Personal Jurisdiction in Estate Litigation

Client:	Charitable Foundation
Representation:	Estate litigation
Date:	2004
Locations:	DuPage County, Illinois

Summary:

In 2004, Schiff Hardin won a bench trial in DuPage County, Illinois involving a decedent who died shortly before signing change of beneficiary forms for multiple IRAs. The intended change was from a divorced spouse to a charitable foundation the decedent had created after he learned he was dying. The forms had been partially completed, but were missing some information and had not been signed by the decedent. The IRAs were all collected quickly after the decedent's death by his former spouse, who was not intended to receive them but was still listed as the official beneficiary. We brought suit based on a little-used doctrine known as "substantial compliance," and after a full trial, the judge ruled in favor of our client (the foundation), finding that the decedent had substantially complied with the requirements to change the beneficiary based upon evidence of the decedent's clear intent to complete the forms and the concrete steps he had taken to do so.

Also of significance, the trial court upheld application of the Illinois long-arm statute to support personal jurisdiction over the divorced spouse based upon the fact that the decedent was a resident of Illinois (even though the spouse did not visit Illinois to obtain the proceeds and the IRA custodians were all out of state). This ruling is important in light of the trend towards nonprobate estate planning arrangements because it supports the authority of Illinois courts to handle disputes involving Illinois decedents. The Appellate Court affirmed the trial court on all issues.