Legacy & Estate Planning
Legacy Planning Services for Buffalo Grove, IL & the Surrounding Towns
Legacy planning means your family won’t have to make difficult financial decisions during the most emotional time of their lives. It’s making sure your family has access to funds for funeral expenses within 48 hours instead of waiting weeks or months. It’s having Powers of Attorney in place, so your spouse or children can make critical decisions if something happens to you. It’s ensuring your life’s work transfers to the people you care about efficiently, without unnecessary taxes, probate delays, or family conflict.
At Wealth Financial Services & Tax Advisory, we help families throughout Buffalo Grove and Chicagoland create comprehensive legacy plans that work. We coordinate with our trusted estate planning partners, Perkins & Zayed Estate & Trust Law Group, Janas Law Offices, LoMonaco Law, & Chuhak & Tecson P.C to ensure your documents are properly drafted. We optimize beneficiaries across all your accounts. We help you set up funeral trusts. And we integrate everything into your Safe & Secure Retirement Roadmap™ so your legacy planning works seamlessly with your income, investments, taxes, and healthcare strategies. The result? Peace of mind knowing your family will be taken care of and your wishes will be honored.
Why Legacy Planning Matters: The Burden of Figuring It Out Later
When someone passes away, the last thing a grieving family wants to deal with is financial chaos. Yet that’s exactly what happens when legacy planning is neglected. Where are the account passwords? Who’s the beneficiary on that old 401(k)? Is there a will? What were their funeral wishes? Does anyone even know where the important documents are?
Without proper planning, families face weeks, sometimes months, of stress trying to piece everything together. Bank accounts get frozen. Funeral expenses come due before anyone can access funds. Adult children disagree about what their parents “would have wanted” because nothing was documented. The family home sits in probate for a year. And all of this happens during the most emotionally difficult time imaginable.
Here’s the reality: most people avoid legacy planning because it feels uncomfortable to think about death, or they assume they’ll “get to it eventually.” But eventually often never comes. And the cost of that procrastination is paid by the people you love most.
The good news? Proper legacy planning eliminates this entire scenario. When your affairs are organized, your documents are in order, your Powers of Attorney are designated, and your family knows exactly what to do—the transition is as smooth as possible during an impossible time. That’s not just good financial planning. That’s love in action.
What Makes Our Legacy & Estate Planning Services Different
✓ We coordinate with experienced estate planning attorneys
Through our partnerships, we ensure your legal documents are properly drafted and executed.
✓ We handle the financial coordination
We don’t just refer you to an attorney and wish you luck. We optimize beneficiaries, coordinate asset titling, set up funeral trusts, and ensure your financial accounts align with your estate plan.
✓ We make it accessible and organized
Your important documents are stored securely in your Wealth Portal, accessible when your family needs them. No more searching through filing cabinets or safe deposit boxes during a crisis.
Our Legacy Planning Approach
Legacy planning at Wealth Financial Services & Tax Advisory goes beyond just having a will. We create a comprehensive strategy that protects your family, transfers wealth efficiently, and ensures your wishes are honored. Here’s how we approach legacy planning:
Organizing Your Financial Affairs & Essential Documents
The foundation of any legacy plan is getting your financial house in order. We help you organize all your important information, account details, passwords, insurance policies, and property deeds, so your family isn’t left searching during a crisis.
Most importantly, we ensure you have Powers of Attorney in place for both healthcare and financial decisions. If you become incapacitated and can’t make decisions for yourself, these documents allow your designated person to manage your finances, pay bills, and make medical choices on your behalf. Without them, your family may need to go to court to get authority, a costly, time-consuming process during an already stressful situation.
We coordinate with our legacy planning partners at Perkins & Zayed Estate & Trust Law Group, Janas Law Offices, LoMonaco Law, & Chuhak & Tecson P.C, to ensure your wills, trusts, and powers of attorney are properly drafted and legally sound. We also help you organize and store important documents securely in your Wealth Portal, giving you easy access to everything in one place.
Strategic Wealth Transfer & Beneficiary Planning
Who gets your IRA when you pass away? What about your 401(k), life insurance, or investment accounts? Many people assume their will controls everything, but beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and insurance policies override your will. If they’re outdated or incorrect, your assets may not go where you intend.
We conduct a comprehensive beneficiary review across all your accounts to ensure designations align with your wishes and your estate plan. We help you avoid common mistakes like naming minor children directly (which can trigger court involvement), forgetting to update beneficiaries after divorce or remarriage, or creating unintended tax consequences for your heirs. We also coordinate your beneficiary strategy with trusts, if you have them, and help you plan for tax-efficient wealth transfer, minimizing what your family owes and maximizing what they inherit.
Life Insurance & Asset Protection
Life insurance serves multiple purposes in legacy planning. It can replace lost income for your spouse, provide an inheritance for children, create liquidity to pay estate taxes or final expenses, equalize inheritances among children, or leave a legacy to charity.
We review your existing life insurance policies to ensure coverage is still adequate and appropriate for your current situation. Many people bought policies decades ago that no longer fit their needs, or they’re paying for coverage they don’t need anymore. We help you determine the right amount of coverage, evaluate term versus permanent insurance, and explore strategies like irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs) for estate tax planning if appropriate. The goal is to ensure your family has the financial resources they need when you’re gone, without overpaying for unnecessary coverage.
