"The Illinois land trust, by its very nature, is characteristically different from common law land trusts. While the common law accomplishes a split between the legal title in the trustee and the equitable title in the beneficiary, in an Illinois land trust, the trustee has both the legal and equitable title." Levine v. Pascal, 94 Ill.App.2d 43, 236 N.E.2d 425, 429 (1968); see also Citicorp v. Bank of Lansing, 604 F.Supp. 585 (N.D.Ind.1985); In re Estate of Alpert, 102 Ill.App.3d 600, 58 Ill.Dec. 239, 241, 430 N.E.2d 181, 183 (1981), aff'd, 95 Ill.2d 377, 69 Ill.Dec. 361, 363, 447 N.E.2d 796, 798 (Ill.1983); Kurek v. State Oil Co., 98 Ill.App.3d 6, 53 Ill.Dec. 643, 645, 424 N.E.2d 56, 58 (1981); People v. Chicago Title & Trust Co., 75 Ill.2d 479, 27 Ill.Dec. 476, 479, 389 N.E.2d 540, 543 (1979). Numerous authors have referred to the fictional nature of such trust. See, e.g., Haswell & Levine, The Illinois Land Trust: A Fictional Best Seller, 33 DePaul Ill.Rev. 277 (1984); Kenoe, Land Trust Financing and the Uniform Commercial Code, 52 Chi.B.Rec. 419 (1971). The Illinois land trust is a species of trust that, unlike other trusts, is immune to the doctrine of merger under most circumstances.