Articles Posted in Estate Planning

Few things frustrate Indiana families more than presenting a valid power of attorney to a bank and being told it will not be accepted. The refusal typically comes at a moment of genuine need, when a parent has been hospitalized or a spouse can no longer manage accounts independently. Instead of cooperation, the agent is told the document is too old, that the institution requires its own form, or that the compliance department needs additional review.

Indiana law addresses this problem directly. Under Indiana Code § 30-5-9-9, an institution that refuses to honor a valid Indiana power of attorney within three business days faces significant liability, including treble damages, attorney’s fees, and prejudgment interest. The statute gives agents real leverage, yet most families never learn about it until the rejection has already caused harm.

What Indiana Law Requires When an Institution Refuses a Power of Attorney

An Indiana transfer-on-death deed can keep real estate out of probate, and for many families that is exactly the right tool. The problem is that a transfer-on-death deed used in isolation, without fitting it into the rest of the estate plan, often creates gaps that surface only after someone has died. At that point, the property may end up in probate anyway, the wrong person may hold title, or the family may face a creditor claim they assumed the deed would prevent.

Indiana’s Transfer on Death Property Act, codified at Indiana Code § 32-17-14-11, allows property owners to name a beneficiary who will receive real estate automatically at death. The deed is revocable during the owner’s lifetime, does not require delivery to the beneficiary, and does not give the beneficiary any present interest in the property. Those features make it attractive. They also make it easy to treat the deed as a standalone fix, when it really needs to work alongside every other piece of the plan.

How Title Type Determines Whether an Indiana Transfer-on-Death Deed Works at All

When a family trust reaches the administration phase, beneficiaries usually care about two things right away. They want to know what assets exist, and they want to know where the money went. An Indiana estate planning attorney will tell you that trustee accounting disputes rarely start with dramatic accusations. They start with missing documentation, unclear trust language, and a trustee who believes a decision was authorized even though a beneficiary reads the trust differently.

A February 9, 2026, Indiana Court of Appeals opinion is a useful example. The dispute involved a beneficiary seeking a statement of accounts and co-trustees asking a court to confirm that a surviving settlor could remove a piece of trust property after the other settlor’s death. The trial court granted summary judgment against the co-trustees. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded, focusing on how the trust language fit together and how the trust treated tenancy-by-the-entireties property.

The Trust Fight That Landed in Court

Indiana estate planning often changes quietly through code cleanups and committee work, then the practical impact shows up later when a family needs a guardianship, a trust administration, or a probate filing on a short timeline. Attorney Burton Padove sees the real-world side of this process, where a plan that looked fine years ago now runs into updated procedures, new study priorities, or revised statutory language. Senate Bill 71, a 2026 session measure titled “Various probate matters,” is a good example, since it does not rewrite the entire probate system today, yet it sets up the next round of revisions and recodification work, with an effective date tied to mid-2026.

What Senate Bill 71 Does in 2026

SB 71 is not a single-issue bill. The bill includes probate-related provisions and establishes a task force to revise the temporary guardianship code. The task force structure matters for Indiana families and practitioners, since guardianship filings often serve as a pressure valve when incapacity planning is missing or a power of attorney does not function in practice. The bill materials reflect that the guardianship task force is designed to study recodification and needed changes, then issue recommendations, rather than pushing a full rewrite through one bill cycle.

SB 71 also addresses how Indiana studies probate and trust issues going forward. The committee substitute language provides for repealing the Probate Code Study Committee and shifting the study function to the Interim Study Committee on Courts and the Judiciary in even-numbered years, with an express study mandate that reaches probate, trust code, and other statutes affecting estates, guardianship, probate jurisdiction, trusts, and fiduciary administration.

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Financial institutions have tightened their verification and authentication procedures following several well-publicized fraud incidents between 2024 and 2025. These policy shifts now influence how personal representatives, surviving spouses, and agents under powers of attorney access accounts after a customer dies. Indiana families may notice that tasks which once required a simple set of documents now demand multiple forms of proof, repeated communication with support teams, or additional in-person authentication. Understanding these requirements helps reduce administrative delays and provides families with a more straightforward path through the estate process.

Institutions adopted these changes because attempted account takeovers increased nationwide. Fraudsters targeted accounts belonging to deceased customers, especially those tied to online banking platforms and mobile verification tools, which exposed gaps in older security practices. As a result, banks, credit unions, and fintech providers rolled out stronger identity checks before they release information or funds to anyone claiming authority over an account. Families now deal with a more structured, sometimes slower process when they settle a loved one’s affairs, which is one reason it helps to speak with an estate planning attorney who understands how these verification rules affect real-world administration.

Verification Standards Have Expanded Across Traditional Banks And Fintech Platforms

Digital estate audits have become one of the most critical developments in estate planning in 2025. Families now generate value in ways that traditional documents never contemplated, and many do not realize how much of their wealth exists online. Artificial intelligence tools, subscription platforms, cloud storage systems, cryptocurrency, and monetized digital content have created a new category of property. Courts and financial institutions have responded with updated verification requirements, and personal representatives must now navigate policies that feel more like cybersecurity procedures than classic estate administration.

These changes affect every family, but the impact becomes significant when the decedent created AI-generated content, operated multiple digital accounts, or held assets protected by multi-factor authentication. Understanding how digital estate audits work helps families plan and protect information that might otherwise become inaccessible during administration.

Digital Estate Audits Are Becoming Standard For Modern Administration