Frequently Asked Questions

Estate planning is the process of deciding what happens to your assets, your medical care, and your minor children if something happens to you. It involves creating legal documents like wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives that put your wishes in writing and give the right people authority to carry them out.

Without a plan, Ohio law decides who gets your property, who raises your children, and who makes medical decisions for you. That default plan almost never matches what you would have chosen.

At Rhodium Law, all estate plans are billed at a flat fee. You will know the total cost before we begin, and there are no hourly charges or surprise invoices.

Every plan includes document drafting, review meetings, a signing ceremony with a free mobile notary, a personalized plan binder, and one year of basic changes at no additional cost.

A will is a document that tells a probate court how to distribute your assets after you die. It only takes effect at death, and it requires your estate to go through the probate process, which is public, can take months, and involves court costs and attorney fees.

A revocable living trust lets you transfer ownership of your assets into the trust during your lifetime. When you die, the trust distributes those assets according to your instructions without involving the probate court. Your family avoids the delays, costs, and public exposure of probate.

Most families with real estate, retirement accounts, or minor children benefit from a trust-based plan. We help you determine which approach makes sense for your situation.

Will-based plan:

• Last Will and Testament
• Financial Power of Attorney
• Healthcare Power of Attorney
• Living Will (optional)
• HIPAA Authorization (optional)

Trust-based plan:

• Revocable Living Trust
• Pour-Over Will
• Financial Power of Attorney
• Healthcare Power of Attorney
• Living Will (optional)
• HIPAA Authorization (optional)
• Certification of Trust

Depending on your situation, we may also include transfer on death designations for real property, beneficiary designation reviews for retirement accounts and life insurance, and other supporting documents.

A living will in Ohio is a legal document that states your wishes about ceasing life-sustaining treatment if you are terminally ill or permanently unconscious and cannot speak for yourself. 

A living will is separate from a healthcare power of attorney. The power of attorney names a person. The living will gives that person (and your medical team) written instructions about what you want.

While a living will is optional, it removes the guesswork from an already difficult situation for your family.

If you die without a will or trust in Ohio, Ohio intestacy laws determine who inherits your property.  This means that without a plan, the State of Ohio already has a default plan in place for you.

Under Ohio's default plan, no one you would have chosen gets priority. Your minor children's guardian may be decided by a court. The entire process goes through probate, which is public record. Perhaps worst of all, your family has no say in how any of it plays out unless you put an estate plan in place.

No. Ohio eliminated its state estate tax on January 1, 2013. Ohio does not impose an inheritance tax either.

Federal estate tax still applies to estates exceeding the federal exemption threshold. 

You should review your estate plan at least once every three to five years, and any time a major life event happens. That includes marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, a significant change in assets, the death of a beneficiary or agent, a move to a different state, or changes in tax law.

An outdated plan can be worse than no plan at all. If your named agents have died, moved away, or are no longer people you trust, your plan will not work the way you intended.

Probate is the court-supervised process of validating a will, paying debts, and distributing assets after someone dies. In Ohio, probate cases are handled by the probate court of the county where the decedent last lived. The process typically takes six months to a year, involves court filing fees, attorney fees, and makes your assets and beneficiaries public record.

You can avoid probate through several strategies:

• Creating a revocable living trust and funding it with your assets
• Using transfer on death (TOD) designations on real property and financial accounts
• Naming beneficiaries on life insurance, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death bank accounts
• Holding property in joint ownership with rights of survivorship

We help clients choose the right combination of tools based on their specific situation.

A revocable living trust is a legal arrangement where you transfer ownership of your assets into a trust during your lifetime. You serve as the trustee (you still control everything), and you name a successor trustee who takes over if you become incapacitated or pass away.

The main advantages: your family avoids probate, the transfer is private (not public record), and your successor trustee can step in immediately without waiting for court approval. You can change or revoke the trust at any time while you are alive and competent.

A trust only works if you actually transfer your assets into it. This step is called "funding," and it is one of the most important parts of the process. If retained to do so, we can handle funding as part of any trust-based plan.

Trust funding is the process of transferring ownership of your assets from your personal name into the name of your trust. This is the step most people skip, and it is the reason many trusts fail to do what they were designed to do.

If you create a revocable living trust but never transfer your house, bank accounts, or investment accounts into it, those assets still go through probate when you die. The trust only controls what is titled in its name.

