Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX,March 26, 2011: “Do I still need a Will even though I don’t have a lot of money?” is the theme of the afternoon gathered at the Ruchi Palace Indian Cuisine, Carrollton TX as a part of the Will & Estate Seminar hosted by the American Telugu Association (ATA) on March 26, 2011. This seminar is co-hosted by the local Telugu Association of North Texas (TANTEX. Mr. Arvind Reddy Muppidi, DFW Regional Coordinator, ATA, extended a warm welcome to large attendees in spite of a busy weekend with various other events in town.

Mr. Muppidi gave a brief overview of the objectives of the ATA in general and the business services in particular and reminded the audience of the key upcoming events. The objective of such a seminar is to provide the community with a comprehensive and practical understanding of the „Will & Estate Planning”, one of the most important topics for all the families. Mr. NMS Reddy, President, TANTEX, thanked ATA for their commitment for community service and reiterated TANTEX commitment to serve the growing and diverse needs of the Telugu community in the North Texas area & provided an update on various activities planned for the upcoming Silver Jubilee celebrations in July.

Mr. Venkat Reddy Musku, standing committee member of ATA and community leader took the honor of introducing the keynote speaker Ms. Kavitha Akula, prominent attorney based in the DFW area and serving the community for many years. In her key note speech Ms. Akula provided a logical sequence of actions needed in order to plan for the Will. She gave an excellent presentation on various topics related to Estate Planning, Will, Living Trust and Estate Taxes. The seminar emphasized on the basics of having a Will, and the disadvantages of not having one. She mentioned about practical scenarios and discussed about the various issues faced if one did not have a Will.

The various topics discussed were regarding the Texas Probate Process, advantages and disadvantages of having a Living Trust, benefits of revocable vs. non-revocable Living Trust, Disability planning and also the details of Inheritance taxes vs. Estate taxes. There were a plethora of questions from the audience on topics related to Inheritance taxes, out of state-country properties and Living Trust. In response to a question from the audience Mrs. Akula reiterated the firm's diversity and experience of assisting in creating different types of Wills/Living Trust/Estate Planning based on a person to person basis. The informative and thought provoking seminar came to an end with vote of thanks by Mr. Suresh G. Reddy, DFW Regional Coordinator of ATA to the distinguished speaker Ms. Kavitha Akula, the audience for their attendance, volunteers who spent countless hours of valuable time and Ruchi Palace Indian Cuisine for providing tasty food, excellent facilities and great meeting ambiance. Mr. Suresh G. Reddy also thanked the sponsors; Akula & Associates, Masala Wok, Mirchi Spices & Café, Quick Choice Travels, Swadeshi Plaza and Thoughts USA for their support of the event and the media partners; eknazar, Desiplaza.us, TV9, Yuva Media for providing great coverage of the event.

The DFW ATA team consists of Mr. Ananth Reddy Pajjur, Mr. Satish Reddy, Mr.Ajay Reddy, Mr.Raj Akula, Mr. Arvind Reddy Muppidi, Mr.Suresh Reddy, Mr.Bhanu Chowdary, Mr.Sudhir Guda, Mr.Mahendra Ganapuram, Mr.Venkat Musku, Mr.Shashi Kanaparthy, Mr. Ravi Venishetty, Mr.Chandra Bandar, Mr.Mahesh Mereddy, Mr.Raghuveer Bandaru along with TANTEX team NMS Reddy, Dr.Urimindi Reddy, Mr.Poorna Vemulapalli presented Free “Will & Estate Planning Service” Coupons for the first 25 attendees. ATA (American Telugu Association) is an established community service focused non-profit organization serving Telugu community in North America for over 25 years.

For more details about ATA and its services to Telugu community and for upcoming community events from ATA, please visit ATA website at http://www.ataworld.org. Telugu Association of North Texas (TANTEX), founded in 1986 as a non-profit, non-religious organization to maintain, preserve and perpetuate the cultural heritage of Telugu speaking people of North Texas and more information about TANTEX can be found at their website www.tantex.org.