passes to the survivor. A will that divides the estate equally among three children while one of them is joint owner of the main account has not done what it says.
06
What divorce changes and what marriage does not
Illinois revokes every gift to a former spouse, and that spouse's nomination as executor, when a divorce judgment is entered, treating that spouse as having died first. It does nothing of the kind for remarriage or a move from another state, and an after-born child takes only an intestate share unless the will says otherwise.
The arc of a plan
How this work runs
From family ledger to signing table to living plan.
- Stage 01
The Family Ledger
Before a word is drafted, we map the people and the property: who depends on you, who you trust to act, how each account and asset is titled, and which pass outside a will by beneficiary designation. Most planning failures are discovered here, or never.
- Stage 02
Naming the Hands
Executor, financial agent, healthcare agent, and guardian for minor children, with successors behind each. We calibrate every power of attorney to your intent: effective now or on incapacity, gift powers granted or withheld, and authority no broader than you mean to give.
- Stage 03
The Signing Ceremony
Execution is where wills die. We supervise the formalities, from the testator signing before disinterested witnesses to notarized agent authority and self-proving affidavits where available, so the documents hold up when they are finally read by a probate court or a skeptical bank.
- Stage 04
The Living Plan
A signed will begins aging the day it is executed. Marriage, divorce, a birth, a death, or a move across state lines each triggers a review, and revisions run by codicil or restatement so the plan on file is always the plan you mean.
A will is judged once, years from now, by people who cannot ask you what you meant, so we write it knowing you will not be in the room to explain.
2 credible witnesses
required to attest an Illinois will
Frequently asked
Common questions on wills and powers of attorney.
Do I really need a will if my estate is modest?
Yes, and the reason is not the size of the estate. Illinois lets a modest estate pass by affidavit without a court proceeding, but the affidavit only distributes to whoever the will or the intestacy statute names; it does not choose for you. A will names the beneficiaries, the executor, and a guardian for minor children, and it is the only document that can leave anything to someone the intestacy statute ignores.
What is the difference between a will and a power of attorney?
A will takes effect at death and directs how your property is distributed. A power of attorney operates while you are alive. It authorizes a person you trust to act on your behalf, typically if you become unable to act for yourself, through a financial power of attorney for money and property and a healthcare power of attorney for medical decisions. A complete plan usually includes both, so your wishes are covered both during life and after.
What happens if I become incapacitated without a power of attorney?
Without a valid power of attorney, no one automatically has legal authority to manage your finances or make medical decisions for you. Your family may have to petition a court to appoint a guardian or conservator, a process that takes time, costs money, and puts the decision in a judge's hands. Signing durable powers of attorney while you have capacity lets you choose who acts for you and on what terms, and generally avoids that court process.
How does a will work together with trusts and other documents?
By doing less than people expect. When a revocable trust is in place the will is usually a pour-over will: it catches anything left outside the trust and sends it in, and it is the one place a guardian for minor children can be named. Retirement accounts and life insurance pass by their beneficiary forms whatever the will says, so we read the forms, the trust, and the will side by side before anything is signed.
How often should I update my will and powers of attorney?
After a marriage or divorce, after a birth or death in the family, and after a move to another state, because each changes who the documents name or the law they are read under. Illinois revokes a former spouse's gifts automatically on divorce; it does not write in a new spouse, and it gives an after-born child only an intestate share. A power of attorney more than a few years old also tends to draw a second look from a bank, so we re-execute on a schedule rather than in a crisis.
Does a power of attorney let someone override my decisions while I am still capable?
No. A power of attorney grants authority on the terms you set, and you retain the right to make your own decisions as long as you have capacity. The document can be drafted to take effect immediately or only upon incapacity, can be limited to specific powers, and can be revoked while you are competent. We set the scope and timing to your wishes so the authority is neither broader nor narrower than you intend.
Related
Adjacent estate-planning practices.
Revocable Living Trusts
Trusts that help avoid probate and keep control of your assets during life, working alongside a will as part of a coordinated plan.
Explore →Irrevocable Trusts & ILITs
Irrevocable trust structures, including life insurance trusts, used to move property out of the estate and address tax liability.
Explore →Retirement & Medicaid Planning
Integrating retirement benefits and planning for long-term care and Medicaid eligibility within a complete estate plan.
Explore →Executive & Business Succession
Succession planning that keeps a business running and protects your legacy alongside your personal estate documents.
Explore →Reviewed by Jonathan D. Herpy, Sr., Senior Partner · Last updated October 2026 · Educational overview · Not legal advice