Funding involves re-titling real estate (recording a new deed), changing account registrations at banks and brokerage firms, and updating beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance. If retained to do so, we handle the real property transfers and guide you through the financial account changes as part of any trust-based plan.

Yes. Estate planning is not only about death. Powers of attorney and healthcare directives protect you if you are in an accident or become seriously ill at any age. Without these documents, your family may need to petition the probate court for guardianship, which is expensive, time-consuming, and invasive.

If you have minor children, an estate plan is how you name a guardian. If you have any assets, a plan determines who gets them. If you have certain types of student loans that are not discharged upon death, a plan can help protect co-signers. Age does not determine whether you need a plan. 

A pour-over will is a special type of will used alongside a revocable living trust. If any assets are still in your personal name when you die (rather than in the trust), the pour-over will directs those assets to "pour over" into your trust, where they are distributed according to the trust's instructions.

A pour-over will acts as a safety net. It catches anything that was not transferred to the trust during your lifetime. Those assets still go through probate (because the pour-over will is still a will), but once through probate, they end up where you intended.

A HIPAA authorization is a document that gives specific people permission to access your protected health information. Without one, healthcare providers may elect not to share your medical records with your family, even in an emergency.

A HIPAA authorization is separate from a healthcare power of attorney. The power of attorney gives someone the authority to make medical decisions for you. The HIPAA authorization gives people the ability to access your medical information, which may include family members who are not your healthcare agent but who you want to stay informed.

A special needs trust (also called a supplemental needs trust) is designed to hold assets for a person with a disability without disqualifying them from government benefits like Medicaid and SSI.

Government benefits programs have strict asset limits. If a person with a disability inherits money or receives a settlement, they could lose their benefits. A special needs trust holds those funds in a way that supplements (rather than replaces) government benefits, paying for things like personal care, recreation, education, and other needs that benefits do not cover.

There are two main types: a first-party special needs trust (funded with the beneficiary's own money, with a Medicaid payback provision) and a third-party special needs trust (funded by someone else, like a parent or grandparent, with no Medicaid payback required).

While you can start a business without legal representation and advice, consulting with a knowledgeable business attorney can provide valuable guidance and prevent a lot of stress and pitfalls in the future.

Ideally, before you need one. The most common times business owners reach out:

• Forming a new business entity
• Bringing on a partner or investor
• Drafting or reviewing a contract before signing it
• Buying or selling a business
• Addressing a governance issue
• Dealing with a dispute with a partner, vendor, or customer
• Reviewing a commercial lease agreement
• Planning for business succession or exit

The cost of getting legal guidance upfront is almost always less than the cost of fixing a problem that could have been prevented.

The right entity depends on your situation.  Here are some common types of business entities:

• LLC (Limited Liability Company): The most common choice for small businesses in Ohio. Offers personal liability protection, flexible management, and pass-through taxation. Most solo entrepreneurs and small partnerships start here.
• S Corporation: An LLC or corporation that elects S Corp tax treatment. Can reduce self-employment taxes for owners who pay themselves a reasonable salary.
• C Corporation: Better suited for businesses planning to raise outside investment or go public. Subject to double taxation (corporate level and personal level).
• Sole Proprietorship: No liability protection. Your personal assets are fully exposed to business debts and lawsuits. We generally recommend against this structure.

We help you choose the right entity and file the formation documents with the Ohio Secretary of State.

Ohio law does not require an LLC to have a written operating agreement, but operating without one means Ohio's default LLC rules govern your business. Those default rules may not match what you and your partners actually agreed to.

An operating agreement spells out ownership percentages, profit distribution, management authority, what happens if a member leaves or dies, and how disputes are resolved. If you have a business partner, operating without a written agreement is one of the highest-risk decisions you can make.

Even single-member LLCs benefit from an operating agreement. It reinforces your liability protection by demonstrating that you treat the LLC as a separate entity from yourself.

The Ohio Secretary of State charges a filing fee for entity formation. On top of that, you should budget for legal fees to draft your operating agreement, obtain your EIN, and set up your business properly from the start.

Attorney fees for business formation at Rhodium Law are quoted on a flat-fee basis. The total depends on how many members are involved, whether you need custom contract templates, and whether you are electing S Corp status.

A contract review is when an attorney reads a contract you have been asked to sign (or one you have drafted) and identifies provisions that could result in unfavorable outcomes, terms that are missing, and language that is unclear or unenforceable.

