So, I’m originally from Vincens’s, which is on the southwest uh part of Indiana on the border with Illinois. And right
out of law school, I went to work for a firm down in my hometown. And with our close proximity to Illinois, most of the attorneys in the office were dual licensed both in Indiana and Illinois.
So, as a result, after I passed the Indiana bar exam, I took and passed the Illinois bar exam. So then upon moving to Indianapolis a few years later, I
found I have found my Illinois license to be extremely helpful up here and have taken a lot of joy in in serving not only Indiana clients but Illinois
clients as well. Indiana and Illinois have a lot of similarities from a state planning perspective. However, there is
one crucial difference and that is inheritance tax. Indiana does not have inheritance tax. Uh it’s been repealed
over 10 years ago. However, Illinois is one of the few states nationwide that does still have inheritance tax to be
assessed at death. It is separate from the federal inheritance tax at its own tax set at $4 million per Illinois
resident. Unlike the federal estate tax exemption, this $4 million is not portable between spouses at death. That
means that the first spouse upon passing, if he or she does not use their 4 million, the surviving spouse is not
able to combine the unused exemption from the first spouse at their passing.
So, when we’re planning for an Illinois client, it is crucial for us to factor in the estate inheritance tax of $4 million and also the lack of portability.