can I right my own will and will it stand up in court in Illinois, and is a life time dowry still legal in Illinois. thank you
Answer
If you are asking, is it possible, the answer is yes. If you are asking, is it a good idea, the answer would depend on your level of expertise. Likewise, it is possible to perform medical procedures on yourself, but it is not necessarily a good idea.
Answer
There is not anything that prevents your from preparing your own will. That said, I have encountered more than a half-dozen such wills and not one of them was done correctly. For some, it worked out because it happened that everything went right, but there was room for disaster. For others, the wills would not have been admissible as the formalities were not followed. For others, the wills accomplished what the author wrote, but my anticipation is that an attorney would have helped the author think through the consequences and perhaps do things differently.
You may leave a life estate, if that is what you mean (the term dowry is out of date), but a lot of thought should be put into the matter.
If you have property to leave to someone, then you should be able to pay a modest fee to receive advice and have a document drawn up correctly. This may turn out to be a question of you paying someone a modest amount now or your estate paying someone a large amount to sort out issues you create by doing it yourself.
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