Mahou Law LLC

08/19/2026

Most people assume that if they die, everything goes to their spouse.

In Illinois, that’s only true if you have no children.

Illinois law splits it. Your spouse takes half. Your children split the other half. The statute doesn’t ask whether there’s still a mortgage. It doesn’t ask whether your child is seven or thirty-seven. If a child is a minor, they can’t inherit directly at all, so a court gets involved in managing their share.

I don’t think most people avoid this because they don’t care. They avoid it because sitting down and deciding what happens after you’re gone feels like tempting something. So it goes on the list, and it stays on the list.

We do estate planning to help families avoid the unknown and protect what they have built for who they care most about.

A will replaces the state’s formula with yours. It won’t avoid probate and it won’t override a beneficiary designation, but it decides who inherits and who raises your children instead of leaving both to a default.

If you want to stop carrying this one, that’s what I’m here for.

Attorney advertising. General information about Illinois law, not legal advice. Licensed in Illinois.

ProbateAvoidance FamilyPlanning

08/03/2026

Sending a student off to college this month?

If they signed an Illinois health care power of attorney and left the activation section blank, the first option applies by default. Under that option, the agent can make decisions only after a physician determines the student can't make them.

It grants no immediate access to records and no right to talk with the student's doctors. The second option does both, starting the day it's signed.

Same form. Same signature. Very different result on an ordinary Tuesday when you're trying to reach someone about your kid.

New on the blog: what Illinois law already gives parents without any documents, the witness rules that catch family signings, and why the campus health center may not honor a HIPAA release. Link in the comments.

07/29/2026

Don't let your family's inheritance become public drama!

Will vs. Trust, which one is better for your family?

Fourteen months in probate court. That's what it took to settle her father's estate.

Every filing was public. Her brother read the inventory off the docket and started asking questions.

"I don't want my kids doing that."

Learn more here:

A will sends your family to probate court. A trust doesn't. What Illinois law says about probate timelines, the $4M estate tax exemption, and which plan fits you.

07/22/2026

A parent dies with a couple of bank accounts and a car. The family assumes probate, months of court, legal fees, the whole thing.

In Illinois, it often doesn't have to be. There's a one-page sworn document that transfers the assets with no court and no judge, and last year the state raised the limit and stopped counting vehicles against it. A lot more families qualify now than realize it.

There's a catch worth knowing before you sign one, though. New post walks through who qualifies, what's excluded, and the responsibility that comes with signing. Link in comments.

07/15/2026

Most parents assume their will covers this. It doesn’t.

A will nominates a permanent guardian, but a court has to approve that person and it takes weeks. In the first hours of an emergency, even grandma may have no legal right to take your child home.

Illinois parents can close that gap with one signed document. No court. Effective immediately.

Full post at the link in comments.

07/07/2026

Adding your adult child to your deed avoids probate. It also exposes your house to their creditors, their divorce, and the IRS gift rules. Illinois has a better tool, and most people have never heard of it.
New on the blog, including the one case where going through probate is the right call.

07/07/2026

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07/02/2026

The federal estate tax exemption is now $15 million per person, permanently. Good news, unless you live in Illinois, where the state taxes estates above $4 million and has since 2013.
Here's the part that catches families off guard: Illinois doesn't let a surviving spouse use their late spouse's unused exemption. The standard "everything to my spouse" will wastes $4 million of protection permanently. There's a fix, but it has to be in place before the first death, not after.
New on the blog, including this week's Trump Account launch and the IRS gift tax safe harbor that came with it. Read more, link in the comment.

06/23/2026

A woman came in to set up her estate plan and stopped me before we got to page one.
"What happens to my cats if something happens to me?"
She called them her kids in fur coats. I've heard that phrase a few times over the years, and it never stops being true for the people who say it.
The honest answer, without planning, is that Illinois law treats her cats as property. A will can't name them as beneficiaries. Money left to a friend for their care is a gift, not an obligation, once it transfers, there's nothing binding that person to spend it on the animals.
A pet trust built into a revocable living trust changes that. It's enforceable. It designates a caretaker, puts a trustee in charge of the money, and can start operating the moment you're incapacitated, not just after you die.
I wrote about how we handled it and what Illinois law actually allows. Link in the comments.