ESTATE Planning
Getting Divorced? Don’t Overlook Your ESTATE Plan!
Going through divorce can be an overwhelming experience that impacts nearly every facet of your life, including ESTATE planning. Yet, with so much to deal with during the divorce process, many people overlook updating their plan either before, during, or after a divorce. Something to keep in mind is that until your divorce is final, your marriage is legally in full effect. This means if you die or become incapacitated while your divorce is ongoing and you haven’t updated your ESTATE plan, your soon-to-be ex-spouse could end up with complete control over your life and assets. And that’s generally not a good idea, nor what you would want.
Updating your financial and medical power of attorney documents is the most critical change you need to make as soon as you know a divorce is coming. If you were to become incapacitated by illness or injury during your divorce, the very person you are paying big money to legally remove from your life would be granted complete authority over all your legal, financial, and medical decisions. Since most people typically name their spouse as their decision maker in these documents, it’s critical to take action – even before you begin the divorce process – and grant this authority to someone else, especially if things are anything less than amicable between the two of you.
As soon as you know you are getting divorced, update beneficiary designations for assets that do not pass through a will or trust, such as bank accounts, life insurance policies, and retirement plans. Due to restrictions on changing beneficiary designations after divorce is filed, the timing of your beneficiary change is particularly critical. Updating your will, or creating one for the first time, and naming someone other than your soon-to-be ex-spouse as your executor is also an important update to make.
During the divorce process, your primary planning goal is limiting your soon-to-be ex’s control over your life and assets should you die or become incapacitated before your divorce is final. In light of this, the individuals to whom you grant power of attorney, designate to receive your 401k, name as executor of your will, or add to your plan in any other way while the divorce is ongoing are often just temporary. Once your divorce is final and your marital property has been divided up, you should revisit all your planning documents and update them based on your new asset profile and living situation.
If you are going through a divorce don’t overlook critical updates to your ESTATE plan before, during, and after your divorce is final. At PURPOSE Law Firm, we are passionate about helping families not only protect their financial assets, but their human, spiritual and intellectual assets as well. We believe that a properly designed ESTATE plan can keep your family out of Court, out of conflict, and keep your children out of the care of strangers. At PURPOSE Law Firm we educate and empower you to make the best decisions for you and your family.
Indiana Has An Estate Plan For You
At PURPOSE Law Firm, ESTATE is an acronym that stands for: Everyone Special To you and All Things Essential. We are passionate about helping families not only protect their financial assets, but their human, spiritual and intellectual assets as well. Most married people think that if they die without a Will that their spouse will inherit everything…This is simply not true! If you die without a Will or an ESTATE plan, the great state of Indiana has a plan for you. But it is not what you think and may not be what you would want.
The following provisions in Indiana’s plan for you are basic and would likely be acceptable to you: When you do not have an ESTATE Plan in place when you die: • If you only have a spouse, your spouse will inherit everything. • If you only have children, your children will inherit everything. • If you only have parents, your parents will inherit everything. • If you only have siblings, your siblings will inherit everything.
The following provisions in Indiana’s plan for you get a little trickier and would likely be absolutely unacceptable to you: When you do not have an ESTATE Plan in place when you die: • If you have a spouse and children with that spouse, your spouse inherits 50% of your property, and your children inherit the other 50% of your property. • If you have a spouse and children from a previous relationship, your spouse inherits 50% of your personal property and only 25% of the fair market value of any real estate, minus encumbrances, and the children from the previous relationship inherit everything else. • If you have a spouse and living parents, your spouse will inherit 75% of your property and your parents will inherit the remaining 25% of your property.
If you die without an ESTATE plan in place, Indiana has a plan for you. However, it may not be what you think or what you would want. If you are married and you assume that your spouse will automatically get everything, that is only true if you don’t have any children or living parents. If you have children with that spouse, children from a previous relationship, or living parents they will all get a portion of your property which will most likely result in a Court battle, family conflict and broken relationships.
Begin your ESTATE Planning process today by thinking about the legacy you want to leave your loved ones. We believe that a properly designed ESTATE plan can keep your family out of Court, out of conflict, and keep your children out of the care of strangers. At PURPOSE Law Firm we educate and empower you to make the best decisions for your family and help you leave a legacy of love.
ESTATE Planning Essentials
At PURPOSE Law Firm, ESTATE is an acronym that stands for: Everyone Special To you and All Things Essential. We are passionate about helping families not only protect their financial assets, but their human, spiritual and intellectual assets as well. Most people think ESTATE planning is just for the elderly or super wealthy…This is simply not true! We believe families with young children have much more at stake and need to properly plan to ensure the care of their children if the unthinkable happens to them. There are five essential pieces of every well-designed ESTATE plan.
