Hopson will describe concepts and types of powers of attorney, such as durable power of attorney for property and power of attorney for health care, along with disability issues and living wills.
He also will discuss wills and trusts, burial instructions, pension issues, distinctions when donor/grantor is unmarried, rights irrespective of marital status, and claims of undue influence by relatives and other third parties.
The Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity is chaired by Cook County Associate Judge Nancy J. Katz. Mark A. DuPont of Chicago is vice chair, and Ferne P. Wolf of St. Louis is secretary.
For more information about the committee, contact staff liaison Janet M. Sosin by e-mail at jsosin@isba.org. See page 21 of the ISBA Bar News for registration details.
Qualified plans open tax issues
The ISBA Employee Benefits Section will conduct the seminar, "Planning Strategies for Receiving Distributions from Qualified Plans and IRAs, and Avoiding Potential Land Mines," on Thursday, May 20, in the Chicago Regional Office.
The two-part program will begin with a focus on income and estate tax consequences of distributions, and part two will cover preventative measures for avoiding problems that could result.
Section council member Richard A. Michalak of Schuyler, Roche & Zwirner, Chicago, the program coordinator and moderator, will open the seminar at 8:30 a.m. The schedule follows.
8:40 a.m. - The Minimum Distribution Rules, with section council chair Kathryn Jennings Kennedy, associate professor and director of the Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits at The John Marshall Law School.
9:30 a.m. - Estate Planning Considerations in Beneficiary Designations Made Under Qualified Plans, with David A. Berek of McGuireWoods, Chicago.
10:45 a.m. - The Effective Use of QDROs and QILDROs, with section council past chair James H. Schultz of the Law Office of James H. Schultz, Rock Island.
11:30 a.m. - IRS Audit Guidelines Regarding Distributions from Qualified Plans and IRAs, a panel discussion by three representatives of the Great Lakes Area Office of Employee Plans of the Internal Revenue Service.
Speakers are area manager Monika A. Templeman, senior agent and voluntary compliance coordinator Alexander Dorevitch, and senior employee plans specialist and examination agent Daniel S. Gardner.
Litigation, arbitration of real estate matters aired
An ISBA seminar on "Real Estate Litigation" will be presented twice next month by the Real Estate Law Section. Dates and sites are Thursday, May 13, at The Carlisle in Lombard, and Thursday, May 20, at the Hotel Pere Marquette in Peoria.
Program coordinators are section council chair Samuel H. Levine of Arnstein & Lehr, Chicago; associate newsletter editor Myles L. Jacobs of Brumund & Jacobs, Joliet, and section council member Ted M. Niemann of Schmiedeskamp, Robertson, Neu & Mitchell, Quincy.
Moderators are section council members Sandra J. Birdsall of Hasselberg, Williams, Grebe & Snodgrass, Peoria, and Brian D. Mooty of Kavanagh, Scully, Sudow, White & Frederick, Peoria, in the Peoria seminar, and Ted Niemann in Lombard. Birdsall and Niemann will open the programs at 9 a.m. The schedule follows.
9:10 a.m. - Opinion and Expert Witnesses, with Scott B. Paulsen of Kavanagh, Scully, Sudow, White & Frederick, Peoria (in Peoria), and speaker to be announced in Lombard.
9:55 a.m. - Anticipating and Avoiding Litigation, with Richard M. Joseph of Miller, Hall & Triggs, Peoria (in Peoria), and R. Kymn Harp of Arnstein & Lehr, Chicago (in Lombard).
10:40 a.m. - Avoiding Malpractice in Real Estate Litigation.
11:25 a.m. - Real Estate Broker Litigation.
1 p.m. - A Primer on Eminent Domain, with section council members Brian P. Liston of Liston & Lafakis, Chicago (both programs), and Jack H. Tibbetts of the Village of Oak Park (in Lombard).
1:45 p.m. - How to Arbitrate a Case, with Edward L. Filer of Fagel Haber, Chicago (in Peoria), and section council member Margery Newman of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, Chicago (in Lombard).
2:40 p.m. - Recent Developments in Mechanic's Liens and Construction Law, with Samuel Levine (both programs).
3:10 p.m. - Trying and Defending a Mortgage Foreclosure Case, with associate newsletter editor Steven B. Bashaw of Oak Brook and section council member Gregory J. Moody of Codilis & Associates, Darien (both programs).
