• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Our Firm
    • About Our Firm
    • Attorney and Staff Profiles
  • Services
    • Asset & Business Planning
    • Dental Practice Law
    • Estate and Gift Tax Figures
    • Estate Planning Services
    • Family-Owned Businesses & Farms
    • Financial Planning Assistance
    • Incapacity Planning
    • IRA & Retirement Planning
    • Legacy Planning
    • LGBTQ Estate Planning
    • Medicaid and Elder Law
    • SECURE Act
    • Special Needs Planning
    • Trust Administration
  • Elder Law
    • Coping With Alzheimer’s
    • Emergency Medicaid & Nursing Home Planning
    • Guardianship & Conservatorship
    • Hospice Care
    • Medicaid Planning
    • Veteran’s Benefits
  • Resources
    • DocuBank
    • Elder Law
      • Elder Law & Medicaid Definitions
      • Elder Law Reports
      • Elder Law Resources
        • Carmel, Indiana Elder Resources
        • Fishers Indiana Elder Law Resources
        • Greenfield, Indiana Elder Law Resources
        • Greenwood Elder Resources
        • Indianapolis Elder Law Resources
        • Lawrence Elder Law Resources
        • Plainfield Elder Resources
        • Zionsville Elder Law Resources
    • Estate Planning
      • Estate Planning Checkup
      • Estate and Gift Tax Figures
      • Estate Planning Definitions
      • Estate Planning Reports
        • Advanced Estate Planning
        • Basic Estate Planning
        • Estate Planning for Niches
        • Trust Administration
      • Incapacity Planning Definitions
      • Is Your Estate Plan Outdated?
      • Top 10 Estate and Legacy Planning Techniques
    • Free Estate Planning Worksheet
    • Frequently Asked Questions
      • Asset Protection Planning
        • Business Succession Planning
      • Elder Abuse
      • Elder Law
        • Medicaid
        • Medicaid Planning
        • Planning for Long-Term Care
      • Estate Planning
        • Avoiding Estate Taxes
        • Estate Planning for Parents
        • Frequently Asked Questions for Families Without an Estate Plan
        • LGBTQ Estate Planning
        • Women and the Need for Estate Planning
      • Financial Planning
      • Incapacity Planning
      • Legacy Wealth Planning
      • Pet Planning
      • Philanthropy in Your Estate Plan
      • Probate
      • Power of Attorney
      • Small Estate Administration
      • Trusts
        • Trust Administration
        • Trust Administration
        • Serving as Executor
      • Understanding Your Social Security Retirement Benefits
      • Wills
        • Contesting a Will
    • Newsletter
    • Pre Consultation Form
    • Probate and Trust Administration
      • Bereavement Resources
      • How to Know if You Need Extra Help With Your Grieving
      • Loss Of A Loved One
      • Probate Resources
        • Carmel, Indiana Probate Resources
        • Greenfield Probate
        • Greenwood Probate
        • Indianapolis Probate
        • Plainfield Probate
        • Indiana Probate
        • Zionsville Probate
      • Things You Need To Do When a Loved One Passes Away With a Trust
      • The Mourner’s Bill of Rights
      • Things You Need To Do When a Loved One Passes Away With a Will
      • Trust Administration & Probate Definitions
  • Reviews
    • Our Reviews
    • Review Us
  • Areas We Serve
    • Boone County
      • Lebanon
      • Zionsville
    • Hamilton County
      • Carmel
      • Fishers
    • Hancock County
      • Greenfield
    • Hendricks County
      • Brownsburg
      • Plainfield
    • Johnson County
      • Franklin, Indiana
      • Greenwood
    • Marion County
      • Central Indiana
      • Indianapolis
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law

Indianapolis Estate Planning Attorneys

CONNECT WITH US TODAY(317) 684-1100

Attend a Free Workshop
Home » Resources » Probate and Trust Administration » Probate Resources » Indiana Probate Resources

Indiana Probate Resources

When a family member or other loved one passes away, most of us would prefer to just grieve in peace rather than be confronted with the complexities involved in dealing with estate matters. The problem is that every decedent’s estate must eventually be settled, so avoidance isn’t always an option. When your loved one’s estate doesn’t include trusts or other automatic ownership transfer provisions, then you may find that there is no other option than to deal with the probate court. The following resources are designed to help familiarize you with the probate process in Indiana to help remove some of the mystery that might otherwise surround those proceedings.

Why Probate?

You often hear people talk about how they’re creating a will to help their estates avoid the probate process so that heirs can receive their inheritances in a streamlined manner. Sadly, that belief is not based on reality. The fact is that your will cannot save your estate from probate, since probate is specifically designed to help facilitate the transfer of ownership of all properties that don’t have any other automatic means for passing to another person when you die. That means that assets like a bank account with transfer-on-death provisions would avoid probate, but that same account would need to be probated if it were in the deceased’s name without such a provision.

