Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Illinois

Re: wills and 401k's

No Illinois law prevent you from changing the beneficiary designation on your 401(k).

No Illinois Law prevent you from changing the legetees on you will.

He may be entitled to get a spouses share.

(10,000.), but he would have to prove he is your spouse.

Please feel free to use these resources:

email: [email protected]

web: www.michelottilaw.com

blog: blog.michelottilaw.com

Re: wills and 401k's

I realize that plan administrators will generally require a spousal waiver to be completed (and signed by your estranged spouse) if you want to leave your 401(k) to someone other than him.

You are doing the right thing by trying to get the marriage annulled. However, if you are concerned that something may happen to you prior to the annulment being made final, you should notify the plan administrator that your designated beneficiary is your daughter, and that you have no spouse (due to an invalid marriage). This will at least put the trustee on notice that there is a dispute over who is the beneficiary and they should not distribute the funds right away. (They don't want to be in the middle of a law suit).

You should be able to change your life insurance beneficiary without any problem (unless of course your employer is requiring a spousal waiver for this as well).

Good luck to you.

Re: wills and 401k's

Based on what you have told me, I recommend contacting an attorney to get an annulment asap. Given that your marriage is void as a matter of IL law, the annulment can be done very fast. Then that resolves all your other concerns. Our firm can handle your annulment if you are interested, but the important thing is to get out of your marriage now, since you may legitimize your marriage. Il law says that if you remain in a void marriage for a long period of time after you are aware of the void nature of it, it becomes legitimate.