State Planning in Guardianship Webinar

State Planning in Guardianship

Paul S. Franciszkowicz

Partner, FMS Law Group LLC

tentative for 1 general CLE credit

This webinar examines the critical intersection of estate planning and guardianship proceedings, equipping elder law practitioners with practical strategies for representing wards, proposed wards, and their families when incapacity strikes before adequate planning is in place. Attendees will explore how existing estate planning documents—or the absence thereof—shape guardianship petitions, the guardian's authority to engage in substituted judgment planning on behalf of a ward, and the procedural safeguards courts require when approving estate and gift planning within a guardianship.

About Paul S. Franciszkowicz

Paul concentrates his practice in the areas of probate (including guardianship and decedent’s estate) administration and litigation, estate planning, elder law, mental health law, and general litigation. Paul has been appointed as Guardian ad Litem and attorney for respondents in guardianship cases and as Guardian ad Litem, Special Administrator and Administrator in decedent’s estates. Paul has litigated hundreds of contested trials. Paul was previously an adjunct professor, guest lecturer and has lectured extensively on guardianship and mental health law at Loyola Law School. He has also lectured at DePaul College of Law and Chicago-Kent College of Law, presented several dozen lectures and seminars in Illinois on guardianship, estate planning and mental health law, and has been published on guardianship and confidentiality issues. Prior to co-founding FMS Law Group LLC, Paul was an Assistant Public Guardian with the Cook County Public Guardian’s Office in the Juvenile Division and was a Partner at law firms focusing on probate and guardianship matters.