If you are like a lot of Americans, you may have a loyal four-legged friend by your side, and indeed dogs are fantastic companions.  In the eyes of your dog you are the most important person in the world and there is no denying that it is a good feeling to be held in such high esteem, even if it is coming from a canine point of view.

All kidding aside, pets are obviously valuable to people of all ages but owning a dog can be especially good for senior citizens.  It is not uncommon for elders to experience loneliness late in their lives, and the companionship that a dog can provide can really go a long way toward filling that gap.

In addition, dogs can provide protection.  Of course there are some breeds that are capable guard dogs, but even small dogs have keen senses and they can let you know if they hear something outside that doesn’t sound quite right.

If you do have a dog late in your life you are going to have to take the animal into consideration when you are planning your estate.  Finding a caretaker is going to be the first step, and once you identify someone to care for your dog you are going to have to provide this individual with the financial resources necessary to do so.

One option that is available to you would be the creation of a pet trust. If you would like to find out how to set up a trust for the benefit of your dog don’t hesitate to get in touch with an experienced Indianapolis estate planning lawyer to set up an informative consultation.

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Long-term financial planning is important for all serious minded individuals.  If you want to be able to provide your children with opportunities for higher education and then subsequently have the resources that you need to retire in comfort you have to plan ahead intelligently.

If you just go forward groping in the dark step-by-step you may find yourself in a difficult position later on in your life.  Along the way you may not be able to provide for your children in the manner that you would like to.

The decisions that you make today are going to impact your future, and if you make them without any particular long-term strategy in mind you may be on a road to nowhere.

The above is true for people who are employees of a company and it is also true for small business owners.  In addition to having a business plan that leads to profitability, you should also consider how you’re going to exit the business.

Some people intend to leave their business to the next generation of the family while others intend to sell the business.  Some businesses are driven by the specific talents of the owner and won’t really have much value when the owner passes away.  Exactly how you go about things along the way is going to depend on your unique situation and your personal intentions.

If you are tired of going through life without a plan, right now would be a good time to sit down and discuss your future with an experienced, savvy Indianapolis financial planning attorney.

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

In spite of the fact that estate planning is one of the foundational responsibilities that go along with adulthood, only around half of Americans have any type of an estate plan in place.

The term that is utilized to describe the condition of dying without a will or any other type of estate planning document directing the transfer of your assets is “intestacy.”

If you were to pass away intestate, the probate court would be charged with the responsibility of sorting out your final affairs.  The individual who would be in line to inherit your assets would be your spouse if you are married, and your children would be next in line if you are a parent who is not married.

The probate process can be long and arduous, and creditors and other interested parties could make claims against the estate.  There are also expenses that go along with probate and these costs can swallow up a significant portion of the resources that you leave behind.

If you die intestate, your family has to deal with this process without knowing exactly what your wishes would have been at a time when they will be grieving, and this can make a difficult situation that much worse.

Taking action to put an estate plan in place is a relatively simple step that is well worth the effort when you consider the alternatives.  If you’re ready to do the right thing for the sake of those that you love, pick up the phone right now and arrange for a consultation with a good Indianapolis Estate Planning lawyer.

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

When you get the oil in your car changed, they place a little sticker in the corner of the windshield to remind you of when you need to bring the car back in for another lube.  When you plan your estate initially there is no such sticker attached to your documents, but you should recognize the fact that periodic updates are very likely to be necessary.

With it being a new year, you may want to consider an annual estate plan review.  As we all know, there are things that happen in our lives that can be directly relevant to the estate plan that we have in place.  One very common scenario that would fit this description would be a change in marital status.

If your financial situation changes considerably you may want to adjust your estate plan, and additions and subtractions to your family can call for estate plan updates as well.

The types of things mentioned above are going to be plainly evident to you.  But there are ongoing changes to relevant laws that can make estate plan adjustments necessary.  Changes to the estate tax parameters would be among them, and in fact we have a significant change scheduled at the end of 2012.

Because of the fact that 2012 is a transitional year for the estate tax, you would do well to work with a professional to assess your current plan in light of coming changes.  If you’re ready to take action, simply pick up the phone and arrange for a consultation with a licensed and experienced Indianapolis Estate Planning lawyer.

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Statistics tell us that a surprising number of Americans are going through life without executing any estate planning documents.  Less than half of adults have an estate plan in place, and one of the reasons for this is because of the fact that they are uncomfortable with the subject of death.

How you feel about this emotionally or spiritually is a purely personal matter.  But from a practical perspective, statistics indicate that no less than 100% of Americans will die someday.  So how can you logically go through life without making preparations for something that is definitely going to happen to you?

We have all heard about “punting an issue” so that you don’t have to deal with it in the present even though you know that it must be dealt with eventually.  Estate planning may be the most frequently punted process that there is.  Of course dying is going to be on the bottom of your to-do list, but you have to make preparations for the inevitable all the same.

It can be useful to focus on your family members when you are considering the topic of estate planning because it is all about your loved ones.  Throughout your life you embrace your responsibility to your family, and the final step is provide for them to the best of your ability upon your passing.

If you’re ready to start planning for the future, the wise first step is to sit down and discuss your options with a good Indianapolis estate planning attorney.

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Because of the high incidence of divorce in the United States at the present time there are a lot of blended families out there, and there are many different types of scenarios to address in an estate planning context.  We are going to take a look at a relatively common one here and offer a typically utilized solution.

