If you’re like most people, you probably haven’t given much thought to things like long-term care for yourself or your spouse. Chances are, you’re just too busy living to spend much time thinking about things that might or might not be important later on in life. If you’ve had a health scare or a recent injury, however, that dynamic may have changed. There are times in life when our own frailty and mortality can simply no longer be ignored. If you have started thinking about the possibility that … [Read more...] about Confused About How to Pay for Nursing Homes in Indianapolis?
Estate Planning
Do it Yourself (DIY) Wills: Will They Actually Cost You More in the End?
If you’re like most people, you may not be aware that only about 45% of all Americans have made out a Last Will and Testament. Given the important role that estate planning plays in end-of-life decisions, that number should come as a shock. Even among those who have created wills, a surprisingly large number of them have written the documents on their own – either from scratch or using one of those free or low-cost do-it-yourself Last Will and Testament forms you can find online. This can … [Read more...] about Do it Yourself (DIY) Wills: Will They Actually Cost You More in the End?
Make the Most of Your Estate Planning with an Indianapolis Trust Attorney
Do you have an estate plan already in place, or are you one of the roughly fifty-five percent of American adults who have never even gotten around to creating a basic Last Will and Testament? For many of us, that’s an uncomfortable question to consider, since conversations about things like wills, trust, estates, and inheritances just remind us of our own mortality. The fact is, though, that these are issues that we all eventually need to address – because if there is any one thing in life that … [Read more...] about Make the Most of Your Estate Planning with an Indianapolis Trust Attorney
How Retirement Planning Can Impact Your Estate Planning Strategy
How Retirement Planning Can Impact Your Estate Planning StrategyEmployment-based retirement plans are still an important part of many Indiana residents’ portfolio, but many people in the state are still only somewhat aware of how those plans can impact their end-of-life planning efforts. According to recent estimates, about 63% of all workers in Indiana have some type of access to retirement plans offered or sponsored by the companies that employ them. About 57% of those employees actually … [Read more...] about How Retirement Planning Can Impact Your Estate Planning Strategy
How Living Trust Benefits Can Strengthen Your Estate Planning Strategy
It’s really not surprising to see just how many families believe that living trusts have no place in their estate planning strategies. Trusts were originally reserved primarily for the wealthiest of individuals and their families, and that old dynamic has had a lasting impact on the way many of today’s families continue to view them. Unfortunately, that misconception is preventing many people from receiving the living trust benefits they might otherwise enjoy – and making it even more difficult … [Read more...] about How Living Trust Benefits Can Strengthen Your Estate Planning Strategy
Why Irrevocable Trusts May be the Perfect Option for your Estate Planning
Estate planning can involve a great number of complex choices. Some are as simple as determining whether or not you actually want your estate to go through probate when you die, diminishing the value of the assets that you leave behind for your loved ones. If you want to avoid probate, however, then your choices can become more complicated – especially when it comes to the use of trusts. It is not enough to just decide that you need a trust to ensure that your assets are distributed properly … [Read more...] about Why Irrevocable Trusts May be the Perfect Option for your Estate Planning
The Annual Gift Tax Exclusion: How it Can Help with Your Estate Planning
As complex as estate planning is in a general sense, many of the finer points involved in creating a sound plan can be even more confusing for the average person. Take estate taxes, for example. You will often hear analysts and others dismiss concerns about this tax on the basis that only about one percent of estates are ever subject to its provisions at the federal level. While there is some truth to that argument, it fails to address a broader truth: though the current law exempts estates with … [Read more...] about The Annual Gift Tax Exclusion: How it Can Help with Your Estate Planning
Contesting a Will: How Hard Is It?
Most people are aware of the fact that a last will is an estate planning document that can be utilized to facilitate postmortem asset transfers. In fact, it is the most commonly utilized estate planning device. If you were to create a last will, you would have to go through certain steps to make sure that it is legally valid. This is one of the reasons why you should work with an estate planning attorney if you decide that you would like to execute a last will. Each state has somewhat … [Read more...] about Contesting a Will: How Hard Is It?
Do You Need a Will Attorney to Plan Your Estate?
A will attorney can be of great assistance to you when you are putting your estate plan together, but many people have different ideas. If you were to search the Internet looking for estate planning solutions, you would invariably come across websites that sell do-it-yourself estate planning worksheets and templates. You may get the idea that it is easy to create a last will on your own using automated tools that you purchase online. Technically, any adult who is of sound mind can execute a … [Read more...] about Do You Need a Will Attorney to Plan Your Estate?
Can Lifetime Gifts Be Given to Avoid the Inheritance Tax?
It would be logical to assume that you could give a gift without any tax consequences. Imagine this simple scenario. You receive your salary via direct deposit, and you notice that about 40 percent of your pay has been absorbed by taxes. It is your son's birthday, and you take some of the remainder to buy him a gift. You pay sales tax on the gift. That is a lot of taxation when you put it all together. However, technically speaking, the gift is also taxable. There is a gift tax in place in … [Read more...] about Can Lifetime Gifts Be Given to Avoid the Inheritance Tax?
