Hawkins Elder Law provides an overview of retirement planning and estate planning as it relates to your finances and health care.

This article describes special problems challenging some older married folks, and explains how elder law attorneys are using family law tactics to help solve those problems.

                        [See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] The Senior Consumer Protection Act (referred to in this article as the “Act”) added new financial exploitation protections in 2013 for Hoosiers that are 60 years of age or older (referred to in the Act […]

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] Trusts are tools that estate planning lawyers use to solve or avoid money management and property management problems for clients. Protective trusts protect assets from problems plaguing the trusts’ beneficiaries. Protective trusts are increasingly common as lawyers and clients focus on solving problems that do not necessarily […]

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] Concerns about burdening surviving family members with headaches and expenses lead many retirees to think about funeral pre-planning. If you pay attention to life insurance television ads targeted at retirees, you can see several life insurance sales pitches that prey upon those concerns. Like many […]

[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 […]

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

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] (Updated March 14, 2018) Hollywood actress Betty Davis was quoted as saying, “Old age ain’t no place for sissies.” Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you view it) more people are reaching older ages today than ever (such as Ira Chestnut, pictured at left as a high […]

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] Many people are familiar with the prodigal son parable that Jesus shared with his critics in Luke 15:11-32. In that story, the prodigal son demanded and squandered his inheritance, returned home in disgrace, and received his father’s embrace and celebration upon return. The story also […]

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] Most people think once in a while about the inheritance that they will leave for others. Some people assume that their wealth will transfer to their family members smoothly and other people believe that they must make detailed plans. To some extent, both ideas are […]