Estate planning is crucial for many reasons, including, but not limited to, the ability to transfer assets to your chosen beneficiaries upon your death without having to open a probate estate. The probate process involves liquidating your assets to pay your final taxes and debts, so avoiding it can, in some instances, help you leave more to your loved ones.  By avoiding the probate process it can often provide for a quicker and more efficient transfer of your assets to your chosen beneficiaries.  The guide below will provide you with information that may help you limit or exclude the Ohio probate process, ensuring your family can carry out your final wishes.

What Steps Help You Avoid Probate in Ohio?

1. Add a Living Trust

A living trust is similar to a will, but with a few exceptions. Even though it is an estate planning document, it’s private, and only you and your attorney will know what it contains. Once you draft the trust and use it to transfer your assets to yourself as the primary trustee, it prevents those assets from being accessible by creditors in probate. Upon your death, those assets will automatically transfer to whomever you designate in the trust.

2. Right of Survivorship

In Ohio, ownership of property as joint owners with rights of survivorship, allows you to pass total ownership of real estate to a co-owner.

When real property is held in joint ownership with rights of survivorship, the ownership of the real property will transfer to the surviving owner(s) without going through the probate process. You should still consult a lawyer as the surviving owner, because will need to prepare and record an Affidavit of Death with the county recorder to verify the death of the other joint owner of the real property and to establish your ownership of the real property as the surviving owner as a matter of the public record.

3. Payable on Death Accounts 

You can also keep your checking, savings, and investment accounts out of the probate process. Do this by enacting a payable on death transfer, which allows you to designate who will receive your funds. This will not give your beneficiary access to your funds until your death. However, upon your passing, they can claim the funds without having a probate hearing.

4. Transfer on Death Vehicle Ownership

Ohio law allows vehicle owners to enact a transfer on death clause upon renewing their vehicle registrations. This permits you to pass on your vehicle to a beneficiary. Much like the right to survivorship laws for real estate, the transfer on death allows your recipient to claim the vehicle without probate.

While these documents can help you keep your assets free of the probate process, they are complex and require an experienced estate planning attorney. Riley, Resar & Associates, P.L.L., serves clients who need to create comprehensive estate plans in Lorain County and throughout Northern Ohio. Backed by more than 35 years of experience, they help address all of your legal needs for distributing your assets. To schedule a consultation call (440) 244-5214. Visit the website for more information about their services.