Opinion ID: 693956
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Quitclaim Deed

Text: 9 Next, Melanie and Premier Trust argue that even if Gary once held a beneficial interest in the trust, his quitclaim deed conveyed that interest to Melanie in 1992. 6 While this argument seems persuasive, and the intent of the quitclaim deed and the Kane County court order requiring the conveyance may well have been to transfer Gary's beneficial interest in the trust to Melanie, the quitclaim deed did not accomplish this result. In Illinois, a quitclaim deed is an accepted method of transferring real estate or real property. 765 ILCS 5/10. A beneficial interest in an Illinois land trust, however, is not a real property interest; it is a personal property interest. IMM Acceptance Corp. v. First Nat'l Bank and Trust Co. of Evanston, 499 N.E.2d 1012, 1015 (Ill.App.1986) (while the common law trust creates a split between the legal title in the trustee and the equitable title in the beneficiary, the Illinois land trust places both the legal and equitable title in the trustee.... [T]he beneficiary's interest in the trust is said to be personal property.), appeal denied, 505 N.E.2d 353 (Ill.1987). 7 Thus, an Illinois appellate court has held that a beneficial interest in a land trust may not be transferred by quitclaim deed. In re Estate of Crooks, 638 N.E.2d 729, 734 (Ill.App.1994). In addition, a quitclaim deed will not constitute an express or equitable assignment of the beneficial interest in a land trust if the deed merely describes the property and does not refer to the trust. Id. at 734-35. Gary's 1992 quitclaim deed describes the Oregon, IL property, but it does not refer to the trust. Thus, under Crooks, we may not construe the deed as an assignment of Gary's beneficial interest in the trust to Melanie.