Spouses of Nursing Home Residents: Avoid These Medicaid Traps!

Posted on June 25, 2017 by Hawkins Elder Law.

The financial pitfalls facing a married couple when one spouse requires nursing home care are wide, deep, and surprisingly hidden. The emotional pain of a married person’s admission of his or her spouse to a nursing home rivals the painful experience of a spouse’s death. Unfortunately, critical financial decisions rush toward the healthier spouse like […]

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Mandatory Electronic Court Filing Coming to an Indiana Court Near You

Posted on May 30, 2017 by Hawkins Elder Law.

The Indiana Supreme Court has committed the Indiana judicial system to leap toward paperless record systems. A few Indiana counties established electronic case filing systems as pilot projects in 2015. Gradually, courts have transitioned from paper systems to mandatory electronic filing systems since 2015. Those counties that continue to use paper systems, must transition into […]

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Avoiding Probate is Easy – But Not Always Wise

Posted on May 23, 2017 by Hawkins Elder Law.

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] We have heard people tell us for decades that they want to “avoid probate.” They say it as if they want to avoid cancer. Most people have no idea what it is that they think they should avoid. Fewer people know that the “probate” concept […]

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Getting Married? Get A Prenuptial Agreement First!

Posted on April 18, 2017 by Hawkins Elder Law.

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] What comes to mind when you think of a prenuptial agreement? If you are like most people, you probably think about wealthy celebrities protecting their wealth from divorce. You may also think that a person would have to be a greedy, heartless jerk to ask […]

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Know and Protect Your Boundaries

Posted on by Hawkins Elder Law.

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] 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 […]

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Costly Delay: Importance of Mental Capacity in Estate Planning

Posted on April 8, 2017 by Hawkins Elder Law.

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] Too people say about estate planning, “I’m not ready for that yet.” A person must be able to think clearly enough to make a will, trust, power of attorney, deed, health care directive or other estate plan document. As we wrote in our blog article, […]

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Estate Planning Is More Than Forms

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Hawkins Elder Law.

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] 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 […]

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Hoosier Hospitals Should Stop Asking Patients about Living Wills

Posted on March 19, 2017 by Hawkins Elder Law.

Employees of many Hoosier hospitals ask patients the same question during the admission process every day, “Do you have a living will?” This may surprise people, but a patient’s answer to that question does not matter because when a living will arrives at the hospital, it is “dead on arrival.” This article explains why Indiana’s […]

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Signing Documents Is a Big Deal

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Hawkins Elder Law.

Indiana is on the front line of a legal services technological revolution. LegalZoom is pushing a bill to allow electronic signatures of wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and other estate planning documents, while the Indiana Secretary of State driving an electronic notarization bill. Indiana State Bar Association members are working to fix serious defects in […]

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Ask Good Questions of Yourself and Your Lawyer

Posted on February 26, 2017 by Hawkins Elder Law.

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] 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 […]

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