Funeral Planning & End-of-Life Arrangements
Here’s a problem most people don’t think about: when someone passes away, funeral expenses are due immediately, often within 48 hours, but accessing bank accounts or investments can take weeks or months, especially if assets are tied up in probate.
We help you set up funeral trusts that ensure funds are immediately available to cover funeral and final expenses. This means your family can make arrangements and pay for services without financial stress or out-of-pocket costs during an already overwhelming time. We also help you document your funeral wishes, burial or cremation, type of service, specific requests, so your family doesn’t have to guess or disagree about what you wanted.
Beyond funeral planning, we help you organize charitable giving intentions, document personal messages or letters to loved ones, and create a clear roadmap for your family to follow. The goal is to make this process as simple and stress-free as possible for the people you love.
From Overwhelmed to Organized: Your Legacy Planning Journey
Working with WFSTA isn’t a one-time transaction, it’s an ongoing partnership. From your first conversation to years into retirement, here’s what you can expect:
Step One
Possibility Meeting: Understanding Your Family and Your Wishes
We start by getting to know your family situation and what matters most to you. Who do you want to take care of? What are your biggest concerns?
Step Two
Vision Meeting: Your Customized Legacy Strategy
Here’s where we present your personalized legacy plan. We’ll show you specific recommendations for estate documents you need (wills, trusts, powers of attorney), beneficiary changes, life insurance coverage assessment, and funeral trust options.
Step Three
Implementation: Getting Everything in Order
When you’re ready to move forward, we coordinate all the moving pieces. Our team walks you through each step, ensuring nothing is overlooked and your family is protected.
Step Four
Ongoing Partnership: Keeping Your Plan Current
We review your estate plan as part of your annual comprehensive review, checking that beneficiaries are still correct, documents are up to date, and your plan still reflects your wishes.
Meet Our Estate & Legacy Planning Partners
To help you with your legacy plan, we partner with affiliates whose concentration is in advanced Estate Planning Strategies, Asset Protection, Trust & Estate Administration, Medicaid/Long-Term Care Planning, and Special Needs Planning.
Courtney Bonstrom
Jennifer Eseed
Mark Perkins
Craig Janas
Lauren LoMonaco
Mallory A. Moreno
Common Questions About Legacy & Estate Planning
What documents do I need for a complete estate plan?
At minimum, you need four essential documents: a will (directs asset distribution and names guardians for minor children), a revocable living trust (if appropriate for your situation, helps avoid probate), a financial power of attorney (allows someone to manage finances if you’re incapacitated), and a healthcare power of attorney/living will (designates medical decision-makers and documents your healthcare wishes). Many people also benefit from beneficiary designations that are properly coordinated across all accounts. We work with Perkins & Zayed Estate & Trust Law Group, Janas Law Offices, LoMonaco Law, & Chuhak & Tecson P.C to ensure your legal documents are properly drafted and coordinate with your overall financial plan.
What's the difference between a will and a trust?
A will is a legal document that specifies how you want assets distributed after death, but it goes through probate, a public court process that can take months or years. A revocable living trust allows assets to transfer to beneficiaries privately, without probate, and can also provide for asset management if you become incapacitated. Trusts are more complex and cost more to set up, but they offer privacy, avoid probate delays, and provide more control over how and when assets are distributed. Not everyone needs a trust—it depends on your assets, family situation, and goals. We help you understand which makes sense for your situation.
Why do I need Powers of Attorney?
Powers of Attorney are arguably the most important estate planning documents—and the most overlooked. A financial power of attorney allows someone you trust to manage your finances, pay bills, and make financial decisions if you become incapacitated due to illness, injury, or cognitive decline. A healthcare power of attorney designates someone to make medical decisions on your behalf if you can’t communicate. Without these documents, your family must go to court to get guardianship or conservatorship—an expensive, time-consuming, public process during an already difficult time. Having POAs in place means your designated person can act immediately when needed.
How do I make sure my beneficiaries are set up correctly?
Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts (401k, IRA), life insurance policies, and some investment accounts override your will—so it’s critical they’re correct and current. Common mistakes include naming minor children directly (triggers court involvement), forgetting to update after divorce or remarriage, or creating tax problems for heirs. We conduct a comprehensive beneficiary review across all your accounts, ensure designations align with your estate plan and wishes, coordinate with trusts if you have them, and help you avoid costly mistakes that could disinherit intended beneficiaries or create unnecessary taxes.
What is a funeral trust, and why do I need one?
A funeral trust is a special account that sets aside funds specifically for funeral and final expenses. Here’s why it matters: funeral costs are typically due within 48 hours, but accessing bank accounts or investments after someone passes can take weeks or months, especially if assets are in probate. A funeral trust ensures funds are immediately available so your family can make arrangements and pay for services without financial stress or out-of-pocket expenses during an overwhelming time. It also locks in today’s funeral costs and removes the burden of decision-making from your grieving family.
How often should I update my estate plan?
You should review your estate plan every 3-5 years as a baseline, but major life events trigger immediate reviews: marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of children or grandchildren, death of a beneficiary or executor, significant changes in assets, moving to a different state, or changes in tax laws. We review your estate plan as part of your annual comprehensive review with us and flag when updates are needed. Estate planning isn’t a one-time event—it’s an ongoing process that evolves as your life and family change.
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Ready to Protect Your Family and Honor Your Wishes?
The peace of mind that comes from knowing your affairs are in order and your family will be taken care of is invaluable. Let’s create a legacy plan that protects the people you love and ensures your wishes are honored, so you can stop worrying and start living.
