Parents experience indescribable and immeasurable joy as their children grow. They shudder at the thought of life without their kids – or of their children's life without them. No wonder, then, that only 36% of parents with minor children have written a last will and testament. In the absence of that legal document, though, a minor child could confront emotional and financial uncertainty.

Intestacy means only the law matters

When one dies without a will, or intestate, state law determines much of a child's future. Illinois, for example, distributes intestate assets per stirpes, which roughly means equally. Importantly, the number and type of other surviving kin will dictate what a child, or children, receives.

Naturally, young parents also could assume a family member will care for their children – but without a will, the courts will play an active role in that determination. A guardian will assume legal custody of the child should unforeseen events in either the parents' or the presumed caretaker's lives occur. In Illinois, guardianship and its cousin conservatorship require court approval.

Trusts are a potentially valuable part of estate plan to consider and to understand. For that reason, estate planners should be familiar with the benefits of including a trust in their estate and what they do.

Advantages of a trust

There are a variety of different potential advantages of a trust to be aware of including:

• Placing conditions on how and when the estate planner's assets are distributed;
• Reducing estate and gift taxes;
• Distributing assets to beneficiaries efficiently without the cost, delay and publicity of the probate court. Probate can cost between 5% to 7% of the estate planner's estate and may be costly and time consuming;
• Better protecting the estate planner's assets from creditors and lawsuits; and
• Naming a successor trustee who will manage the trust after the estate planner passes and is also empowered to manage the trust assets if the estate planner becomes unable to do so.

Choose from various types of trusts

Additionally, there are a variety of different types of trusts that can help the estate planner achieve different goals and that can serve different purposes on their own or as part of an estate plan. A trust can be used alongside a will as part of an estate plan or may be used on its own in place of a will.

Like other states, Illinois has a law which determines how a deceased person's property will be divided if the person did not leave a will.

The law also applies if the person did leave a will, but the will does not get admitted to probate or later gets invalidated in a will contest. Finally, the law will apply if a person has a valid will, but the will does not cover all of the person's property.

It is important to remember that the law will not apply to property which by law does not pass through probate. Property held in trust, life insurance proceeds, retirement accounts like 401(k)s, joint bank accounts and jointly held real estate.

There are a variety of important reasons to have an estate plan. Estate planners should understand why an estate plan is needed and how they can develop an estate plan that protects the estate planner and expresses their wishes.

Avoid the probate process

One reason to have an estate plan is so that the estate planner can avoid the probate process. The probate process includes validating the estate planner's will, valuing their assets, paying outstanding debts and taxes of the estate and distributing what is left over to beneficiaries.

Protect assets and reduce estate taxes

Estate planning can help protect both the estate planner's beneficiaries and can also help protect the estate planner's assets. For that reason, trained estate planning guidance can be helpful to help with estate planning complexities.

Sitting down with one's family to discuss the future of one's assets can seem like a daunting experience. Planning one's estate may seem final and cumbersome to those who have growing assets with many moving parts.

A living, or revocable trust is meant to solve these problems. Flexible, very powerful and highly adaptable instruments, living trusts are a great asset that can be included when planning your estate.

What a living trust does

Living trusts are established during the owner's life and can be maintained by the owner or other named trustees. The purpose of the living trust is to create an easy path for one's assets to be more seamlessly passed down to the estate's beneficiaries.