Is Probate Time-Consuming, Burdensome, and Expensive in Illinois?

The bad reputation that Probate has is largely undeserved. Probate is necessarily more formal due to the requirements of the Illinois Probate Act. However, most of the requirements are fairly routine and do not cause any significant delay in administering an estate.  Estate planning attorneys routinely oversell trusts by painting Probate in the worst possible light.

Also, the Probate system provides Court oversight that Trust administrations will typically not have. Since Trustees are largely unsupervised, they have the ability to more easily bend rules (particularly in their own favor), especially in gray areas of the law.



Finally, Trust administrations can be just as burdensome, expensive, public, and time-consuming as Probate administrations. If Trust litigation commences in a Trust administration, the Trust will usually end up in the public record. While Trusts can oftentimes help individuals to accomplish certain legitimate goals, they are generally overused in today's legal market, especially with middle-class families who usually have more modest estates.