When probate is necessary, there are several ways that you might encounter the probate court. The first involves you being named as the will’s executor. If that happens, then you will be tasked with a wide variety of duties ranging from identifying and appraising assets to locating creditors, paying debts, and helping the court finalize distributions of assets. As executor, you would be answerable to the court, and must provide detailed accounting of your activities so that the probate judge can verify that everything has been done in accordance with the law.

Of course, you don’t have to be a named executor to encounter the probate court. This can happen when you’re challenging the validity of a will, since the court must determine whether any will is legitimate before it can allow probate to proceed. One thing is true in either case, however; you should have at least some idea how probate works in Indiana. And while the best way to gain that knowledge is by contacting a competent probate lawyer to assist you with your probate matters, there are also a host of resources out there that can help you to become more familiar with these procedures.

Get Information About Indiana Probate

Because probate can be a complicated matter, it is always smart to rely on expert resources if you want to better understand everything that is involved. For the state of Indiana, you can find a great deal of information about Indian probate in all the state’s counties at the freeadvice.com website. If you live in or around Indianapolis, you can even download the necessary probate court forms from the government website.

Indiana Probate Laws

If you find that you need to review the Indiana probate laws, you can find them in the Indiana Code Title 29: Probate. That page provides you with the actual statutory language used in Indiana law to cover topics like probate and guardianship concerns.

Learn about Indiana Estate Tax Issues

The state of Indiana no longer has an estate tax or inheritance tax at the state level, having retroactively repealed its own inheritance tax in recent years. If you’d like to learn more about the issue, you can read about it on the Indiana Department of Revenue website.

How Do States Across the US Manage Estate Provisions?

In recent decades, there has been a tremendous effort to create greater uniformity of probate and estate tax provisions across the many states in the United States. Despite that effort, there are still many differences remaining. Because of those differences, the laws that apply to certain assets in different states may be very different than the laws used in Indiana. That means that you may need to know how other states apply estate tax law to ensure that you understand the proceedings. Fortunately, you can find a comprehensive list of those state laws at findlaw.com.

Indiana Probate Court Resources

As noted above, you may eventually have to contact whatever probate court is handling the estate. If you’re an executor, you’ll have reports to submit and petitions to file. If you’re contesting the will, that too needs to be done in the probate court. Before you can do that, though, you must find the right court to contact. Once again, the links to Indiana’s county courts can prove invaluable when it comes to putting you in touch with the court that handles your loved one’s probate proceedings.

Estate Planning for You

Of course, you may also just find yourself interested in estate planning for your own estate needs. The fact is that all of us should have some sort of estate plan in place to ensure that our property and loved ones are taken care of when we die. The last thing you want is for your estate to be handled using Indiana intestacy laws, since that leaves you no say in determining how your assets are distributed after death. Fortunately, there are many educational resources that can help you to learn more about the laws governing estate planning in the state of Indiana:

  • Indiana Probate and Estate Tax Laws
  • Indiana Living Will Laws
  • Indiana Will Laws
  • Indiana Durable Power of Attorney Laws

The bottom line is that there are many resources that you can consult to learn more about probate matters in the state of Indiana. By reviewing these resources, you can gain better familiarity with the probate process and even get more information about the types of things that you can do to further your own estate planning efforts. At the same time, however, it is important to recognize that online resources only provide part of the story. To truly understand it all and get the assistance you need to guide you through the complexities of the Indiana probate process, you need the help of an experienced Indiana probate and estate planning attorney. To get the assistance you need to make your probate experience more manageable, contact the experts at Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law today by visiting us online or calling (317) 684-1100.

Primary Sidebar

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law

Download our free Estate Planning Worksheet

There's a lot that goes into setting up a comprehensive estate plan, but with our FREE worksheet, you'll be one step closer to getting yourself and your family on the path to a secure and happy future.

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkdin
  • Youtube

Where We Are

Frank & Kraft Attorneys at Law
135 N. Pennsylvania Street Suite 1100
Indianapolis, IN 46204-2485
Phone: (317) 684-1100
Fax: (317) 684-6111

See Larger MapGet directions

Office Hours

Monday8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Map

frankkraft_sidbr_map

Footer

  • Advantages of Working With Our Firm
  • About The American Academy
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
  • Contact Us

Connect with Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkdin
  • Youtube
footer-logo

Frank & Kraft Attorneys at Law
Attorney Advertisement

© 2023 American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.

© 2023 · American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc. | Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Sitemap | Contact Us