Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Illinois

A cash gift/inheritance

A 21 yr old receives a cash inheritance of $300K from grandfathers estate. Cash was held in safe at home. Not included in probate. Not sure if there even was a probate started. In turn, the 21 year old gifts large amounts of this money to friends for repayment of acts of kindness. $40K to one friend and about $20K to another. The friend who received $40K in turn gifted $10K to the friend who received $20K for repayment of acts of kindness. Everyone is trying to avoid the tax man and a lot of cash is exchanging hands and being spent. It seems like something is not right. Are my feelings correct? I am trying to advise the $20K friend that he should not have accepted such gifts and that it could lead to nothing but trouble. Are these people setting themselves up for legal problems? Supposedly the attorney of the deceased knows of the large sums of money and helped draft a 'separate' will for the purpose of distributing this money. None of this makes sense to me.


Asked on 3/08/07, 4:58 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Cyndi Perez Trostin

Re: A cash gift/inheritance

Any gift that is over $12,000 must be reported on a gift tax return. I'm sure the attorney who is overseeing these transactions is aware of this requirement.

In addition, in the state of Illinois any estate that is valued at over $100,000 must be probated whether or not there is a will in existence (unless the money is held in trust).

If you are one of the beneficiaries of the funds you describe in your posting, it might be advisable to have an independent attorney review your rights and liabilities under the situation.

Good luck to you.

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Answered on 3/09/07, 9:55 am


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