Military eligible for group life insurance
The ISBA Committee on Military Affairs has provided the following advisory from Army Major Joseph Baar Topinka, of Riverside, IL., who is chief of the Administrative and Civil Law Division at the Office of Staff Judge Advocate, Fort Drum, N.Y.
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Most civilian attorneys are not aware that members of the military are covered under a program called the Servicemember's Group Life Insurance, more commonly known as SGLI.
This is a group term life insurance policy available to members of the Armed Forces on active duty as well as in the reserve system. It is purchased by the government from private insurers, and is partially subsidized by the government.
Service members are automatically insured for up to $250,000 unless they opt out in writing. Otherwise, a part of the premium is deducted from their paychecks.
Insurability is guaranteed when first given the opportunity to elect SGLI. After that, military personnel who want to acquire coverage may be subject to insurability determinations.
As of June 2001, SGLI coverage was extended to insurable dependents, including spouses and all unmarried children under the age of 18, plus those over 18 but younger than 23 who attend accredited schools.
A spouse is automatically eligible for $100,000 of coverage, or for the same level as the military member's SGLI if coverage is less than $100,000. Every dependent child of the military member is automatically covered by a $10,000 policy.
SGLI is available to commissioned, warrant and enlisted members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, and to members of the Ready Reserve of a uniformed service who are assigned to a unit or position in which they may be required to perform active duty or active duty for training and each year will be scheduled to perform at least 12 periods of inactive duty training that is creditable for retirement purposes.
SGLI coverage includes 120 days following separation or release from duty. No premiums are required during the additional period.
Service members may lose entitlement to SGLI based on their duty status at the time of death (e.g., death occurs during extended absence with out leave, better known as AWOL, or while serving a term of confinement) or other miscellaneous facts (e.g., following refusal to serve due to conscientious objector status or following the conviction of certain serious crimes). Cause of death, however, is not relevant to the payment of SGLI proceeds short of foul play.
Unfortunately for members of the armed services, they are not always informed of this benefit or they receive only limited information about SGLI coverage for themselves and their family members.
This is especially the case during mobilizations and deployments when time is often limited and people are in a hurry. In helping service members prepare for such events, military and civilian attorneys are encouraged to counsel their clients appropriately.
It is important to make service members aware that eligible beneficiaries of SGLI proceeds are any persons or legal entities designated by them on a VA Form SGLI 8286.
A service member has the absolute right to choose a beneficiary. Family members, however, do not have such a right. The service member is the beneficiary of the spousal SGLI policy. The service member is also the beneficiary of a child's SGLI policy.
Application for benefits of a service member's SGLI can be accomplished by submitting the VA Form 29-8283, Claim for Death Benefits, to OSGLI, 212 Washington Street, Newark, N.J 07102-2999. OSGLI may accept a facsimile copy of the claim at (877) 832-4943.
A beneficiary may elect lump-sum payment or thirty-six monthly installments. SGLI usually pays within ten days from notice of the death of the insured service member.
Like all insurance policies, SGLI is independent from a service member's will. An insurance policy is a contract between the service member and the insurance company. Although insurance proceeds are included in the gross estate, the will does not determine the beneficiaries of an SGLI policy unless the estate or a testamentary trust is the designated beneficiary.
Therefore, it is critical that service members keep beneficiary designations current. Changes such as marriage, divorce and the birth of children are good reasons for a service member to update an SGLI policy.
When choosing to name minor children, service members should consider designating a trustee (using a living or testamentary trust) or a financial custodian (under the Uniform Gifts/Transfers to Minors Act).
Otherwise, SGLI proceeds will not be released and used for the benefit of a minor until an adult, acting on behalf of the minor, petitions a court to be appointed the guardian for the SGLI proceeds.
The trustee or custodian is named as the beneficiary and manages the proceeds on behalf of the minor children. Service members often are confused by such designations; this can be the case especially when service members are being quickly processed in anticipation of deployment or mobilization.
In addition, the new computerized systems used to generate the VA Form SGLI 8286 can add to this confusion when the computer program does not either accept the trustee/custodial designations or allow a service member to properly describe the designation.
This confusion can easily be avoided with the proper legal advice prior to filling out a computerized VA Form SGLI 8286 or by using a hard-copy version of the SGLI 8286 that is prepared in advance (a copy of the form can be found at www.insurance. va.gov.)
