Indiana

Indiana estates are heard in the circuit or superior court with probate jurisdiction in the
county where the deceased lived. The court issues letters testamentary. Indiana has not
adopted the Uniform Probate Code, but its own Probate Code offers a light-touch route.

Supervised or unsupervised

• Unsupervised administration lets the personal representative sell assets, pay claims and
  distribute without returning to court at each step. It is available where the will
  authorises it, or where all the beneficiaries and heirs consent and the estate is
  solvent.
• Supervised administration is the default where those conditions are not met, and requires
  court approval for the significant steps.

Asking for unsupervised administration in the will is the single cheapest thing an Indiana
testator can do for their family.

You may not need probate at all

An estate whose gross value is under $100,000 can often be handled by small estate
affidavit, presented at least 45 days after death without opening an administration. The
threshold was raised from a much lower figure, so older guidance understates it — confirm the
current number.

No death tax

Indiana repealed its inheritance tax retroactively to 1 January 2013, and there is no state
estate tax. Only the federal return can arise. A good deal of Indiana material written before
2013 still refers to the inheritance tax and its classes of beneficiary; all of that is
obsolete.

What still has to happen

Notice to creditors by publication and direct notice to known creditors, an inventory where
required, payment of debts and the final income tax returns, then distribution and a closing
statement. Creditor claims are barred after the statutory period — publish promptly.

An Indiana will must be in writing, signed by the testator (or by another at their
direction and in their presence), and attested by at least two witnesses who sign in the
testator's presence. The testator must be 18 or older, or a member of the armed forces or
merchant marine, and of sound mind.

Indiana does not recognise holographic wills

A will written out entirely by hand is fine — as long as two witnesses attested it. The
handwriting buys nothing on its own. An unwitnessed handwritten will is not valid in
Indiana, no matter how clearly it states what the person wanted.

This puts Indiana with Ohio and Illinois rather than with Michigan and Kentucky next door,
which is a genuine trap for families who move across state lines within the Midwest.

Indiana does recognise nuncupative — oral — wills in very narrow emergency circumstances,
reaching only a limited amount of personal property. It is not a planning option.

Ask for unsupervised administration

State expressly in the will that the personal representative may serve in unsupervised
administration and without bond. Those two clauses do more to reduce the cost and duration
of an Indiana estate than anything else in the document.

Make it self-proving

Attach a self-proving affidavit signed before a notary, so no witness has to be located after
the death.

Also

• Name an alternate personal representative.
• Consider a transfer on death deed for real estate, which is available in Indiana and moves
  a house outside probate.
• A surviving spouse has an elective share whatever the will says.
• Review after a marriage, divorce, birth or a move to Indiana.

Yes. An Indiana personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for
administering the estate. Indiana prescribes no statutory percentage.

What the court weighs

The size and complexity of the estate, the time actually spent, the responsibility assumed, the
skill required, the difficulty of any problems encountered, and the results achieved. Local
practice varies between counties, and some courts work from informal guidelines — asking the
clerk or a local probate attorney what is customary in that county is worth doing before
proposing a figure.

How it is approved

In a supervised administration, compensation is allowed by the court on the accounting. In
an unsupervised administration there is no court review at all unless someone asks for one —
which does not make the fee approved, only unexamined.

Get the beneficiaries' written agreement before taking anything, particularly in an
unsupervised estate where the closing statement may be the first they hear of it.

Records decide it

With no percentage in the statute, contemporaneous time records are the justification. Keep
dated entries of what was done and how long it took.

If the will fixes the figure

A will provision governs where the representative accepts on those terms. A legacy to the
representative may be intended instead of a fee — read the clause.

Tax

Compensation is taxable income; an inheritance is not. Because Indiana has no inheritance
or estate tax since 2013, there is no state death tax for the fee to be deducted against —
so a family representative who is also a beneficiary usually gains nothing by taking one. Ask an
accountant before deciding.

An Indiana personal representative is reimbursed from the estate for the reasonable expenses
of administration, separately from compensation for their time.

Normally claimable

• Funeral, burial or cremation, the headstone, and a reasonable reception.
• Court filing fees, certified letters testamentary, certified death certificates, and
  publication of the notice to creditors.
• Attorney's fees, and accountant's fees for the final Form 1040 and any Form 1041.
• Appraisals of real property, farmland, farm equipment, vehicles, firearms and collections.
• Carrying costs on estate property until sale: insurance, property tax, utilities, security,
  maintenance, lawn care and snow removal.
• On a farm, the genuine costs of keeping it operating through a season — inputs, custom
  work, grain storage, livestock feed — where continuing is in the estate's interest.
• Cleaning, clearing, storing, moving and shipping contents.
• Travel on estate business at a reasonable rate.
• Bond premiums where the will did not waive bond.

Normally not claimable

• The representative's lost wages, meals near home, or personal spending — compensation covers
  that.
• Costs run up for one beneficiary's convenience rather than the estate's.
• Improvements beyond preparing a property for sale as it stands.
• Anything without a receipt.

The rule that decides it

Open an estate bank account and run everything through it. In an unsupervised
administration nobody reviews your figures unless a beneficiary objects — so the ledger you keep
is the only account that will ever exist, and it has to be good enough to answer a question
asked two years later.

Most Indiana estates are administered by a family member under unsupervised administration, with
a lawyer retained for the filings. A bank trust department or an attorney serving as personal
representative is worth the cost in narrower cases.

Consider a professional when

• The estate includes a working farm — particularly where some children farm and others do
  not, or where land, equipment, grain and a farming entity all have to be separated at once.
  This is the Indiana case for a professional.
• The estate holds an operating business or rental property that has to keep running.
• There is conflict among the beneficiaries. Note the Indiana consequence specifically:
  unsupervised administration requires the will to authorise it or everyone to consent, so a
  single objecting heir can force the estate into supervised administration, which is slower
  and dearer for all of them.
• A beneficiary is a minor or incapacitated, so a trust runs for years.
• The named representative lives out of state and cannot readily attend a county court or
  deal with property in person.
• A surviving spouse is likely to take the elective share against the will.

What it costs

Corporate fiduciaries charge a negotiated percentage with a minimum annual fee. Attorneys
generally bill hourly. Because Indiana prescribes no percentage, ask precisely what the basis
will be, in writing.

Middle ground

Appoint a family member, ask for unsupervised administration without bond in the will, and
let them retain a probate attorney at the estate's expense. For most Indiana estates that is the
right answer and keeps the legal bill modest.

A named representative who does not want the job can decline before letters issue.