Illinois Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog

When children are young and parents have fewer assets than they do now, choosing a guardian means finding a family you want your children to live in the same house with who share your values.

With older children, consideration of their wishes comes into play when choosing a guardian. Choices about where they want to live and personality conflicts are taken into account.

There are also the financial aspects of the guardian’s role which often include the position of trustee of a trust for the benefit of the children. With a testamentary trust, parents can stipulate an age when each child can receive the assets of the trust. Age 25 or 30 is typical. It is also common to see a staggered distribution of one-third at ages 25, 30 and 35.

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Reverse mortgages are available to homeowners age 62 and older. There is no minimum income or credit score requirement.

A provision in the economic stimulus package raised the maximum home value that can be counted for reverse mortgages from $417,000 to $625,500. However, the full value of the home is not available to the reverse mortgagor and a formula must be used to determine the amount that is available.

In addition to the regular closing costs, an origination fee of 2% on the first $200,000 of the loan balance will be charged and a 1% fee on any amount above $200,000 will be added. Also, a mortgage insurance premium of about 2% and a monthly service charge fee will be included.

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