How to lower your Cook County Residential Property Taxes without Appealing
As an attorney in Cook County with numerous years of experience when it comes to helping homeowners appeal and lower their property tax burden, I also see many homeowners not taking the exemptions they are allowed to take to lower their property taxes even further. Many times, homeowners are not being given the credit for exemptions […]
3 Reasons Why You Should Appeal Your Property Taxes Every Year (the short and sweet version)
If you own property in Cook County, Illinois, you are undoubtedly aware that the odds of the Cook County Assessor raising your taxes every time your property is reassessed, are very high. The best way to help slow the rate of increase is to appeal the Assessor’s results of your property value. Here are three […]
Should Being Homebound Stop Someone from Planning Ahead?
As the Coronavirus continues to move around the country and around the world, governments are ordering people to “Shelter in Place” which means working from home, avoiding unnecessary travel, and not congregating in groups of people. However just because a person is homebound is no reason as to why they should not continue to plan ahead. Here […]
Coronavirus and Your Property Tax Assessment
The Cook County, Illinois Assessor, Fritz Kaegi has announced his plan to reassess every single property in Cook County in order to account for the Coronavirus. At this time, there has been no explanation of exactly how the Cook County Assessor’s Office plans on doing it nor has the Assessor explained the criteria he will […]
Estate Planning, PLUS
Estate Planning for most people is a way to organize their assets, a way to distribute those assets when they die by using a will or a trust, and a way to control those assets while they are alive by using Powers of Attorney. But some people need more than that. People who have high […]
Estate Planning: Helping the American Blended Family
40% of all American marriages are a second marriage for one or both spouses. This is according to PEW research published in 2015. That same study found that 22% of children (under the age of 18) live with parents who are either in their second marriage or cohabitating with someone other than the child’s birth parent. It […]
The Easiest Resolution You can Make (and why now is the time to make it)
It’s about this time we start thinking about our resolutions for the New Year. ABC News in Chicago put out a top 5 list of the most common resolutions in Chicago, they are: Enjoy life to the fullest Live a healthier lifestyle Lose weight Spend more time with family and friends Save more, spend less According […]
Penny & Belle: Protecting our Pets, Utilizing Pet Trusts
We have two dogs, Penny and Belle. Before we had those two dogs, we had two others. The first dog I owned as an adult was named Ginger. Ginger was an aptly named Corgi/Chow mix and I got her from the shelter with my first roommate out of college back in 1994. Before he went off to get his […]
4 Triggering Events for a Successful Estate Plan
Estate Planning for many people, is something done all at once, if at all. It is often done over the course of a few hours, at an attorney’s office (or the kitchen table) and once it is all signed, it is put away and not worried about until someone frantically searches for it when a death occurs. […]
Q.T.I.P in Estate Planning
A trust with a QTIP provision or rather a Qualified Terminable Interest Property (Q.T.I.P.) has two main purposes in planning one’s estate. One purpose is the availability to avoid unnecessary tax payments upon the death of one spouse. A second purpose is to ensure that specific beneficiaries will not be cut out of the trust in […]