Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Illinois

A living will does not impact your assets. A living will is a statement about discontinuing life support. You can also address the life support issue using a power of attorney for health care, which in my view is preferred.

A will or trust, not a living will, would address the disposition of your assets. If your bank accounts are solely in your name, then your will could designate who gets those. You would either be able to specifically state what you want to happen with the accounts or they could just fall into a more general disposition, such as, "I give my estate to ..." The will or trust generally would not have any impact on the accounts if the accounts are jointly held or have a payable on death (POD) designation. Then they would pass directly based on the way the accounts are held.

Absent any estate plan, assuming Illinois, your estate would pass 1/2 to your spouse and 1/2 to your children. If no spouse, all to your children. If no children, all to your spouse. If any child has passed, that child share would pass down.

Please be sure to work with an attorney concerning your estate plan. I have seen a number of do-it-yourself or software-guided wills. Not a single one was correct. Several worked out okay because things happened a certain way, but had things gone differently the results would have been problematic.

A bank account is an agreement between the account holder and the bank. How the account is set up determines who gets the account on the death of the account holder. If the account holder names no beneficiary or co-owner, the account balance will be distributed on the death of the account holder according to Illinois law.