Wealth planning for
Wilmette families.

Yes. Wilmette is one of roughly thirty Cook County and Lake County communities we serve from its Evanston office at 909 Davis Street. The firm has been planning retirements for Cook County families since 1977, and meets Wilmette clients in the Evanston office, at their home, or by video call.

Many Wilmette clients are longtime Metra Green Line commuters who built careers in Chicago's Loop and are now retiring with a mix of 401(k) savings, deferred compensation, and significant home equity. The question we most often hear is whether the home, often purchased 25-30 years ago and now worth $600,000-$900,000, should be maintained in retirement or sold to simplify the balance sheet and reduce the property tax burden that dominates Wilmette's fixed retirement expenses. we coordinate Social Security claiming, retirement account withdrawals, annuity and life insurance placements, long-term care funding, and estate decisions into one written plan tailored to the Wilmette cost of living.

Many Wilmette residents are long-tenured professionals in downtown Chicago who commuted via Metra for decades. As they retire, they want to maintain their lifestyle in the community they love, which requires careful planning given Wilmette's higher cost of living. Wilmette's median home value of $650,000 and median household income of $145,000 mean planning here's shaped by local cost-of-living realities, not a national average. Roughly 32% of Wilmette residents are over 55, and many have spent decades building equity that now needs to be coordinated with retirement income, healthcare, and estate decisions.

Cook County's property tax rates, averaging 1.8-2.3% of assessed value, among the highest in the nation, are the single largest variable in most North Shore retirement budgets. A home assessed at $900,000 in Northbrook, Glenview, or Wilmette can carry an annual tax obligation of $16,000-$22,000 that persists through retirement unless the home is sold or downsized. Illinois partially offsets this with one of the most retirement-friendly income tax structures in the country: Social Security, IRA distributions, and pension income are entirely exempt from state income tax, leaving the property tax burden as the primary financial challenge to plan around. For Wilmette retirees specifically, this means treating property taxes as a non-negotiable fixed expense and building a guaranteed income floor, typically from Social Security and, where appropriate, an annuity, that covers them regardless of market conditions.

Illinois's exemption of retirement account distributions from state income tax provides meaningful benefit to Wilmette retirees drawing from 401(k)s accumulated during Chicago corporate careers. Our tax strategy work in Wilmette focuses on Roth conversion ladder execution before Social Security begins, coordinating the timing of distributions across the lower-income retirement years, and using the Illinois estate tax framework, with its $4 million-per-person exemption and no gift tax, to transfer wealth efficiently to adult children who often remain in the North Shore community.