Three of the most emotionally volatile kinds of legal conflicts that people can encounter are child custody battles, family disputes over a deceased person’s assets, and arguments between neighbors over property boundary lines. Disputes over children and estate assets often stir intense emotion, but the intensity fades once a court enters judgment on the contested issues. ...

Several years ago, our daughter’s kindergarten teacher shared with us a simplistic job description that our daughter gave to the class about her lawyer parents. When asked what her parents did for a living, our daughter said, “They type and click.” Many people have a similarly simplistic understanding of estate plan “forms” and the process of signing them. ...

When a timid client says, “this is a dumb question, but…,” we usually respond that the only “dumb” question is a question that the client fails to ask. Experienced lawyers know how to draw most important information from timid and unprepared clients, but the most satisfied clients make lists of questions before meeting with their lawyers...

The narrator of the 1948 detective movie, Naked City, gave this vivid description of the homicide detective’s painstaking investigative method: An investigation for murder is under way now in the city of New York. It will advance methodically, by trial and error, by leg and brain work, by asking a thousand questions to get one answer. ...

Many disabled children face disheartening experiences when they become adults. Public and private resources offer a variety of therapeutic services, summer recreation camps, and adaptive educational accommodations to disabled children, but many of those benefits and abruptly at adulthood. ...

Every profession has craftsmen that constantly refine their skills and performance quality. As technology and society evolve, craftsmen respond to ever-changing societal needs by developing and harnessing new technology to create more effective and useful tools and products. As society faces overwhelming technological advances and accelerating globalization, people will become increasingly dependent on craftsmen lawyers to help them adapt to change...

The Indiana State Department of health (ISDH) updated and improved the Indiana Physicians Orders for Scope of Treatment (POST) form in December 2016. The new form is available for download in PDF and Microsoft Word formats at http://www.in.gov/isdh/25880.htm, and it should be available in the offices of most health care service providers. We provide the form to our clients that may be able to use it, and we make it available upon request to whoever requests a copy...

The Medicaid system is maturing and showing promise of improving nursing home alternatives compared to the few meaningful alternatives to nursing home care that existed when we began our elder law career almost quarter century ago. Back then, almost every dementia or stroke patient had to be institutionalized in a nursing home to receive adequate supervisory and therapeutic care. ...

There is an old saying that, “the two certainties in life are death and taxes.” Those certainties used to inspire life insurance purchases to provide money for funeral expenses and “death taxes.” Today, increased estate tax exemption and the Indiana inheritance tax repeal have eliminated tax concerns for most Hoosiers, while long-term care cost inflation (an average cost of $72,936 per year as of July 1, 2016, in Indiana) has replaced the tax threat for many disabled retirees. ...

People buy and use life insurance for many reasons. Unfortunately, too many people make poor life insurance purchase and use decisions because they do not try to understand their options. Instead, they rely on insurance promoters and amateur advisors to tell them what they need to purchase and how they should use it. Their blind faith often leads them to purchase too much insurance, purchase the wrong kind of insurance, or do things with their insurance that trap them in financial problems...

People buy and use life insurance for many reasons. Unfortunately, too many people make poor life insurance purchase and use decisions because they do not try to understand their options. Instead, they rely on insurance promoters and amateur advisors to tell them what they need to purchase and how they should use it. Their blind faith often leads them to purchase too much insurance, purchase the wrong kind of insurance, or do things with their insurance that trap them in financial problems...

Pop quiz: Which of the following business transactions could involve criminal behavior? A. Your restaurant customer pays the tab in cash and leaves a cash tip on the table. B. The next door neighbor gives your child a $10 bill to shovel snow...

In our most recent blog, “Plans for Final Illness, Death, and Human Remains Disposition,” we mentioned issues that affect people’s choices about health care in final illness, death, and disposition of their bodies, including a few brief references to spiritual issues. ...

A person’s landmark life events might include birth, spiritual dedication, marriage, children’s births, and death. People normally think about most of those events, but few people want to think about final illness and death, much less talk or plan about it. ...

If a person has made a will, a power of attorney, an advance health care directive, or a trust, the person may think that those documents create a dependable estate plan. Unfortunately, many people do not realize that an estate plan includes every kind of asset ownership, every source of income, every kind of debt, and every kind of advance health care directive that a person may have or create. ...

God told the Israelites in the 25th chapter of the biblical book of Leviticus that in every 50th year, a family would regain ownership of land that the family’s ancestors had sold during the past 50 years. The Mosaic Law ensured the blessings of property ownership in the ancient Israelites’ tribal culture, but shared land ownership can become a curse in today’s individualistic American culture without expert planning...

An estate planning lawyer usually serves clients alone, without involving any other lawyers in the estate planning process. In some cases involving married couples, however, one lawyer cannot do the whole job alone because the lawyer’s ethical obligations prohibit the lawyer from serving both the husband and the wife. ...

This article concludes a two-part series about state and federal law can save a nursing home resident’s spouse from poverty, and how an experienced elder law attorney can help the spouse increase the amount of assets that can be saved from expensive long-term care. ...

Nursing home bills usually turn a person's world upside down when his or her spouse requires nursing home care (the average Indiana nursing home bed costs $6,078 per month in 2016). This article begins a two-part series about state and federal law can save a nursing home resident's spouse from poverty, and how an experienced elder law attorney can help the spouse increase the amount of assets that can be saved from expensive long-term care...

The Apostle Paul described balanced responsibilities of children to honor their parents and parents to behave reasonably toward their children this way: As for children, obey your parents in the Lord, because it is right. The commandment Honor your father and mother is the first one with a promise attached: so that things will go well for you, and you will live for a long time in the land. ...