Most business owners sign contracts regularly: vendor agreements, lease agreements, independent contractor agreements, and partnership terms. Many of these contracts contain clauses that waive your rights, limit your remedies, or create obligations you did not realize you were agreeing to.

A contract review typically costs far less than a lawsuit over a bad contract.

Business succession planning is the process of deciding what happens to your business when you are ready to leave, whether that means retirement, a sale, a transition to family, or an unexpected event like disability or death.

Without a plan, your business may lose value, your partners may face uncertainty, and your family may not be able to continue or sell the business on favorable terms.

A succession plan addresses questions like:

• Who takes over if you leave or become unable to run the business?
• How is the business valued?
• What happens to your ownership interest if you die?
• Are there buy-sell provisions in your operating agreement?
• How do you minimize tax consequences on a sale or transfer?

We work with business owners to build succession plans that coordinate with their estate plans, protect their families, and preserve the value they have built.

A buy-sell agreement is a contract between business co-owners that governs what happens to an owner's interest if they die, become disabled, retire, or want to leave the business. It establishes the terms under which the remaining owners (or the business itself) can buy out the departing owner's share.

Without a buy-sell agreement, you could end up in business with your partner's ex-spouse, a disgruntled family member, or a creditor. A buy-sell agreement prevents that by predetermining the transfer terms.

Key provisions include the trigger events, the valuation method (formula, appraisal, or fixed price), the funding mechanism (often life insurance), and the payment terms.

A fractional general counsel is an outside attorney who serves as your business's on-call legal advisor without the cost of a full-time hire. You get access to legal guidance when you need it: contract reviews, employment questions, lease negotiations, regulatory compliance, and general business strategy.

This arrangement is common for businesses that have outgrown the "call a lawyer when something goes wrong" approach but do not generate enough legal work to justify a salaried in-house attorney.

At Rhodium Law, we serve as fractional general counsel for Ohio businesses, providing ongoing legal support on a monthly retainer basis.

Elder law is an area of legal practice focused on issues that affect older adults and their families. That includes Medicaid planning, long-term care planning, guardianship, special needs planning, and protecting assets from the high cost of nursing home care.

At Rhodium Law, our elder law practice centers on helping families plan ahead so that a health crisis does not become a financial one.

It's never too early to start planning for elder law matters, as he best time is before you need one.  Ideally, you should begin the process as early as possible to ensure your wishes are legally protected. Consulting with an elder law attorney can help you navigate the complexities of estate planning, long-term care options, and healthcare directives.

Here are the most common situations:

• A loved one has been diagnosed with a progressive condition like Alzheimer's or dementia
• You are concerned about how to pay for nursing home or assisted living care
• A loved one needs to apply for Ohio Medicaid
• You want to protect a loved one's assets from long-term care costs while there is still time
• A family member needs a guardian appointed
• You have a loved one with special needs who may need government benefits

If a crisis has already started, there are still options, but they are more limited and more expensive. Planning ahead gives your family the most flexibility.

Yes, an elder law attorney can provide valuable guidance and assistance with long-term care planning. They can help you explore different care options, such as nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and in-home care while ensuring your assets are protected.

Working with an elder law attorney ensures that you have an experienced advocate by your side, guiding you through complex legal matters. They can help you navigate the intricacies of estate planning, long-term care, and healthcare directives. An attorney will work diligently to protect your rights, preserve your assets, and advocate for your best interests.

During your first meeting with an elder law attorney, make sure to ask about the essential planning documents, potential financial risks, and how to safeguard your savings. Additionally, inquire about the management of legal documents and address any specific concerns you have about your situation.

Medicare is a federal health insurance program available to people 65 and older (and some younger people with disabilities). It covers hospital stays, doctor visits, prescriptions, and some short-term rehabilitation, but it does not cover long-term custodial care in a nursing home.

Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that does cover long-term care, including nursing home costs. Medicaid is means-tested. You must meet income and asset limits to qualify. 

Many families assume Medicare will pay for nursing home care. It will not, except for limited short-term rehabilitation stays after a hospital admission. Medicaid is the program that pays for long-term care, and qualifying requires advance planning.

Medicaid planning is the process of structuring your assets so that you or your loved one can qualify for Ohio Medicaid to cover long-term care costs (nursing home care, assisted living) without losing everything.

