Probate & Estate Planning

When a person dies with an estate plan that was well-drafted and kept up to date, the results are often uneventful and as the decedent wished. The property is transferred or if it is in a trust, the successor trustee takes over and handles the particulars of the operation of the trust. This all should proceed smoothly, allowing the family…

The incoming Trump administration has a made a goal of ending the federal estate tax. You may think this simplifies estate planning or makes it unnecessary. In reality, only about 2 percent of estates are ever subject to the federal estate tax, so for most individuals, the presence of that tax has never been much of a concern. The repeal…

Estate planning is often looked at as being somewhat dull. Wills, trusts, powers of attorney can all seem unexciting. For one, much of these instruments are concerned with the future. Some, like a will, only becomes effective upon one’s death and no one really wants to spend much time thinking on that subject. It also can be changed at any…

Estate planning is one of those things most people know they should do, but like many things, they often put it off, believing that it is not the highest priority today. They may have other obligations and a busy life, and sometimes just putting together dinner and making sure the kids get to their activities may be about all they…

Next year, there will be some changes to Ohio’s transfer-on-death affidavits and deeds for real estate. Under the old law, there was always a chance that someone could overlook this after a divorce and property could transfer inadvertently to their former spouse. In many areas, Ohio law presumes that if you divorce, you do not want the transfers present in…

One concern of many estate plans is wealth preservation and transfer. Often, parents want to see the fruits of their lifetime’s labor benefit their children and grandchildren. A comprehensive estate plan can help in this goal, both by helping to develop a clear strategy for preserving and protecting that wealth while the parents are still living and efficiently transferring those…

One issue of importance to anyone with property and who is drafting estate planning documents, such as setting up a trust or a will, is the question of capacity. In Ohio, legal capacity means the ability to fully understand what is entailed by those tasks. Many difficult situations can arise when an individual draws up a will or trust at…