Estate Planning · DuPage County, Illinois
Wills, trusts, and the planning that keeps your family in control and out of court, from the same DuPage County firm since 1990.
For most families, the federal estate tax is not a worry — the exemption is high enough that the vast majority of estates owe nothing. But Illinois is different. Illinois imposes its own estate tax with a far lower exemption than the federal one, which means families who would never face a federal estate tax bill can still owe hundreds of thousands to the state. If your estate includes a home, a business, life insurance, and retirement accounts, you can cross that threshold faster than you would expect. We help you understand where you stand and put planning in place to reduce or eliminate the tax.
We do estate tax planning for individuals, families, and business owners across DuPage County and the western suburbs, coordinating it with the rest of your plan — your trusts, your will, and gifting strategies. You work directly with the attorney designing the plan, we run the numbers in plain language so you can see the exposure, and we use the tools the law allows to keep more of your estate with your family rather than the state.
Related reading: How much does estate planning cost in Illinois?
Every situation is different. We design the right combination for yours.
Common minimization strategies: ILITs, GRATs, dynasty trusts
We know the Illinois rules in this niche, not just generic estate planning principles.
Specialized strategies must coordinate with your wills, trusts, and POAs. We design them together.
We model the actual tax and benefit impact of strategies before you commit.
Tax law and rules change. We update strategies as needed over time.
Specialized work but predictable pricing, quoted at consultation, not hourly billed.
Chris or John handles this work personally. No handoffs to paralegals.
The federal estate tax exemption sits in the millions per person, so very few estates ever owe it. Illinois sets its own exemption far lower, and unlike the federal system it is not portable between spouses, meaning a surviving spouse cannot simply inherit the unused portion. The result catches families off guard: an estate well under the federal threshold — a paid-off home, a life insurance policy, a retirement account, and a small business — can still owe a substantial Illinois estate tax. The first step is always to calculate your actual exposure, because many people are closer to the line than they think.
Once we know where you stand, there are real tools to reduce or eliminate the tax: properly structured trusts that preserve both spouses’ exemptions, lifetime gifting that shrinks the taxable estate, life insurance owned outside your estate, and charitable strategies for those who are inclined. None of these work as an afterthought; they have to be built into the plan and maintained. We design that structure around your assets and your family, so the planning actually delivers the savings rather than just looking good on paper.
From our Villa Park office, we represent clients across DuPage County and the western suburbs of Chicago.
Illinois imposes its own estate tax on estates exceeding $4 million, significantly lower than the federal threshold. This catches many families with appreciated real estate, business interests, or retirement accounts who don’t think of themselves as ‘wealthy.’
Depends on estate size and strategies. For estates in the $5-15M range, well-designed planning can save several hundred thousand to several million in combined Illinois and federal taxes. We provide specific projections at your consultation.
Some advanced strategies (irrevocable trusts) do require relinquishing control. Others (annual gifting, basis adjustments, business entity structures) preserve more flexibility. We design the plan around your priorities.
State estate tax depends on residency at death, not where you executed documents. If you maintain Illinois residency, Illinois estate tax applies. We address this for clients with multi-state lives.
Tax law changes frequently, both federal and Illinois. Significant federal reform is expected by the end of 2025. We recommend formal review every 2-3 years and immediately after any major tax legislation.
Yes, and it is the reason estate tax planning matters here even when federal tax is not a concern. Illinois imposes an estate tax on estates above its own exemption, which is well below the federal exemption. Because that Illinois exemption is also not portable between spouses, married couples in particular need to plan deliberately to use both exemptions. A surprising number of middle- and upper-middle-class Illinois estates owe this tax without the family realizing it was avoidable.
There are several proven strategies, and the right mix depends on your assets and goals. They include trusts designed to preserve both spouses’ exemptions, lifetime gifting within annual and lifetime limits, holding life insurance in an irrevocable trust so it sits outside your taxable estate, and charitable giving. These tools have to be set up correctly and coordinated with the rest of your plan to work. We calculate your exposure first, then build the structure that reduces it as much as the law allows.
A free consultation tells you whether this strategy fits your situation, and what the realistic impact would be.