Legal Question in Tax Law in Illinois

Re: Parent's property

There are several issues regarding your question. First, if out-of-state real estate remains in your parents' probate estate, the heirs potentially have two probate proceedings, not just one. this issue can be addressed by putting the out-of-state property in a trust or in a family limited liability company or family partnership. YOu will need the advice of an attorney on the best alternative in your circumstances.

Secondly, the issue of gift tax for lifetime transfers in excess of $11,000 per donee per year needs to be addressed. A lifetime transfer of the property in question can be done without causing any effect on either of your parent's unified credit that is otherwise available to their estate, which may be an issue depending on the size of your parents' estate.

Last but not least, I am concerned about your parents' needs for care as they go into that "goodnight". Again, depending on the size of your parents' estate, it may not be wise to transfer this property out of their control, should they need to sell it to meet their needs. Many otherwise well-intentioned children try to talk their parents into lifetime gifts to reduce the parents' estate, to the parents potential detriment, for "medicade planning", or "estate planning" or "probate avoidance". Your parents should consult an competent estate planning attorney with some financial planning capability to assess whether these last two issues need to be addressed in their circumstances.

Our comments are based on treating your question as a hypothetical. Accordingly, our comments could be substantially and materially different were we advised of all of the relevant facts and circumstances. Our comments are by necessity general in nature, and should not be relied upon in taking or forgoing action in your circumstances without retaining an attorney. In order to fully explore your legal matter, you should meet with us or another attorney and bring to any such meeting all relevant documents and correspondence, and any other relevant facts.

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As you are aware, in Illinois there are various deadlines for filing a complaint, filing an answer to a complaint, or taking other action in order to preserve your legal rights, and avoid a complete loss of those rights. You should retain counsel immediately in order to be fully advised of your rights, and to be fully informed of the applicable time period within which those rights must be asserted. If you were to delay in doing so, it might result in your potential cause of action being forever barred.