Estate Planning · Oak Brook, Illinois
Wills, trusts, and the planning that keeps your family in control and out of court, from the same DuPage County firm since 1990.
Oak Brook is one of the most affluent communities in DuPage County, and that prosperity changes the estate-planning conversation. For many Oak Brook families, the question is not just who inherits, but how to pass significant wealth — a high-value home, investment accounts, business interests, and more — efficiently, privately, and with as little lost to taxes as the law allows. We provide the sophisticated, coordinated planning that higher-net-worth Oak Brook families need, while keeping it understandable and personal.
Oak Brook is in DuPage County, so probate without planning runs through the DuPage County Judicial Center in Wheaton — and for a substantial estate, that public, court-supervised process is exactly what good planning is designed to avoid. You work directly with the attorney building your estate plan, and we coordinate the trust, tax strategy, business succession, and incapacity documents as one integrated plan rather than a stack of disconnected forms.
Full estate planning practice, every service handled by one experienced team.
Decades of estate planning work for Oak Brook families, with particular attention to higher-value estates, business owners, and tax-sensitive plans.
Thirty plus years in the DuPage County courts in Wheaton, plus the recorder, title companies, and assessor offices an Oak Brook estate runs through.
Chris or John handles your file personally. No handoffs to paralegals or junior attorneys.
Flat-fee pricing where possible. Hourly only when scope justifies it. Quoted upfront.
Beyond estate planning, the firm also handles real estate, probate, criminal defense, and civil litigation.
Initial consultation is free. No obligation to engage afterward.
For affluent Oak Brook households, the Illinois estate tax is not a remote concern — it is a live one. The state’s exemption is far below the federal threshold and, unlike the federal exemption, does not transfer between spouses, so a married couple that fails to plan can waste an entire exemption and leave their family a six-figure tax bill that careful structuring would have avoided. We calculate the exposure precisely and use the tools the law allows — credit-shelter and other trusts, lifetime gifting, and life insurance held outside the estate — to reduce or eliminate it.
Larger estates also tend to be more complicated, and that is where coordination matters. A high-value home, brokerage and retirement accounts, real estate holdings, and a closely held business each pass differently and carry their own tax and control issues. A plan that treats them in isolation creates gaps; a plan that integrates the trust, the tax strategy, the business succession, and the beneficiary designations protects the whole picture. For Oak Brook families, that integrated approach is the difference between a plan that looks complete and one that actually is.
From our Villa Park office, we serve Oak Brook residents and businesses across DuPage and Cook County.
Yes, and Oak Brook is a community where the planning often runs deeper. With higher-value estates and business interests common here, we focus on trust structures, estate tax planning, and asset protection alongside the core documents. We have served Oak Brook families since 1990.
Standard plans (will, trust, POAs, advance directives) are flat-fee. We quote exact pricing at your free consultation based on complexity and family situation.
Depends on your situation. Most families with real estate, minor children, or assets above $200K benefit from trust-based planning. Will-only plans work for simpler situations. We tell you honestly at consultation.
Typical timeline: initial consultation (Day 1), drafts ready in 1-2 weeks, signing ceremony shortly after. Most plans complete within a month.
Most consultations happen by phone or video. Signing requires either in-office or remote notary process. We accommodate however works best.
It is more likely than many people assume. Illinois imposes its own estate tax with an exemption well below the federal one, and it is not portable between spouses. For an affluent Oak Brook family — a high-value home, investment and retirement accounts, life insurance, perhaps a business — the combined estate can cross that threshold easily. The good news is that the tax is often reducible or avoidable with proper trust and gifting strategies. We start by calculating exactly where you stand.
Absolutely. For many Oak Brook families the business is among the most valuable and most vulnerable assets, and it needs to be coordinated with the rest of the estate plan — through succession planning, a buy-sell agreement, and tax-aware structuring. Leaving it out, or treating it separately, is how families end up with disputes, forced sales, or unnecessary tax. We integrate your business interests into the overall plan so the transition is orderly and the value is preserved.
Whether you’re planning ahead or in the middle of an active matter, the first conversation is free.