1. A Will – A Will is what most people are familiar with when discussing ESTATE planning. Everyone should have a Will as a part of their plan, because if you fail to plan our great state has a plan for you which includes provisions that could leave your family facing Court and conflict for years to come.
2. A Trust – A Trust is an incredible piece of a well-designed ESTATE plan that can keep your family out of Court, out of conflict, and financially secure for years to come. A Trust is no longer only for the wealthy. Even if you, for example, just own a home and a life insurance policy it is worth making a Trust a part of your plan. Having all your assets properly titled to your Trust can completely avoid the probate process and ensure your loved ones receive their inheritance sooner rather than later.
3. Financial Ancillary Documents – A Durable Power of Attorney gives the person you choose as your agent the authority to make financial decisions in the event of your incapacity. This is an often overlooked, but very important piece of your ESTATE plan.
4. Medical Ancillary Documents – A Medical Power of Attorney gives the person you choose as your agent the authority to make medical decisions in the event of your incapacity. Health Care Directives allow you to make decisions about your health care in advance, so your children are not left with the burden of making these decisions. A HIPPA Waiver allows you to give loved one’s the ability to get information about your medical care.
5. HAPPY KIDS Planning Documents – Properly naming Guardians for your kids is one of the most important pieces of an ESTATE plan. 69% of parents have not yet named guardians for their kids, and of the 31% who have, most make serious mistakes somewhere in the process. Without proper planning your kids could end up in the Foster Care system or in the hands of the last person on Earth you would want to raise them.
Begin your ESTATE Planning process today by thinking about the legacy you want to leave your children. We believe that a properly designed ESTATE plan can keep your family out of Court, out of conflict, and keep your children out of the care of strangers. At PURPOSE Law Firm we educate and empower you to make the best decisions for your family and help you leave a legacy of love.
Family Law
A Journey from Past to Present
After dealing with domestic violence all of my life and finding myself as a single mother of three young boys with virtually no resources and very little support, a vision was birthed in me to have a place where victims of domestic violence could come to be loved and empowered. In my vision I saw a building that would house women upstairs, and downstairs there would be a shop of some kind where the women could work and learn job skills as well as discover their talents, gifts and PURPOSE in life. Although in 2001 I had no money to purchase a building, God had me go through the process of looking at buildings. It was a time of vision casting and dreaming of what He would some day bring to pass.
While going through my divorce and deciding what to do with my life, I felt God tell me to go back to school. I finished an associate degree in Business Financial Management in 2002, and then went on to get a Bachelor degree in Middle School Education in 2005. When I graduated, I spent three years as a teacher's aide because there was a hiring freeze in Indiana at the time. After my second year I went to Hungary and taught English as a Second Language at a refugee camp for the summer. Upon returning to our local school system, I realized my heart was to teach people who, for them it was a matter of life or death that they learn what I was teaching. I wanted to make a much bigger impact.
God moved me out of the school system and I spent the next two years unemployed. God had another path for me to take and had to put me in a position to recognize it. My heart was for victims of domestic violence and when opportunity came knocking, I answered the door and so my six year journey at Safe Passage began. My time at Safe Passage was such a blessing on so many levels. I learned that the abuse I had endured throughout my life had a much bigger impact than I had realized. The work I did developing Domestic Violence education programs allowed me to see on a deeper level the effects Domestic Violence had on my life. It kept me in a place of being stuck and unable to really pursue my PURPOSE. This was a great time of healing for me as I helped other women to overcome the abuse in their lives.
Once I was able to personally recognize and overcome the effects Domestic Violence had on my life, I was finally able to hear what the Lord was speaking to me about my PURPOSE. It is a great passion of mine to personally figure out what my God-given PURPOSE in life is...beyond that I have a passion to help other women do the same. I firmly believe that women who have been in abusive relationships don't recognize the impact the abuse had on their lives. They don't recognize that because of the abuse they are stuck. I know, that was me! So with experience working at a DV agency and with an Education degree under my belt, I have developed programs to help women get "Freedom from the Effects of Domestic Violence" & change the narratives of their lives.
During my time at Safe Passage, a part of my job was to go to Court with my client's to support them during an extremely difficult time in their lives. I would watch them lose their children to their abusers because they couldn't afford an attorney. I would watch them continue to be abused by the legal system. I began to cry out to the Lord..."God this is so wrong!" For months all I heard from Him was "So, what are you going to do about that, Tina?" During this season several people told me I should go to Law School...but I didn't want to listen. After a particularly difficult case, I again cried out to the Lord and He told me, "Tina, you need to go to Law School!" After four months of fighting Him, I finally submitted to what He was telling me to do. And off I went...
