Rebecca concentrates her practice in the areas of estate planning, tax planning, estate administration, probate, wills, trusts and trust administration. She counsels clients on a variety of estate planning, estate administration and trust administration issues and has significant experience in drafting both basic and complex estate plans that include wills, revocable trusts (or "living trusts"), irrevocable life insurance trusts, living wills, advanced directives, powers of attorney for health care and powers of attorney for property.

In addition to preparing basic estate plans and counseling clients regarding a broad array of issues such as the importance of choosing an appropriate guardian for children and the role of life insurance in providing for one’s family, Rebecca also formulates and prepares complex estate plans for individual clients and families designed to transfer wealth to younger generations while minimizing estate, gift, generation-skipping transfer and income taxes. She advises clients on the estate planning implications of marriage and divorce and prepares pre-marital and post-marital agreements.

Rebecca advises clients in the administration of estates and trusts of all sizes and has extensive experience preparing federal and state estate tax returns and gift tax returns. She also has broad experience representing beneficiaries as well as individual and corporate fiduciaries (such as executors, administrators, trustees, guardians and agents under powers of attorney) in all phases of estate and trust administration.

Rebecca’s office is located in Champaign County in central Illinois but she represents both estate planning clients, as well as estate and trust administration clients throughout the State of Illinois and routinely probates estates throughout the state, including Coles County, Piatt County, DeWitt County, Douglas County, McLean County, Vermilion County, Peoria County, Iroquois County, St. Clair County and Henderson County.

Rebecca is a member of the American Bar Association Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section, the Illinois Bar Association Trusts and Estates Section, the Champaign County Bar Association, the Eastern Illinois Estate Planning Council, and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.

Rebecca graduated magna cum laude from the University of Illinois College of Law and holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Illinois. As a law student, she was named to the Dean's List for six consecutive semesters and was awarded the Celia M. Howard Fellowship for graduate study. She is a four-time recipient of the CALI Excellence for the Future Award and received honors distinctions and high honors distinctions for her legal research and writing. Prior to joining Meyer Capel, Rebecca served a two-year judicial clerkship in the Fourth District Appellate Court, State of Illinois, under the Honorable Justice James A. Knecht.

An accomplished legal researcher and writer, Rebecca served as articles editor of The Elder Law Journal and earned the Joseph W. Rickert Award for excellence in legal publications. Rebecca is the author of a series of informative legal publications which address a wide range of estate planning and estate and trust administration topics. Rebecca is also a frequent lecturer and speaker on the topics of estate planning and estate and trust administration and would welcome the opportunity to speak to your group or organization upon your request.

If you are interested in having Rebecca evaluate your estate planning needs and provide you with an estimate of fees for a proposed estate plan, please feel free to complete a Married Person's Confidential Estate Planning Questionnaire or an UnMarried Person's Confidential Estate Planning Questionnaire and submit it to Rebecca for her review. If you have been named as an executor or trustee and are in need of Rebecca's assistance in the administration of an estate or trust, please complete a Confidential Estate and Trust Administration Initial Meeting Questionnaire and a Confidential Estate and Trust Administration Assets and Debts Questionnaire and contact Rebecca to request a consultation.

Away from the practice of law, Rebecca enjoys reading, traveling and spending time with her family. Her husband Monty is a civil engineer and also received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Illinois.