Background
Our law firm limits its practice to only estate planning. In more than forty years of legal experience we have prepared over 5000 estate plans and administered more than 700 estates and trusts. We provide legal and tax counsel to our clients in areas such as living trusts, irrevocable trusts, wills, powers of attorney, family limited partnerships (FLP), limited liability companies (LLC), family business succession, qualified personal residence trusts (QPRT), charitable trusts, qualified domestic trusts (QDOT) for non-citizen spouses, probate administration, post-mortem trust administration, estate tax returns and other matters. Having administrered over 700 trusts after the trust creator has passed away, has provided us with a wealth of experience in the "back-end" of the trust process. This uniquely provides us the ability to incorporate that experience into the "front-end" of the trust process, when we draft your documents. This provide our clients with the highest quality estate plan. If you would like to know how our clients feel about the services we provide, see CLIENT REVIEWS.
As you can imagine, there are many choices and options available to you when you prepare your estate plan. How do you decide what estate planning "tools" are best for you? Making these decisions can be compared to walking along the table at a fine buffet restaurant. There are many items to choose from, but not all of the choices on the table may be appealing. You choose only those that appeal to you.
Based upon our experience, we are uniquely qualified to assist you in making your estate planning choices. One of the single most important things for us to do, is to listen to you and determine what your goals and objectives are. We will conduct a thorough and detailed analysis of what the assets in your estate consist of and who you want to leave them to. Then, a determination of the tax consequences (if any) of the transfer of those assets must be made. Any special needs of your beneficiaries should be explored so that your specific goals can be achieved. We will also give strong consideration to protecting your loved ones' inheritance form divorce and creditor claims, lawsuits, illness and disability. Most clients also request a plan that guarantees that the inheritance will pass from children to grandchildren, rather than to in-laws or other parties. We then prepare the plan that would best accomplish those goals. The tools we use in planning estates are often basic and easily understood, however, they can sometimes be complex and difficult to understand. It is our job to educate you in the operation of the more complex estate planning tools so that you, with the help of our advice, can make an educated decision about which planning tools you will select from the "buffet table."
Many of our clients are also looking for good, solid dependable financial advice with respect to their investment and retirement portfolios. We are lawyers and not financial planners. We do not hold any securities or insurance licenses and are not authorized to provide you with financial planning or investment advice or purchase any financial products. We do, however, have three (3) trusted financial planning "partners" with whom our clients have worked for as long as twenty (20) years. We have chosen to work with these organizations because of their expertise, quality of work, ethical view on financial advice, integrity and honesty. These are three(3) organizations that care deeply about their clients, often difficult to find in today's world of high commission, sell "the flavor of the day" financial advisors. We also appreciate the way they remain in constant contact with their clients, a rare quality in many financial planning organizations. We are pleased to provide their websites to you so that you can contact them directly to determine how they can help you. They are either "fee based" advisors, "commission based" advisors or will work with you on either basis. They all offer education, regular reviews, handle retiree and pre-retiree planning, IRA roll overs, tax reduction analysis/planning and full portfolio management. The three are: www.reznywealth.com, plataniafinancial.com, and www.generationsfinancialgroup.com. We are confident that they can provide you with the appropriate financial, tax and investment advice you require.
In addition to our law degrees, both attorneys have completed post graduate tax law training. One attorney holds an advanced certificate in estate planning and the other attorney holds an advanced degree, known as a Masters of Law in Taxation (LL.M.). We both hold active memberships in the Northwest Suburban Estate Planning Council (NWSEPC) and the Chicago Estate Planning Council (CEPC). Mr. Kiselstein has been on the Board of Directors of the NWSEPC for more than ten(10) years. Both of these organizations have a chief objective of providing continuing legal education to attorneys and accountants in the fields of estate planning, elder law planning (including medicaid eligibility), and estate taxation. Both attorneys are regular attendees of conferences conducted by the IICLE (Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education) in Estate Planning, Special Needs Trusts, Probate Practice, Trust Administration, Family Limited Partnerships, Limited Liability Companies and Business Succession.
When we are not working with our clients or "going to school," we lecture regularly in the Chicagoland area at public seminars at libraries, senior centers, park districts and local hotels. For a schedule of our upcoming free public seminars, click UPCOMING SEMINARS. We also conduct private seminars for such organizations as Motorola, United Airlines, Brunswick, Honeywell, GATX, UOP, Illinois Tool Works (ITW), National Association For The Mentally Ill, Loyola University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Rush Presbyterian St. Lukes Medical Center, U.S. Customs Department, U.S. Naval Officers Association, and others. Our commentary can be found in the Chicago Tribune and we can also be heard on Channel 26 TV and WBBM radio.
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