Attorneys providing estate planning and assistance to military clients are well advised to be informed about this wonderful benefit provided to members of the armed services.
Especially during times of deployments and mobilizations of active duty and reserve military personnel, SGLI can provide the kind of peace of mind for personnel in harm's way. Further information is available at www.insurance.va.gov.
In the aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, the ISBA Committee on Military Affairs established a Volunteer Resource for Military Lawyers program in which lawyers volunteer to serve as back-up to JAG officers who need help in serving Guard and Reserve members and their families.
So far, 280 ISBA members have agreed to participate when needed. The following volunteers have provided assistance in recent months:
Laura Andrews, Granite City
Robert Becker Jr., Genoa
Wes Cowell, Chicago
Kristen Dunnett, Granite City
Roza Gossage, Belleville
Patrick Hayes, Rockford
Jeremy Heiple, Peoria
Jonathan Heiple, Peoria
Lisa Jensen, Rockford
Daniel LaKemper, Morton
Kimberly Power, Belleville
Nancy Chausow Shafer, Highland Park
Lawyers who are looking for an avenue to share their expertise in service of their country can sign up at the ISBA Web site, www.isba.org/volunteer.htm.
Civil rights unrest influenced Jewel Klein's career
Ugliness underlaid hospitable veneer in summer of '65
By Hilary Anderson
Chicago attorney Jewel N. Klein calls herself a trailblazer. She also is someone who cares and is not afraid to take risks.
An associate at the Law Office of Barry H. Greenburg, Klein says her first effort to become involved in social issues, and to help others, started shortly after the birth of the civil rights movement.
"I met a lawyer who represented Medgar Evers at the time the University of Mississippi was integrated," she said. "He made me realize how the law could be a force for social change."
Klein recalls that it was a risky time to be involved in the movement, especially in the South. During the summer of 1964, three white law students were murdered in Virginia.
"That summer came with violence, bombings and much danger throughout the South," she said. "I wanted to be involved and signed up with the Law Student Civil Research Council.
"The group had a place for me in the South then, but without my knowledge, my parents arranged a job for me in Chicago because they were afraid something bad would happen if I went there."
Klein finally got her wish and spent the summer of 1965, a year before she graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, clerking at Tucker & Marsh, a Richmond firm that represented the Virginia NAACP.
"They handled the school desegregation cases coming out of that state," she said. "Most were over by the time I got there but the injustice of discrimination is what fascinated me."
In the summer of 1964, members of the firm and clients they represented integrated a roller-skating rink. "They were spat upon as they walked in," Klein said. "That happened in our life time!"
Klein did not do any open protesting or marching while at the firm in 1965, but some memories of her time there remain vivid.
"I remember going to lunch with one of the secretaries in the office and listening to the negative comments from adjoining tables," she said. "That (a white person eating at the same table with a black person) just wasn't done, according to them.
"Richmond is this wonderful city with southern hospitality, politeness and friendliness. But below the surface was this veneer of ugly prejudice. This ugliness was somewhat frightening."
The summer of 1965 was noteworthy for more personal reasons: Jewel met her future husband, Steven N. Klein. "He was working at the firm during the summer of 1964 and was one of those who was spat upon when integrating the skating rink," she said.
"I remember going with Steve to a small town near Richmond to search through some records in the courthouse. Outside in the back of the building were three doors leading to toilets. Each had a sign on it. One said 'White Women,' the next 'White Men,' and the third 'Blacks.'"
Jewel Klein has great respect and admiration for Sam Tucker, who was a senior partner at the law firm. "He was one of the last people in Virginia to become a lawyer solely by reading law," she said. "He never went to law school but still accomplished great things."
Klein and her husband-to-be were kindred spirits. They graduated from law school and married in 1966. "It was too expensive commuting to see each other," she said. They took a week-long honeymoon, then sat for the bar exam.
"Afterward, we went into Peace Corps training," Jewel Klein recalled. "We were assigned to Peru, where we worked with agricultural co-ops to get them legal recognition. This is akin to obtaining legal status. We were teaching them the power of group politics."
Part of their duties involved uniting a group of small farmers. "We showed them how to demand city services, something which wasn't a learned behavior," she said. "We showed how by banding together they could ask for ask for water for their land like larger landowners did."