Disclaimer
What we are — a Korean-language magazine for readers in Indiana — and what we are not, particularly when it comes to the kinds of advice you should get from a licensed professional.
Indiana Korean is a magazine. It is run from a desk in Carmel by a small editorial team, written for Korean readers across the State of Indiana, and published in good faith with the care a reader is entitled to expect. The pieces you read here are journalism, essays, reporting, recommendations, and the occasional reader letter. They are not legal advice, medical advice, financial advice, immigration advice, or real-estate advice — even when they cover those topics in detail. This page explains where the line falls, and how we handle the few places where money may pass between the magazine and a third party.
i. Editorial nature of the magazine
Everything published on indianakorean.com is editorial content — written, edited, and selected by the magazine's editorial team for general informational and cultural purposes. We are a magazine for a community, not a regulated advisory service. A piece on settling into a new school district reflects what one or two families have done; a guide to a state park reflects what we found on the day we visited; a profile of a Korean-owned business is reporting, not endorsement.
You are welcome to take what you read here as a starting point. For any decision that has a real legal, medical, financial, immigration, or real-estate consequence, the right next step is to consult a licensed professional in the relevant field — and the rest of this page says exactly that, more carefully.
ii. Legal information, not legal advice
Indiana law and federal law change. The interaction between them is rarely simple, and the right answer for one family may be the wrong answer for another. Where a story tells you what a statute says or what a form looks like, treat that as a useful map and not a court ruling. For any matter that could affect your rights or someone else's, consult an attorney licensed in the relevant jurisdiction. The Indiana State Bar Association maintains a lawyer-referral service at inbar.org, and the Indiana Coalition for Court Access maintains a directory of low-cost civil-legal aid at indianalegalhelp.org.
iii. Health and medical information
The magazine occasionally writes about health — Korean-speaking clinicians in central Indiana, navigating a U.S. emergency room for the first time, what to bring to a pediatrician's visit. None of it is medical advice. It is reporting on how the U.S. healthcare system feels to a Korean reader, and on what other readers have found useful.
For diagnosis, treatment, prescription guidance, or any decision affecting your health or your family's health, the right person to speak with is a licensed physician, a registered dietitian, a licensed mental-health provider, or another credentialed clinician. If you believe you are having a medical emergency, call 911. If you are in mental-health crisis, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day across the United States, including in Korean through interpreter services.
iv. Financial and tax information
Pieces about money — opening a U.S. bank account, building credit, choosing health insurance, filing the federal and Indiana state returns for the first time — are written from the experience of readers and editors going through the same steps. They are not investment advice, tax advice, or insurance advice. The magazine is not a registered investment adviser, a CPA firm, or a licensed insurance producer.
For decisions about tax filing, estate planning, retirement accounts, business formation, insurance selection, or investing, talk with a credentialed professional: a CPA, an Enrolled Agent, a CFP, a licensed insurance producer, or an attorney. The IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) is free for low-to-moderate income filers; the Indiana Department of Revenue (in.gov/dor) maintains state-tax guidance.
v. Immigration information
Settlement coverage is at the heart of this magazine, and immigration touches almost every settlement story we publish. Visa categories, status changes, employment authorization, naturalization, and family-based petitions are covered by federal law that changes frequently and that interacts unpredictably with state-level matters such as driver's licenses and in-state tuition.
Nothing on indianakorean.com is immigration advice. We are not an immigration law firm, and the editor is not an attorney. For any immigration matter, the only safe counsel is a licensed immigration attorney or a representative accredited by the U.S. Department of Justice. The American Immigration Lawyers Association maintains a public referral directory at ailalawyer.com; Indiana University Maurer School of Law's Immigrant and Labor Rights Clinic and other law-school clinics in the state offer pro-bono representation to those who qualify.
vi. Real-estate information
Stories about housing — neighborhoods around Carmel and Fishers, school-district boundaries, the rhythm of the spring buying season — are journalistic observations. They are not appraisals, brokerage advice, or mortgage counsel. We do not represent any party in a real-estate transaction, and we do not receive commissions on the homes we describe. For an offer, a counter-offer, a financing decision, or any contract that touches title, work with an Indiana-licensed real-estate broker and, where the deal calls for it, an Indiana-licensed real-estate attorney.