To explain by way of example, let’s say that you married your childhood sweetheart and had three children along the way.  You accumulated assets as a couple and you both feel as though your children should benefit from these resources after you pass away.

This is all well and good and easily accomplished when you are married, but let’s say that you get divorced.  You both go your separate ways with your share of the community assets.  For the purposes of this example we will say that you get remarried at some point in time.

How do you provide for your new spouse after your death without giving this individual control over who inherits the assets that you leave behind after he or she dies?  One answer would lie in the creation of a qualified terminable interest property trust.

With the QTIP you allow for your spouse to benefit from the income that is earned by the trust throughout the rest of his or her life.  However, he or she can’t direct who will receive the trust’s assets after his or her death.  You name this beneficiary when you are creating the trust.

The qualified terminable interest property trust is one of the blended family solutions that are available to you.  To explore them in detail, simply take a moment to arrange for a consultation with a good Indianapolis estate planning lawyer.

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

There are a number of different factors to consider when you are engaged in inheritance planning, and one of them would be details specific to the people who comprise your inheritance list.

It is not always as simple as handing over a lump sum bequest directly, because for one thing there can be estate tax implications that must be addressed.  Some heirs may not be ready to handle a large sum of money, and for these individuals you may want to include stipulations, perhaps through the creation of an incentive trust.

Asset protection is something else you may want to take into account, and this can be especially important for people such as physicians who are especially vulnerable to lawsuits.  One course of action that you could choose to take in an effort to protect assets would be to create a generation-skipping trust.

As the name suggests, you skip a generation when you name a beneficiary, making your grandchildren the beneficiaries.  Your children can however benefit from assets that are placed in the trust, receiving distributions of income and utilizing property that is held in the trust.  Because they don’t legally own the resources in the trust they cannot be targeted by claimants against the children.

Generation-skipping trusts can be a very useful asset protection tool, and they provide tax advantages as well.  To explore this and other options you may want to take action right now and arrange for a consultation with a licensed, experienced, and savvy Indianapolis estate planning attorney.

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

You may have heard the expression “the right tool for the right job,” and a lot of times what separates the professionals from the rest of us is the fact that they have the right tools at their disposal.

When it comes to estate planning there are different tools that are utilized under varying circumstances.  There can be more to it than simply drawing up a last will, and this is why it is advisable to work with an Indianapolis estate planning lawyer when you are contemplating your legacy.

One option that you may want to consider would be to utilize an RLT or revocable living trust as your primary vehicle of asset transfer rather than a last will.  The use of a revocable living trust enables probate avoidance, and probate carries some significant pitfalls with it.  For one thing, it is a public proceeding and privacy is important to many individuals.

Probate can also take a lot of time to run its course and bequests are not distributed until the estate has been closed by the probate court.  And perhaps most importantly, probate is quite expensive and probate costs can erode the value of your estate considerably.

A revocable living trust can also include an incapacity component that provides directions in the event of your incapacitation, and this is another part of the appeal.

If you are interested in exploring the possibility of creating a revocable living trust, don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and arrange for a consultation with an experienced and savvy Indianapolis estate planning attorney.

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

When you are engaged in inheritance planning you have to consider the impact that a large windfall will have on the recipients.  Perhaps you have some heirs on your inheritance list that are established in their own right, having demonstrated the ability to handle their own affairs effectively.  You may have no hesitation about leaving a lump sum to someone like this, but there could be other people who will be receiving inheritances that could use some guidance.

You have options available to you when you are planning your estate and you have the control.  It is possible to guide loved ones in fruitful directions, and one way of doing this would be through the creation of an incentive trust.

A lot of people may have concerns about spoiling a loved one, and incentive trusts can be a solution.  With an incentive trust you can include conditions that must be met before distributions will be paid out.

So you could for example require the beneficiary to earn money in his or her own right as a stipulation that must be satisfied before distributions are made.  Some people will direct the trust to match the earnings of the beneficiary.

You can also include age benchmarks, providing distributions or upping distributions when the beneficiary reaches a certain age.

As the grantor you know your family better than anyone and you can stipulate whatever you would like to. To learn more about incentive trusts, simply take action right now and arrange for a consultation with a licensed and experienced Indianapolis estate planning attorney.

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

When famous people pass away you often hear about the way that they planned their estates, and some of the stories are quite positive.  For example, we lost the mercurial British songstress Amy Winehouse over the summer, and according to reports she had an ironclad estate plan in place.  Her parents and her brother were provided for while her former husband, who could have been in line for an inheritance had she failed to plan ahead, was excluded.

Other people of note were not as proactive, and Martin Luther King Jr. was one of them.  MLK died without executing any estate planning documents, and after his wife passed away in 2006 acrimony ensued among his children regarding the estate.  There were allegations of mismanagement of the King Estate Corporation, and a legal battle was waged.  It was however reportedly resolved a couple of years ago.

At the present time there is some fresh estate planning news circulating that involves the Martin Luther King Jr. estate.  It seems that a woman who acted as his secretary during the 1950s was given some documents by Dr. King.  They recently surfaced and were given to the son of this woman, who is now 86 years old.

The King heirs wants these papers, contending that the former secretary, Maude Williams Ballou, was never given these documents to keep as a gift.  They claim that she was in possession of them in a professional capacity.

When you hear about matters such as these you understand why estate planning is important. If you’re currently going through life unprepared, right now would be a good time to pick up the phone and arrange for a consultation with a licensed and experienced Indianapolis estate planning attorney.

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.