ALTON - Community members are invited to a free lunch-and-learn to find out more about wills and trusts.
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At 12 p.m. on June 16, 2026, at Vera Lee Meeting and Event Venue in Alton, financial advisor Bill Kinkel and attorney Walter Ozark will share general information about how to navigate wills and trusts to ensure your family is taken care of after your death. The two men emphasized that the goal is to answer common questions to help attendees organize their affairs.
“Usually, people do estate planning for two reasons. One, so they can sleep at night and not be worrying about it and have their ducks in a row as much as possible. And two, to make it easier on your loved ones,” Ozark explained. “The grieving process is hard enough. You don’t need to be worrying about the money or where it goes or if my brother is going to be mad at me.”
Ozark works for Ozark Law Firm, LLC, in Alton and specializes in probate law. Kinkel is a financial advisor with Genesis Financial Group in Bethalto and wants to help people manage their assets.
The “Silver Tsunami” — the wave of Baby Boomers who are heading into retirement or passing away and the corresponding transfer of wealth — is one reason why Kinkel and Ozark decided to host this lunch-and-learn. They want people to be prepared.
“If you were to walk out of the door after this thing’s over and get struck by lightning, where’s your stuff going?” Ozark asked. “Is it going the way you want it to go, and is it going to who you want it to go to?”
The event will also help people navigate power of attorney and guardianship questions. Kinkel pointed out that many of these situations arise without warning, so it’s better to be prepared.
“Most families, when they think about estate planning, there’s a lot of procrastination,” he said. “They just feel like, hey, it’s always the other guy that this stuff happens to. What we’ve seen in our years of experience is, in many instances, it comes with little time to prepare. You find yourself incapacitated, or you have a loved one that passes away, and then there’s communication problems. Who has what? Who has access to what? How were these items set up?”
Kinkel added that the lunch-and-learn can help people make better decisions regarding titles and property. As a financial advisor, he regularly helps clients learn how best to manage property and finances so that they pay less in taxes and can pass on more to their loved ones.
Though the two men will be “speaking in generalities” during the lunch-and-learn, this information is applicable to most people, and they are happy to set up one-on-one appointments with anyone to answer more specific questions. But the June 16 event is a free way to connect and learn the basics so you’re prepared when you sit down with an attorney or financial advisor in the future.
Though the lunch-and-learn is free and lunch is provided, Ozark and Kinkel ask you to reserve a spot. They hope to see many people in attendance so they can help community members get the information they need so they’re prepared for whatever happens next.
“Our part here by promoting this event is to give people who attend actionable items that they can follow,” Kinkel summarized. “We’re going to identify a lot of these errors that are made and show them how they can create the process. Whether they use Walter or another law firm, it does not matter, but they’ll be well-positioned to ask the right questions to understand how to lay out all the organizational side of this. When they sit down with an attorney, they're going to have all the information right in front of them.”
For more information about the lunch-and-learn on June 16, including how to register, click here.
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