vii. Third-party links
Our writing links to other places on the internet — government pages, restaurants, schools, other publications. We pick those links carefully on the day a piece goes live, but the magazine is not responsible for what those sites do, change, or charge after publication. A link is not an endorsement. Where a third-party site asks for personal information, treat the request the same way you would treat any other website's request: read its own privacy policy.
viii. Sponsored, paid, and affiliate disclosure
From time to time the magazine may publish content that involves a financial relationship with a third party — a paid partnership, a sponsored interview, an affiliate link, or product samples sent for review. Where that happens, we follow the disclosure rules set out by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in the Endorsement Guides at 16 CFR Part 255, and we use clear, prominent labels at the top of the piece and inline where appropriate.
The labels we use, and what each one means in this magazine, are below. If you ever see a piece that looks promotional but does not carry the right label, write to admin@indianakorean.com and we will fix it.
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Sponsored | The piece, as published, was paid for by an outside organization. The sponsor named at the top approved its inclusion. Editorial oversight remains with the magazine, but the topic and the sponsor are theirs. |
| Paid Partnership | A long-running collaboration with an outside organization in which the magazine retains editorial discretion over individual pieces. Used for series and brand journalism. |
| Affiliate | A piece that contains links to a retailer or service that pays the magazine a commission if you make a purchase. The commission does not change the price you pay. Affiliate links are noted in the byline area and again next to each affiliate link. |
| Editorial Review | A piece for which the magazine received a free product, sample, or service for review purposes. The review is editorially independent; the goods are disclosed at the top of the piece. |
| Press Trip | Travel coverage in which the magazine's costs (transport, lodging, or meals) were covered or partly covered by a host. The host is named at the top of the piece, and editorial control remains with the magazine. |
Writing that carries no label is editorially independent: nobody paid for it, and the magazine bought (or did not buy) the goods or services it describes the same way any other reader would.
ix. Editorial integrity
We hold to a few principles that we will not bend regardless of who is paying.
- The wall between editorial and commercial is real. A sponsor can suggest a topic; a sponsor cannot dictate the editor's judgment on a separate piece.
- Where a paid relationship exists, it is disclosed in the piece itself, not buried at the foot of the site.
- If a sponsor asks the magazine to remove or rewrite a non-sponsored piece because the sponsor disliked it, the answer is no.
- The magazine's reviews of restaurants, businesses, and services are not for sale. We will not accept a fee in exchange for a positive write-up.
- If we have a conflict of interest in a piece — a personal or family connection to a subject, for example — we say so in the piece.
x. Accuracy and corrections
We do our best to publish accurate writing. Errors do happen — a phone number that has changed, an address that moved, a fact that turned out to be wrong. When we learn of an error, we correct it in place and add a short editor's note at the foot of the piece describing the correction and its date. For a substantive correction in a piece that has already been emailed in the newsletter, a follow-up note goes out in the next issue.
To request a correction, write to admin@indianakorean.com with the subject line Correction request. Tell us the URL, the sentence, and what you understand to be the correct information. The faster the tip, the faster the fix.
xi. Photographs, illustrations, and credits
Photographs and illustrations on the site are by the magazine's editorial team, by named contributors, by licensed stock providers, or — in a small number of cases — by AI image generation. Where an image is by a contributor or stock provider, the credit appears in the caption. Where an image is AI-generated, the caption notes the tool used. Where an image is reproduced under a Creative Commons license or a press-use license from a public source, the source and license are credited in the caption.
If you believe an image on the site is your work and is reproduced without proper license or credit, write to admin@indianakorean.com with a description of the image, the URL where it appears, and proof of your rights. We will respond promptly and, where appropriate, take the image down or correct the credit.
xii. Contact
- Email: admin@indianakorean.com
- Subject lines we read closely: Correction request, Disclosure question, Image rights, Editorial concern.
- Postal: Indiana Korean, c/o the Editor, Carmel, Indiana, USA. (Mail address provided on request to confirm receipt.)
Indiana Korean · Carmel, Indiana, USA · indianakorean.com