Indianapolis living trust lawyers provide help in planning ahead in case of incapacity. Illness or an accident could leave you incapacitated and unable to manage your own affairs. When this happens, it is helpful to have a plan in place to ensure that someone you trust will immediately begin to take control over your money and property.
Frank & Kraft can work with you to identify the right tools to use to plan ahead for incapacity. While advanced directives and a power of attorney can be helpful both for making advanced plans for medical care and for giving someone authority to make decisions on your behalf, you may also wish to consider a living trust as part of your incapacity plan. Our Indianapolis living trust lawyers explain how living trusts work, why they are a valuable part of your incapacity plan, and how we can help you with trust creation. To find out more, give us a call today.
Why Should a Living Trust be Part of Your Incapacity Plan?
A living trust is a trust that you create during the course of your lifetime. You can manage the assets that are held within the trust and you have control and flexibility that you would not have with other types of trusts, such as an irrevocable trust.
While a living trust will not keep your trust assets safe from creditors and will not help to shield those assets from counting as resources if you need to qualify for Medicaid to pay for nursing home care, a living trust will be helpful in case of incapacity because you can name a backup trustee.
The backup trustee can immediately take over the management of the trust assets if something happens to you. You will not need to worry about a delay while a court determines if you are incapacitated and while a court determines who should be the guardian of the assets that you own. The backup trustee can keep the wealth that you transfer into the trust safe by managing it in an effective and appropriate manner if something has happened to you.
Your living trust will not only help you to keep your trust assets safe in case of incapacity, but can also be helpful after you pass away. Assets that are held within the living trust will not need to pass through the probate process, which is a time-consuming process that can leave an executor in charge of assets for many months instead of the heirs or beneficiaries who will become the new owner of the assets.
While there are other tools that can be part of an incapacity plan, the substantial benefits that a living trust provides prompt many clients to include this type of trust in their plan. Let Frank & Kraft help you to decide if you want to make a living trust part of your incapacity planning tools.
How Can Indianapolis Living Trust Lawyers Help You?
Indianapolis living trust attorneys can work with you to understand the risks to your wealth in case of incapacity. Some assets must be more carefully managed than others, for example, and the creation of a living trust can be especially important under these circumstances.
We can also help you to follow the formal process of trust creation and can guide you through the process of funding your trust with the assets that you are trying to protect. Your backup trustee will be the person who takes control over the trust assets if something happens to you, so our legal team will also explain the duties of the backup trustee and help you to determine who is best suited to this position based on the responsibilities that the trustee will have in case you become incapacitated.
Contact Indianapolis Living Trust Lawyers Today
Indianapolis living trust lawyers at Frank & Kraft can provide you with the help that you need to determine if creating a trust should be part of your incapacity plan. We can also work with you to identify other incapacity planning steps that you can take in order to keep your wealth secure and maintain your autonomy as long as possible even if something happens to you.
To find out about living trusts and other legal tools that you can use to plan ahead in case of incapacity, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 317-684-1100 or contact us online to get personalized help with your incapacity plan process and with your trust creation process.
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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