Let me tell you...Law School was no joke!!! It was a long hard process, but I finally made it through, passed the Bar and was sworn in at the first ever virtual swearing in ceremony in history on 5/5/20. Read that date again! I started practicing law during the 2020 pandemic and now I own my own law firm! These are exciting times, and it has been my absolute pleasure to share my journey to finding my PURPOSE with you. I hope it has touched your heart and encouraged you! Please know that whatever you have gone through in your life, you can overcome and move beyond it to do great things. But the story doesn't end here. Stay tuned to see what God has in store for us next...
Attorneys Who PRAY
Alignment with God
P = Pray To begin our discussion on prayer we must first look at the model prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. "Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." Matthew 6:9-13 Food for thought: Did Jesus intend for this prayer to be recited verbatim at every church service? Or perhaps is this a framework he intended for us to use to actually bring His Kingdom down to earth and into our daily lives?
R = Revelation To begin our discussion on revelation, we must first define the word. Merriam-Webster defines revelation as an act of revealing or communicating divine truth: something that is revealed by God to humans. "Here is the vision that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, received by divine revelation concerning what was going to happen to Judah and Jerusalem." Isaiah 1:1 Food for thought: The entire book of Isaiah is considered to be revelation from God. When we talk to God, we call it prayer. But how often do we stop to listen to God's reply? When we listen to God, it's called revelation.
A = Advance To begin our discussion on what it means to advance we have to have a clear picture of what we are really talking about. This is war! "Line up the buckler and shield, and advance for battle! Harness the horses, and mount, you riders! Take your stand with your helmets! Polish the spears, put on the coats of mail!" Jeremiah 46:3-4 Food for thought: We have been so fortunate to live in a place with relative peace. So many people live in "war-torn" countries. As Americans we don't live our daily lives fighting in a war. But as Christians we need to recognize that we are fighting a spiritual battle every day.
Y = Yield To begin our discussion on what it means to yield let's revisit Job's journey. Job's friends may not have had everything right, but this advice from Eliphaz is on point. "Now yield and submit yourself to Him [agree with God and be conformed to His will] and be at peace; In this way [you will prosper and great] good will come to you." Job 22:21 Food for thought: We prayed for God to show us how to prepare for our client's cases. We listened to His answer. We knew our marching orders and advanced. But in the middle of the battle our strategy now needs to change. It is in these times that we must yield and listen for the Holy Spirit to tell us what to do in the moment.
Alignment with Clients
P = Prepare To begin our discussion on preparing for our client's cases we will take a journey with Job. "One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them." Job 1:6 (NLT) "Pay close attention to my words; let my declaration ring in your ears. Now then, I have prepared my case; I know that I am right." Job 13:17-19 (HCSB) Food for thought: Can you picture the scene? Can you see a Courtroom drama unfolding? Think about Satan's position in the Courts of Heaven, he is the Prosecuting attorney.
R = Relate To begin our discussion on relating to our clients we should take a look at Jesus as an example. "Levi (Matthew) gave a great banquet for Jesus at his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes began murmuring in discontent to His disciples, asking, “Why are you eating and drinking with the tax collectors and sinners?”." Luke 5:29-30 Food for thought: Was Jesus a tax collector or a sinner? No of course not, but he had no problem sharing a meal with such people. Do you think he turned his nose up at them like the Pharisees did? I don't think so, I think the tax collectors and sinners felt welcomed and loved by Jesus.
A = Advocate To begin our discussion on what an advocate does and how we advocate for our clients, let's see how Jesus advocates for us. "My little children (believers, dear ones), I am writing you these things so that you will not sin and violate God’s law. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate [who will intercede for us] with the Father: Jesus Christ the righteous [the upright, the just One, who conforms to the Father’s will in every way—purpose, thought, and action]." 1 John 2:1 Food for thought: What an amazing thought...Jesus is my advocate! When we advocate for our clients we are interceding on their behalf with our local Judges.
Y = Yearn To begin our discussion on what it means to yearn for someone or something, let's see how God yearns for his children. "Isn’t Ephraim a precious son to Me, a delightful child...My inner being yearns for him; I will truly have compassion on him. This is the Lord’s declaration." Jeremiah 31:20 Food for thought: To yearn for our client's and their cases doesn't mean we have to get all wrapped up in their lives and emotions...it means we are to have the heart of God for them and show them compassion.
