If you’re one of the millions of Americans who’s finally getting around to thinking about estate planning, it may be tempting to cut corners and seek the easy way out. After all, if you believed everything that you read online, then there’s a good chance that you might assume that you can get by with some cheap, fill-in-the-blank form that you find advertised online. If you’ve been even a little bit tempted to go that route, you might want to rethink your options. The fact is that you could be wasting your time and money with those cookie-cutter wills and trusts, when what you really need to get the job done right is the help of an Indianapolis estate planning law firm.
Why Form Plans Fail
At first glance, those inexpensive one-size-fits-all plans appear to be all that you need. They are certainly advertised to be the cheapest and quickest way to get your estate plan completed. Consider this, though: it takes a lifetime to build up a nest egg and raise a family. Your wealth and your family needs are unlike those of any other person on the face of the Earth. How likely is it that a static form could ever hope to meet your legacy planning needs? That’s right; it can’t.
Not only are those plans relatively inflexible, but they’re not customized enough to enable you to personalize your options. Because of that, they cannot possibly be flexible enough to properly help you reach your goals. Moreover, they are limited when it comes to complementing other important financial and end-of-life planning concerns like retirement planning, growth strategies, incapacity and Medicaid planning, and more. In short, the best that these plans can offer is a tightly-focused strategy that will likely be useless within any comprehensive estate planning effort. You need an attorney.
Why an Indianapolis Estate Planning Law Firm is Superior
There are many reasons why you should seek an experienced law firm to help you with your comprehensive estate planning efforts – not the least of which is the fact that your efforts should be comprehensive! The fact is that you need your estate to be structured in a way that provides maximum benefits to you and your loved ones while you’re alive, while also enabling you to care for your family even after you’re gone. That type of planning doesn’t happen by accident.
Just consider everything that goes into creating the right estate plan for your needs:
- Will or trust? Which do you need? Or do you need the benefits that both can bring to your overall estate planning efforts? If you’re like most people, the answer to this most basic question may elude you. That’s only natural, since that answer depends on each person’s circumstances. You may be able to get by with a will and a few other essential documents, or you might benefit more from a trust.
- Do you have an incapacity plan? If something happened to you tomorrow, can you comfortably and confidently say that your medical and financial decisions will still be managed without any disruption? If not, then your family could be forced to seek a conservatorship for you, with the court appointing someone to handle your affairs during your incapacitation – at your expense. You can prevent that by getting the necessary powers of attorney drafted by a competent estate planning attorney.
- What about financial planning? Do you have a strategy to build wealth over time so that your estate plan will have assets that are worth passing on to your loved ones, or are you just winging it and hoping that everything works out in the end?
- What about retirement planning, business planning, and long-term care strategies? Do you have an IRA, 401(k), or other retirement vehicle to ensure that you’re not reliant on Social Security when you retire? Does your business have a succession strategy in place, or is it going through probate when you die? If you need nursing home care at some point in the future, will you have enough money to pay for your stay or will you have to rely on benefits such as those offered by Medicaid? If the latter, can you guarantee that you’ll qualify?
The fact is that there are more moving parts to any comprehensive estate planning strategy than most people ever realize. It’s not enough to just throw together a form will and hope that you’re covered. If you want to build wealth, enjoy a comfortable retirement, guard against incapacity, plan for incapacity, and create a legacy plan that properly distributes everything to your heirs when you die, then you need an effective strategy that addresses all those issues in a comprehensive manner.
The only way to effectively accomplish that goal and achieve all those objectives is to rely on the advice and assistance of someone with the estate planning expertise you need. With the right law firm, you can get the legacy and financial planning needed to secure your wealth for yourself and future generations, while safeguarding your interests in areas like incapacity and Medicaid planning. No free or low-cost form from the internet is going to help you accomplish all of that.
Just as important, you’ll ensure that your loved ones have timely access to the assets they need when you die. If you have family members that rely on your income and wealth for support, your attorney can help to structure your estate in ways that help those heirs avoid lengthy delays that might prevent them from getting the help they require.
Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law, is the Indianapolis estate planning law firm you need to meet your estate planning goals. We can assist you with the creation of the right estate management tools for your needs, and provide important incapacity planning strategies, long-term care solutions, and financial, business, and retirement planning help. In short, we can provide what cheap online forms cannot: customized solutions to help you achieve your unique planning objectives. To learn more about how we can help you, call today at (317) 684-1100, or contact us at our website.
Paul A. Kraft, Estate Planning Attorney
Mr. Kraft assists clients primarily in the areas of estate planning and administration, Medicaid planning, federal and state taxation, real estate and corporate law, bringing the added perspective of an accounting background to his work.
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