August 26 is Women's Equality Day, marking the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution. For generations, estate planning was treated as a household task handled by one person, often the husband, with wives, mothers, and daughters signing documents drafted around someone else's assumptions. That model doesn't reflect how most women actually live today. Whether you're the primary breadwinner, recently divorced, widowed, or simply building a life on your own terms, your...

If you've ever lost a loved one and then had to fight a bank to release their checking account, you already know that "probate" can feel like a dirty word. It's slow. It's expensive. And it often shows up at the exact moment your family has the least bandwidth to deal with it. The good news: Illinois has made it a lot easier for more families to skip that process entirely. The Small Estate Affidavit, In Plain English Illinois law has long allowed heirs to collect a deceased person's personal...

July is Disability Pride Month, a time to celebrate the identities, contributions, and history of people with disabilities. It commemorates the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in July 1990, and it invites all of us to think about what true inclusion looks like: not just in public spaces and workplaces, but in the deeply personal work of planning for the future. At Mertzenich Law, we believe estate planning is one of the most powerful tools of self-determination available. For...