Given the costs of nursing home care in Ohio, families may have to spend down savings before Medicaid kicks in without proper advance planning. With proper planning done in advance, a significant portion of those assets can be protected.

Medicaid planning works by implementing strategies to protect assets, understand application timing, and avoid penalties in order to ensure eligibility for Medicaid, particularly for covering long-term nursing home care costs. This is a complex area of the law that may involve reorganizing of finances, so it is recommended to seek professional advice.

When you apply for Ohio Medicaid, the state reviews all asset transfers you have made during the five years before your application date. If you gave away assets or transferred them for less than fair market value during that window, Medicaid will impose a penalty period during which you are ineligible for benefits.

This is why timing matters. Tools like Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts (MAPTs) only provide maximal benefits if they are funded at least five years before you apply. The earlier you start planning, the more protection is available.

A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT) is an irrevocable trust designed to hold your assets outside of your countable estate for Medicaid purposes. Once the trust is funded and five years have passed, the assets inside it are generally protected from being counted when you apply for Medicaid.

You give up direct ownership of the assets (the trust owns them), but you can still benefit from them in certain ways, and you choose who receives them after your death. MAPTs are one of the most effective tools for families who want to plan ahead for potential long-term care needs.

This type of planning needs to happen while you are healthy and not yet in need of care. If a health crisis has already started, options become more limited and more expensive.

Ohio Medicaid counts most assets owned by the applicant, including:

• Cash, checking, and savings accounts
• Investments (stocks, bonds, mutual funds)
• IRAs and retirement accounts (in some cases)
• Real property other than the primary residence (in most cases)
• Life insurance with a cash surrender value over $1,500

Ohio Medicaid exempts certain assets, including:

• The applicant's primary residence (up to a certain equity value, and subject to an estate recovery claim after death)
• One vehicle
• Personal belongings and household goods
• Irrevocable burial trusts and prepaid funeral arrangements
• Certain annuities that meet Medicaid requirements

The rules are detailed and change periodically. Whether an asset is countable or exempt depends on the specific facts. We help families evaluate their situation and develop a plan that protects what can be protected.

Guardianship is a court process where a judge appoints someone to make decisions for a person who can no longer make decisions for themselves. In Ohio, the probate court oversees guardianship cases.

Guardianship is typically a last resort. It is expensive (attorney fees, court costs, annual reporting), invasive (the court has ongoing oversight), and it removes the person's legal rights. If a power of attorney and healthcare directive are already in place, guardianship is usually unnecessary.

If someone has already lost capacity and never signed a power of attorney, guardianship may be the only option to manage their care and finances. This is one of the biggest reasons to put an estate plan in place while you are healthy.

There are strategies to protect a loved one's home from Medicaid, but they depend on timing and the specific facts.

If your loved one needs care now and is applying for Medicaid, the home is generally exempt while the applicant is alive and living there (or intends to return). However, Ohio Medicaid can pursue an estate recovery claim against the home after the applicant dies.

If your loved one is healthy and planning ahead, transferring the home to a MAPT or to family members (and surviving the five-year look-back period) can protect it from both Medicaid eligibility counting and estate recovery.

Simply putting your loved one's house into your name carries risk. It can trigger the look-back penalty, create capital gains tax issues, and expose the property to your own creditors or legal problems.

The right approach depends on where your loved one is in the planning timeline. We help families evaluate their options and choose the strategy that gives them the most protection.

While both professionals are involved in real estate transactions, a real estate attorney focuses on handling the legal aspects of the transaction, ensuring compliance with laws, and protecting the client's rights and interests. A real estate agent, on the other hand, assists in the buying or selling process and helps with property searches, negotiations, and paperwork.

While it's not legally required to hire a real estate attorney when working with a real estate agent, it is highly recommended. Real estate lawyers have specialized legal knowledge and can provide personalized advice and guidance throughout the transaction, protecting your interests and ensuring a smooth process.

Costs vary depending on the scope of work. Simple deed preparation costs much less than full closing representation on a commercial transaction. At Rhodium Law, we provide clear quotes for all real estate legal work before we begin.

For business law and real estate matters, we offer paid consultations (either for 30 minutes or 60 minutes) to discuss the scope of any potential representation. The consultation fee is credited towards the cost of the representation if you elect to retain our services for the mutually agreed scope of work.

