We serve clients in Illinois and Wisconsin

100% virtually

 

Who We Serve

 

Parents Seeking to Secure Their Children's Future

  • We can help provide financial security for your children using estate planning techniques, wealth transfer, and asset protection.

  • We can designate guardians and guardianship to ensure the well-being of minor children in unforeseen circumstances.

  • We help you make informed decisions about how your children will inherit and manage their assets through wills & trust estates.

Families in Need of Tailored Estate Plans

  • We can create specialized estate plans to navigate complex family dynamics effectively.

  • We will help develop a plan for the future care of your loved ones with disabilities through special needs planning.

Individuals Planning Their Financial Future

  • We help our clients strategically plan for retirement and integrate estate planning into their financial strategy.

  • We advise clients on wealth preservation and estate tax planning solutions to optimize their financial legacy.

  • We provide expert advise on how to protect and manage your real estate investments.

Small Business Owners Legal Advice

  • We can protect business owners interests and assets through company legal support planning.

  • We will develop business succession planning to ensure a smooth transition of your family business.

  • We offer valuable support to entrepreneurs by assisting with business formation and ensuring business continuity through LLC formation and meticulous review of operating agreements.

 

Services We Provide

 

  • We create wills and trusts for clients that specify how their assets should be distributed, who should manage their affairs, and who will care for minor children if needed. We have many resources to help our clients decide which type of document is right for them. We also offer a webinar on how to Learn to Build Your Legacy.

  • We help our clients minimize potential estate taxes, ensuring that more of their wealth goes to their intended beneficiaries.

  • We prepare healthcare directives, such as a living will and healthcare power of attorney which outline medical treatment preferences and designate someone to make your medical decisions when needed.

  • We provide clients with a monthly subscription service to review and update their estate plans on a regular basis to reflect important life changes that MUST be accounted for in their plan.

  • If you have minor children, we can help designate guardians who will care for your children if something were to happen to you.

  • We can help you choose someone to make financial and legal decisions on your behalf if you become unable to do so.

  • We create legal documents to give you control over healthcare decisions if you are no longer able to make them on your own.

  • If estate planning were easy, anyone could do it! While online, self-serve programs exist, they lack the personalized expertise and tailored advice needed for a comprehensive estate plan that meets your unique needs and circumstances. We provide guidance, answer questions, and educate our clients on their options, ensuring they understand the implications of their choices.

  • We provide tailored strategies to protect your assets from creditors, lawsuits, and other potential threats.

  • We will draft your estate plan to help your assets avoid probate, saving your family unnecessary stress and financial strains.

  • We offer comprehensive support for trust administration, simplifying the complex process of managing and distributing assets held in trusts. We will help provide document management, asset valuation, beneficiary communication, and all legal requirements with precision, ensuring a seamless transition aligned with your wishes. Our services help to minimize potential disputes and facilitate the efficient transfer of assets to designated beneficiaries, giving your loved ones peace of mind during this critical phase of estate planning.

  • As a small business ourselves, we love helping our fellow business owners! We offer on-going legal support, LLC formation, business succession, and more to our business clients.

 

Estate Planning Tips

4 Reasons for Protecting Your Estate

Protecting your estate with a well-crafted estate plan is essential for several compelling reasons.

  1. It allows you to dictate precisely how your assets are distributed among your loved ones, ensuring your wishes are honored and minimizing the potential for family disputes.

  2. Estate planning enables you to designate guardians for minor children, providing peace of mind regarding their care and upbringing.

  3. It’s a strategical financial move, as it can help reduce or even eliminate estate taxes and probate costs, preserving more of your wealth for your heirs.

  4. An estate plan allows you to plan for incapacity, ensuring you have designated individuals to make financial and medical decisions on your behalf if you become unable to do so.

5 Reasons to Avoid Probate

Avoiding probate is a critical aspect of estate planning for three significant reasons.

  1. Probate is a time-consuming legal process that can tie up your assets for months or even years, leaving your heirs with delayed access to their inheritance.

  2. Probate is a public process, meaning that details about your assets, debts, and beneficiaries become a matter of public record, potentially compromising your family's privacy.

  3. Probate fees and court costs can significantly reduce the value of your estate, depleting the amount passed on to your beneficiaries.

  4. The probate process can cause emotional burdens on your loved ones during an already difficult time.

  5. Probate will often lead to unwanted outcomes that could have been avoided with an estate plan.

Client Testimonials

 
 
 
Image of Jayme Durkee, founder and virtual estate planner attorney of Cherish Legal, serving clients in Illinois and Wisconsin

Hi! I’m Jayme.

I’m an estate planning attorney in Rockford, IL.

I help individuals and families in Illinois and Wisconsin build their legacy estate plan plan, easily and 100% remotely. My top priority is to ensure that your loved ones are taken care of when life throws you for unexpected turns.

Join me and I will make sure to protect those you cherish most!

We hope you found this estate planning information helpful. As a reminder, the information presented here is for general informational purposes only. You are unique, and legal advice should be tailored to your unique situation. Do not rely upon any information here as legal advice. This information is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. If you would like to learn more about how we can protect your family or small business, please contact us!

Cherish Legal is an estate planning law firm based out of Rockford, Illinois. We are licensed to practice estate planning in Wisconsin and Illinois. We provide virtual estate planning services to families and legal counsel to small businesses located. Our services include: wills, trusts, power of attorney, estate plans, guardianship, trust administration, probate, and asset protection.