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Estate Tax
Probate & Non-Probate Assets
Wills
Durable Power of Attorney
Medicaid
Income Tax: Step-Up In Basis
Gift Taxes
Titling Your Assets
Living Trusts
Avoiding Probate Court
Living Will & Healthcare
Power of Attorney
Organizer of Information, Document Locations, and Funeral Arrangements
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Family rifts over estates occur most often in relation to tangible personal property, not money. To decrease the possibilities of disagreements, write out a list of personal property and to whom it is to be distributed. This should be kept with your Will. Although not legally binding, a handwritten list goes a long way toward assisting the family in dispersing tangible personal property.
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To learn more about
Planning Your Estate
Contact Us to Schedule a Visit
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Wills are legal documents signed by the testator, the person making the Will, directing distribution of the estate to beneficiaries. Wills can be broken into three main categories:
- Simple Will
- • States the distribution provisions
- • Names an executor
- • Relieves executor from bond
- • Gives powers to executor
- • Nominates guardians of minor children
- Will With Trust Provisions
- • A Trust within a Will is called a testamentary trust
- • A Trust adds provisions for management and future distribution, in effect adds "strings" to an inheritance
- Pour Over Will
- • This type of Will is used with a living (inter-vivos) trust and sends any property not funded into the trust during lifetime over to the trust at death.
Note: A Will can be changed. A Codicil is an amendment to a Will. With word processing, codicils are used less often because it is easier, cheaper, and safer to simply draft and sign a new Will.
- • If you have a minor child — naming a guardian is important.
- • If you have assets that you want distributed in a manner not in accord with the Ohio laws of intestacy. These laws generally provide that if you die without a Will your assets pass in the following order: to a spouse, children, children’s children, and if none, to parents, siblings, siblings' children, and if none, to grandparents, etc.
- • When you are single, have few probate assets, and are satisfied with everything passing in the order above.
- • When you are married and have no children and intend for everything to pass to your spouse. Ohio laws of intestacy provide that everything passes to your spouse. Be aware, however, if you die and then your spouse dies more than 120 hours after you, that all of your probate assets may pass to your spouse's next of kin. If you really do not mind that, you do not need a Will.
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