Indianapolis estate planning attorneys can provide you with help creating advanced directives for healthcare. Far too many people do not have advanced directives in place and the consequences of not creating advanced directives can be very damaging for individuals and their families if a health problem arises. Frank & Kraft is here and ready to help you understand the types of advanced directives you need and can help you to create legally valid documents that … [Read more...]
Don't Overlook Advance Directives for Health Care
No one is particularly anxious to think about this type of scenario, but the hard truth is that many people become unable to communicate health care decisions late in their lives. When you are planning your estate, you can include an incapacity component to account for this possibility. Your incapacity plan should include advance directives for health care. One of these directives is called a living will. Unlike a last will or last will and testament, a living will does not have anything … [Read more...]
Why Should I Have a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care?
A comprehensive estate plan will go beyond the postmortem transfer of monetary assets. To be fully prepared, you should address the contingencies that you may face during the latter portion of your life. Incapacity is one of these eventualities. It is quite possible that you will become unable to make all of your own decisions late in your life due to incapacitation. You can account for this possibility through the execution of a legally binding device called a durable power … [Read more...]
Incapacity Planning in Indiana: What Is a Living Will?
Incapacity planning may not be the most pleasant subject to contemplate, but planning ahead is important if you want to make sure that you are treating your family members fairly. You could choose to do nothing and hope for the best. But if you were to become incapacitated, those that you love could bear the brunt of the consequences of your inaction. When you are including an incapacity planning component within your broader estate plan you should execute documents called advance … [Read more...]
How Thorough Is Your Existing Estate Plan?
If you have an estate plan in place you are actually among a minority of Americans. That's correct, even though death is widely understood as one of the proverbial two inevitable facts of life, the majority of American adults have not executed all of the necessary estate planning documents. There are those who have taken a single step along the way. Perhaps you had a last will drawn up when you had your first child, or when you got married. This does not mean that you are … [Read more...]
Do You Have a Living Will?
Advance directives for health care are recommended for everyone, and one of them is the living will. With this directive you record your preferences regarding the use of life-sustaining medical procedures. Perhaps the best way to understand why a living will is important is to recount the story of Terri Schiavo that was widely publicized a number of years ago. Terri was a young woman who had not yet reached her 30th birthday when she went into full cardiac arrest. She … [Read more...]
Access Our Estate Planning Report Library
People who have absorbed in-depth information about any particular subject are going to make better decisions than those who are not fully informed. This certainly extends into the realm of estate planning. On the most basic level people think about estate planning as the act of drawing up a last will that divides a pie of sorts among family members. In fact there is a bigger picture to consider. A last will may not be your best choice for transferring assets. If you … [Read more...]
Health Care POA: Selecting an Agent
The process of estate planning should include preparations for the eventualities that you may face when you reach your twilight years. One of these would be the possibility of becoming unable to make sound health care decisions on your own. Many people suffer from physical and/or mental incapacitation once they reach an advanced age. If you were unable to communicate your health care decisions the court could be petitioned to appoint a guardian to act in your behalf. You can take … [Read more...]
Estate Planning: Four Things to Think About
We would like to highlight four important components to consider when you are engaged in the process of estate planning. Death Taxes When you are looking forward toward the eventual transfer of your financial resources to your heirs you must consider the impact of death taxes. The inheritance tax in the state of Indiana has recently been repealed, but residents of our state still have to contend with the federal estate tax. The maximum rate of the tax is 40% and the exclusion in … [Read more...]
Three Estate Planning Errors to Avoid
Sometimes people make errors of commission or omission that come back to haunt them or their families. We would like to take a look at three common estate planning errors in an effort to bring them to your attention so you can take steps to avoid them. 1.) The Creation of a Do-It-Yourself Estate Plan This is an error that is becoming increasingly common in the age of the Internet. Doing things for yourself can be personally rewarding, and it can sometimes save you money. … [Read more...]
