Why Every Illinois Educator Needs an Estate Plan

 Posted on November 24, 2025 in Estate Planning

Educators spend their careers teaching and helping others. But many teachers and professors focus so much on their students that they neglect planning for their own futures, including estate planning. This oversight can leave their families facing confusion, conflict, and unnecessary costs after death or incapacitation.

Educators face unique financial circumstances that make estate planning especially important. Pension benefits, retirement accounts, and life insurance through your school or university require careful planning, but there is more to estate planning than your benefits. You should still have a will and, in many cases, a trust as well. Our Oswego estate planning attorney helps teachers, professors, paraeducators, and other educational professionals create estate plans that work.

What Happens to an Illinois Teacher’s Pension Benefits if You Die?

Most Illinois public pension systems allow you to choose a survivor benefit option when you retire. If you elect a survivor benefit, your monthly pension is reduced during your lifetime, but your spouse continues receiving payments after you die. If you elect no survivor benefit, you receive higher monthly payments, but benefits stop at your death.

This choice requires careful planning. If you are married and choose no survivor benefit, your spouse gets nothing from your pension after you die. Illinois law requires spousal consent if you elect no survivor benefit, but people sometimes make this decision without fully understanding the consequences.

How Should You Handle Teacher Retirement Accounts?

Beyond pensions, educators typically have supplementary retirement plans like 403(b) plans, 457 plans, or IRAs. These accounts pass to named beneficiaries outside of your will.

Many educators name their spouse as primary beneficiary and children as contingent beneficiaries. This works well in many situations, but educators should consider using trusts as beneficiaries if they want more control over, and protection for, their assets. A trust can protect funds from your beneficiaries' creditors, manage distributions over time, or provide for a special needs child without affecting government benefits.

Required minimum distributions and tax implications affect how you plan for retirement accounts. Spouses have special options that other beneficiaries do not get. Naming the right beneficiaries saves your heirs significant taxes.

Asset Protection for Illinois Teachers and Professors

Educators who save diligently and invest wisely over long careers can accumulate significant wealth. Your home, retirement accounts, investment accounts, and other assets need protection from creditors, lawsuits, and estate taxes.

Trusts offer superior asset protection and control. A revocable living trust avoids probate, keeps your estate plan private, and allows you to manage assets during incapacity. Irrevocable trusts provide creditor protection and can reduce estate taxes for larger estates. Illinois Trust Code under 760 ILCS 3/ governs trust creation and administration.

What Happens If an Illinois Teacher Dies Without a Will?

Dying without a will means Illinois intestacy laws determine who inherits, and the process might not match your wishes. If you are married with children, your spouse receives half and your children split the other half. If you have no spouse or children, your parents or siblings inherit.

Intestacy creates problems beyond just distribution. The court appoints an administrator to handle your estate, which takes time and costs money. Your family cannot access accounts or sell property without court approval. The process is public, slow, and expensive.

A will lets you choose who inherits, who serves as executor, and who cares for minor children. These decisions are too important to leave to default state laws.

Call an Oswego, IL Estate Planning Lawyer Today

With over 20 years of experience focusing on asset protection, estate planning, and wealth creation, our Oswego, IL estate planning attorney understands the specific challenges educators face. We help teachers and professors create comprehensive plans that protect their families and ensure their life's work benefits those they love.

Contact Gateville Law Firm at 630-780-1034 for a free consultation about your estate plan.