Yes, many real estate attorneys have experience in both commercial and residential transactions. They can provide guidance on the specific legal requirements and nuances of each type of transaction.

We handle a range of real estate legal matters for Ohio clients:

• Purchase and sale representation (residential and commercial)
• Deed preparation
• Transfer on death designation affidavits
• Trust funding for real property (transferring your home or other property into your trust)
• Commercial lease drafting, review, and negotiation

Our real estate practice supports real estate investors, business owners, and professionals.  This practice connects directly to our estate planning and business law work, which means your property ownership is coordinated with your broader legal plan.

A transfer on death (TOD) designation is a legal tool that allows Ohio property owners to name a beneficiary who will receive the property at death without going through probate.

Here is how it works:

• You record a TOD designation affidavit with the county recorder where the property is located.
• The designation does not take effect until your death. You keep full ownership and control during your lifetime.
• You can revoke or change the designation at any time by recording a new affidavit.
• When you die, the beneficiary records an affidavit of confirmation, and the property passes without probate.

TOD designations may be useful for certain situations. They have limitations, though. They do not provide asset protection, do not account for a beneficiary's financial or legal problems, and do not manage the property if you become incapacitated. For more complex situations, putting the property in a trust is usually the better choice.

A general warranty deed provides the strongest protection to the buyer. The seller guarantees clear title and warrants against all claims, including those that arose before the seller owned the property. This is the standard deed used in most residential sales.

A quitclaim deed transfers only whatever interest the seller has in the property, with no guarantees at all. Quitclaim deeds may be appropriate for transfers between family members, adding or removing a name from title, or clearing up title issues. They are not necessarily appropriate for arms-length purchases.

Ohio also uses limited warranty deeds (the seller warrants only against claims arising during their ownership) and fiduciary deeds (used when a trustee, executor, or guardian transfers property on behalf of someone else).

Federal law under the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act generally prohibits lenders from enforcing due-on-sale clauses when a borrower transfers their primary residence to a revocable trust for estate planning purposes, as long as the borrower remains a beneficiary and occupant.

We handle these transfers regularly and coordinate with your lender when necessary.

Our approach to developing your strategy depends on your risk tolerance and how many properties you own. Holding rental property in a separate LLC provides liability protection: a tenant's lawsuit against the LLC cannot reach your personal assets (or your other properties, if each is in its own LLC).

The trade-off is added cost and administrative requirements (separate bank accounts, annual reports, possible separate tax returns). For some landlords with one or two properties and good insurance, the cost may not be justified. For investors building a portfolio, entity structuring becomes more important.

We help investors evaluate whether a separate entity makes sense for their situation.

A title review examines public records to verify that the seller has clear ownership of the property and that no outstanding liens, encumbrances, or claims could affect your ownership after closing.

Common title issues  include:

• Outstanding liens (tax liens, mechanics' liens, judgment liens, mortgage liens)
• Easements and restrictions that limit how you can use the property
• Boundary disputes between the legal description and the actual property lines
• Chain of title defects (missing signatures, improperly recorded deeds, incomplete transfers)
• Estate and probate issues (property owned by a deceased person that was never properly transferred)

Title problems found before closing are the seller's problem. Title problems found after closing are likely yours. A title review is how you avoid that second scenario.

Ohio charges a conveyance fee (sometimes called a transfer tax) when real property changes hands. The fee is paid at the time the deed is recorded with the county recorder. The fee has two components: a state fee and a county permissive fee. 

Certain transfers may be exempt, including transfers between spouses, transfers to trusts for estate planning purposes, and transfers where no consideration is exchanged.

Commercial leases are longer, more complex, and less regulated than residential leases. There are fewer consumer protections, and many terms may be negotiable. That can work in your favor if you know what to negotiate.

Key provisions to watch:

• Rent escalation and CAM charges. How does rent increase over time, and what common area maintenance costs are you responsible for?
• Lease term and renewal options. How long are you locked in, and do you have the right to renew?
• Personal guarantee provisions. Does the landlord require you personally (not just your LLC) to guarantee the lease? If so, can you limit the amount or duration?
• Maintenance and repair obligations. Who pays for what when something breaks?
• Assignment and subletting restrictions. Can you transfer or sublet the space if your business needs change?
• Early termination. What are the penalties if you need to leave before the lease expires?

We review and negotiate commercial leases on behalf of both property owners and business tenants throughout Ohio.