  Planet formation studies are often focused on solar-type stars, implicitly
considering our Sun as reference point. This approach overlooks, however, that
Herbig Ae/Be stars are in some sense much better targets to study planet
formation processes empirically, with their disks generally being larger,
brighter and simply easier to observe across a large wavelength range. In
addition, massive gas giant planets have been found on wide orbits around early
type stars, triggering the question if these objects did indeed form there and,
if so, by what process. In the following I briefly review what we currently
know about the occurrence rate of planets around intermediate mass stars,
before discussing recent results from Herbig Ae/Be stars in the context of
planet formation. The main emphasis is put on spatially resolved polarized
light images of potentially planet forming disks and how these images - in
combination with other data - can be used to empirically constrain (parts of)
the planet formation process. Of particular interest are two objects, HD100546
and HD169142, where, in addition to intriguing morphological structures in the
disks, direct observational evidence for (very) young planets has been
reported. I conclude with an outlook, what further progress we can expect in
the very near future with the next generation of high-contrast imagers at 8-m
class telescopes and their synergies with ALMA.
