ESTATE PLANNING

Estate Planning is more than making a simple will. Many factors must be considered before a comprehensive plan can be formulated to meet your estate planning goals.
Clark & Lowe LLC is committed to developing a comprehensive estate plan to assure that:

• The estate plan is designed to meet your unique family and financial circumstances
• Your loved ones are protected should you become disabled
• Your beneficiaries receive the maximum amount of wealth after your death; privately, and without undue governmental complication
• Estate taxes and income tax paid to the state and federal governments are minimized
• Medical decisions and end of life issues are properly addressed
  

There are eight basic estate planning documents:

1. Durable Power of Attorney. This enables you to designate someone to handle your finances if you are seriously injured or disabled.
2. Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. This instrument allows you to designate someone to make medical decisions for you if you are not capable to make those decisions.
3. A Living Will instructs family members and physicians about your end of life wishes if you are unable to make those decisions and are terminally ill or comatose.
4. A Will appoints an executor to manage a person’s estate, a guardian for minor children and the general distribution plans regarding your assets.
5. A Living Trust helps reduce the costs associated with “Probating an Estate”, may speed up the transfer of assets, may reduce or eliminate estate taxes, provides privacy and the details of the distribution of your assets.
6. HIPAA release. This document allows a person to receive the medical records of someone. It accompanies a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care.
7. The Nomination of Guardian allows you to designate your legal guardian should you need one in the future.
8. Disposition of Remains states what type of funeral arrangements you want after your death.

Reasons to Consult an Estate Planning Attorney:

1. Be sure your Will is correctly prepared and properly executed
2. Develop a Living Trust
3. Help probate the Last Will & Testament after a loved one dies
4. Protect and preserve assets
5. Arrange for the emotional and financial security of your children and loved ones
6. Minimize taxes and/or avoid Probate Court
7. Address specific state or local probate and tax laws
8. Address complex issues related to children from a prior marriages and GLBT issues
9. Keep the family business or personal assets intact
   

PROBATE/ESTATE ADMINISTRATION

What are Probate Assets?

Under Ohio law, after you die your probate assets are determined by how your assets are titled which then determines whether it is necessary to “Probate” your estate. If any assets owned by a deceased person, whether physical assets [such as real estate or vehicles] or intangible assets [such as bank accounts or investment accounts] are titled in the deceased person’s name alone then these are probate assets which pass pursuant to the deceased person’s Will if they have a Will. If the deceased person does not have a Will, then the probate assets pass pursuant to the Ohio Statute of Decent and Distribution.

What are Non-Probate Assets?

Non-probate assets are assets that are not in your name alone or that by contract pass to a co-owner or beneficiary upon your death. For example: A deceased person may have had a joint and survivorship bank account with another person. When the deceased person dies, under Ohio law the deceased person’s interest in the joint bank account automatically passes to the other person, and the account is not a probate asset. Other ways to make assets non-probate assets are by the designation of Transfer On Death [TOD], Right of Survivorship and Payable on Death [POD]. In addition, assets placed in trust are non-probate assets. However, please keep in mind that when reviewing an Estate Plan there are many factors other than whether to avoid Probate Court in designating an account as non probate.

What happens when there is an Estate Administration?

The Executor, Administrator, or Trustee is the legally responsible person who must make sure that the estate administration of the deceased person is conducted properly.

If there is a Probate Estate Administration, the procedures in Probate Court include the following:

1. Application to administer the estate
2. Probate Will or, if no Will, application to appoint an Administrator
3. Notifications to and waivers by heirs and beneficiaries
4. Appraisal of probate assets
5. Inventory of probate assets
6. Pay the bills and expenses of deceased person
7. Liquidate or distribute the assets of the deceased person
8. File and pay the Ohio Estate Tax return within nine months of the date of death
9. Complete a final accounting
10. Close the estate

If there is a Trust the Trustee is required to take the following steps:

1. Prepare Successor Trustee notice
2. Notify trust beneficiaries of death and the existence of the Trust
   
3. Identify the trust assets of the deceased person
4. Pay the bills and expenses of the deceased person
5. Liquidate or distribute the assets of the deceased person
6. File and pay the Ohio Estate Tax Return within nine months of the date of death
7. Provide an accounting to the beneficiaries of the Trust
   

Clark & Lowe LLC is committed to providing professional, economical and efficient legal services to help the Executor, Administrator, or Trustee through the estate process successfully.

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