Where there’s a will, there’s a way to do it yourself with Internet services such as LegalZoom, Nolo and Rocket Lawyer. But attorneys say relying on online form providers for long-term financial and estate planning may not be the wisest investment.
An Indianapolis man accused of multiple felony securities fraud counts has reached a plea agreement with the Marion County Prosecutor's Office.
An Anderson lawyer suspended from the practice of law and accused of stealing from trust and estate clients sums that could total $500,000 has drawn another suspension order for failing to cooperate with three disciplinary investigations.
Plaintiffs who purchased cash-value life insurance policies for their employees and deducted those contributions on income taxes that were later disallowed were wrongly denied their day in court against the insurers.
The receiver appointed to recover investor losses from an alleged Ponzi scheme said he’s retrieved in five months about 20 percent of what investors were owed, a figure experts say is relatively high at this stage for such cases.
Ernst & Young LLP erred by taking Bernie Madoff at his word when it signed off on audits of a fund that helped feed the biggest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history. The firm then stumbled by trusting the con man’s now-disgraced ex- accountant, a jury in the first trial of its kind was told.
Sarah Wilding wanted her church in Anderson to receive the bulk of her estate when she died in April 2012. The church is still waiting, and so are other beneficiaries who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to a lawyer accused of plundering their estates.
The U.S. dropped insider-trading charges against Michael Steinberg, a former fund manager at SAC Capital Advisors LP who was convicted by a federal jury, in the latest fallout from a major appeals court ruling that made such prosecutions more difficult.
Estate planning attorneys occasionally draw the strong-willed client who wants to leave money to an heir – but only if the kid sobers up, quits getting in trouble with the law, gets a job, stops living beyond his means, or changes behavior in some other way.
In most instances, vacation homes achieve the goal of family harmony. After the parents pass away, however, that family harmony can quickly turn to chaos.
Ernst & Young LLP took Bernie Madoff at his word when it signed off on audits of a fund that helped feed the biggest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history. The firm must now defend that decision at the first trial of an auditor over losses tied to Madoff, who’s serving a 150- year prison term for stealing billions of dollars from thousands of investors.
A trial court wrongly ordered an heir to an estate to post a bond of more than $1.1 million for a claim he submitted as he sought to block the sale of the family farm.
Sisters arguing over the family estate failed to provide the court with “clear and convincing evidence” that their father’s intentions were different from his actions.
An Indianapolis lawyer who pleaded guilty more than six months ago to four felony counts of securities fraud from a Hamilton County real estate Ponzi scheme was suspended from the practice of law Thursday.
Passing the family business to the next generation is likely to be one of the biggest projects of the owner’s lifetime. Family business succession is the process of transitioning the governance and ownership of a closely held business to the next generation.
How long heirs have to initiate an action arising from an attorney-in-fact’s final accounting of an estate has been an open question in Indiana, but a recent change in state law settles it. Mostly.
The more than 90 investors who lost $9.7 million in a securities fraud perpetrated by Fishers hedge fund manager Keenan Hauke will recover about 33 percent of their losses – a far better outcome than is typical in cases of its kind.
Assets could be shielded from creditors and passed down to numerous generations under a legacy trust proposal being considered by the Indiana General Assembly. The proposed estate-planning device would be exempt from the rule against perpetuities.
A former federal prosecutor and a CPA firm are evaluating Ball State University's internal financial controls and investment portfolio as they create a plan to prevent a repeat of two investment scams that cost the university more than $13 million.
Now that same-sex marriage is legal in Indiana, the courts will have to settle issues and questions that will arise in other areas, such as family law.