Death and Taxes - The Blog

Still Afoot: Changes to my Website

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about some new projects I'm undertaking on my regular site (www.jas-law.com).  One of those projects involves posting the entire Illinois Probate Act with (1) each code section on its own page and (2) comments and cross-references.  I've started in on this project, and hope to have it completed by the end of the year.  You can see a preview of how it will look and work as follows:

Click here to be taken to my Probate and Estate Planning-Related Statutes page.

Click on The Illinois Probate Act of 1975.

Click on Article I: General Provisions.

Click on any of the highlighted sections, such as 1-2.01. "Administrator".

Google Book Search

A few months ago I posted a review of Charles Dickens' Bleak House (here).  If you don't want to buy the book or check it out from the library, you now have another alternative: reading the entire book via Google.

1. Go to Google Book Search.

2. Type in "Bleak House."

3. Click on "full view books."

4. Click on "Search Books."

5. You'll get a list of the different versions of Bleak House you can read online.  What's nice is that you can read the actual pages, instead of just a text file.  Take a look at a random page from Bleak House, here.

Obviously there are lots of other classic public domain books available.

The New Money Magazine

I subscribed to Money magazine back in the go-go 90's, when it offered lots of investment tips.  Evidently the bursting of the tech bubble shook things up at the publication, since the new version of Money doesn't focus much on stocks and bonds.  I think that's a good thing, because the magazine now provides a lot of helpful information about maximizing your income and cutting expenses.  For instance, recent articles detail specific steps you can take to reduce energy costs and to take control of your credit score.

The April 2006 issue of Money arrived just a few days ago, and it has lots of goodies, including some articles that touch on estate planning and probate issues:

-an article on reverse mortgages, with a sidebar offering advice to those who inherit a house with a reverse mortgage;

-an article that discusses "What you need to ask yourself when you're asked to care for a loved one's children" after the loved one passes away; and

-an article on prenuptial agreements.

One downside to Money: it seems to have almost zero internet presence.  This appears to be the magazine's homepage, and it offers very little in the way of articles -- plus, the articles it does offer relate mostly to stocks and such.  That's a shame, since the new version of the magazine provides so much more.

Assessments and Privacy

One issue I've been following since I began this blog involves privacy and public records on the internet.  This article details a Pittsburgh-area politician's attempt to prevent public searches on the Alleghany County Assessor's website.  The goal of the politician (Councilman William Robinson) is to prevent criminals from being able to easily find personal information for individuals owning real estate in Alleghany County.  (The public could still obtain such information by filing an official request -- it just wouldn't be available immediately via the internet.)

Councilman Robinson's goal may be laudable, but it seems to provide an overly-broad solution to a fairly narrow problem.  As mentioned in the article, the Assessor's website provides lots of different information to its visitors.  Some of that information is very important and raises very few privacy concerns (for instance, the information on assessments helps in the assessment appeals process).  Other information strikes me as less valuable and more intrusive (allowing searches for property by the owner's name).

A couple of other points:

1. It's also worth noting that the website no longer includes the names of federal, state or local judges.  The tricky question (raised here by the president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police) is, why stop with judges?  And, if we don't stop at judges, where do we stop?

2. It's fairly easy to take title to property in a way that provides some privacy protection (by doing so via a land trust or a corporation, for instance).  However, is it really fair to make privacy protection available only to those who are wealthy and/or sophisticated enough to use these vehicles?

Google Earth and Chicago Real Estate

Wow, did this blow my mind, in two ways:

1. First, we start with Google Earth, which is sort of a cross between Google Maps and a video game where you play the Incredible Hulk.  Once the software is downloaded, you can "jump" to any address in the world (you can also get directions and find local businesses).  Note that this is a pretty big, pretty graphics-intensive program, but you'll have to trust me -- it's totally worth it.

2. Then, we install the Prudential Properties plug-in for Google Earth, as detailed in the above article.  Now we can race around Chicagoland, looking at various "for sale" properties by location, and then clicking on a property for more details.  Previously I wrote about how Craigslist + Google Maps represented the future of real estate, but I was wrong -- the future is still being written, and the next chapter has arrived.