One of the smartest investments you can make for yourself and your family is to make your estate plan. From the time you walk into my office to the day you pass away, you will be better protected and your beneficiaries will thank you for it. Each beneficiary will feel gratitude and appreciate you for making your final arrangements, which offers some guidance of your wishes, protects your assets and rights, and clearly sets out what your loved ones should receive by the terms of your last will and testament. Having the correct documents in place that direct how your estate is to be distributed and what should happen to you if you become mentally incompetent or incapacitated during your last years, saves your loved ones a great deal of trouble, heartache and stress during a difficult time.
If you do not make your own last will and testament, then the State of Indiana will write a will for you and decide who gets what as their inheritance. Dying without a will is called dying intestate.
I help people with their estate planning and drafting appropriate legal documents in the following areas:
- Last Will and Testament
- Trusts: including revocable and irrevocable trusts
- Power of attorney
- Guardianship of elderly parents
- Advance health care directives, living wills and appointments
- Health care planning
- Probate and Administration of estates
- Representation of minor children when a parent becomes incapacitated or dies
- Federal estate and inheritance tax issues
- Contesting a will and estate litigation
Call the McCullum Law Office LLC at 502-552-1650 or e-mail me to schedule an appointment.
Jeffersonville, Sellersburg and New Albany, Indiana Estate Planning and Probate Attorney
The reason to begin your estate planning with a lawyer is to protect yourself and your family and preserve your assets for your loved ones while you still have your full capacity to make these decisions and arrangements. If you have made a power of attorney and appointed a valid attorney in fact, when you become unable to care for yourself or make your own decisions, you know that you will be in capable hands. Otherwise, your family may have little or no power to make significant important decisions for you without going to Court to obtain a Court Order.
Having a health care directive in place enables your doctor to know when it is appropriate to try and save you and when it is better to let you die. I usually prepare a living will and health care surrogate appointment for my clients.
Having a funeral and burial directive can significantly reduce the stress on surviving family members and ensure that your wishes are carried out.
Establishing guardianship for a minor child or disabled adult gives that person the care and supervision they need, while still allowing them as much freedom as they are able to handle.
As an estate planning attorney and a CPA in New Albany, Indiana, I am able to draft the necessary documents to see that your assets are protected and distributed according to your plans and desires, and that your family knows what to do in the event of your death or serious illness. I am able to help you look at what your future may hold and help you plan for the best and the worst. I can advise you on the impact that taxes may have on you now and at the time of your death, and later for your heirs and beneficiaries when it comes time for them to sell what you so carefully accumulated and guarded for them.
In many cases, I can advise clients how to avoid probate and simplify and streamline the distribution process upon his or her death.
Contact me or call me at 502-552-1650 to discuss your estate planning needs.