Trusts and Estates in Ohio. Coordinated counsel from Rhodium Law.
Strategy that shapes a family’s legacy, and the steady counsel that carries a plan through when it is called upon.
Trusts and estates law covers two connected halves: the planning that sets out how an Ohio family’s assets and wishes are structured, and the administration that carries a plan through after a death or across the life of a trust. Most families eventually need both. At Rhodium Law the same firm holds both halves in one relationship, so a plan and its later administration are shaped by counsel that already knows the family rather than passed between strangers, with strategy set before any document is drafted.
The two halves of Trusts and Estates work
Every Ohio family that builds an estate plan eventually needs both halves of Trusts and Estates law. The first half is the planning: the strategy, the drafting, and the funding that set the plan in place. The second half is the administration: the work an executor, administrator, or trustee carries out when the plan is called upon, whether at a death or across the term of a trust.
The forward-looking half: strategy, drafting, and the funding that sets a plan in place.
Estate Planning
The forward-looking half of the work: wills, revocable living trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, asset protection planning, gun trusts, pet trusts, and the funding work that makes a trust effective. Each plan is shaped to the client’s family, assets, and wishes, with strategy set before drafting begins.
Learn more about estate planningThe half that carries a plan through: the work a fiduciary does once the plan is called upon.
Estate & Trust Administration
The work of carrying a plan through after a death or across the life of a trust. It runs on two paths, decided by how each asset was titled: estate administration through Ohio’s probate court under O.R.C. Chapter 2113, and trust administration handled privately by a successor trustee under the Ohio Trust Code (O.R.C. Chapters 5801 to 5811). Many families need both, and we counsel the executor, administrator, or trustee through whichever applies.
Learn more about estate & trust administration
One family, both halves of the work.
Whether you are setting a plan in place or carrying one out after a loss, the same firm holds the whole picture: your family, your property, and the people who depend on you. That continuity is the point.
What we handle, coordinate, and refer
What we handle
Estate planning, asset-protection planning, trust funding, and uncontested estate and trust administration within defined engagements.
How we coordinate
We work with CPAs, financial advisors, valuation professionals, insurance professionals, fiduciaries, and other advisors so legal decisions account for the full planning picture.
When separate counsel may be required
Contested proceedings, litigation, specialized tax opinions, and matters outside our capabilities may require separate or co-counsel. We may remain involved as coordinating counsel when appropriate.
Why one firm holds both halves
When the same firm shapes a plan and later counsels the family through its administration, the plan that arrives at the moment it is needed is a plan we already understand, because our firm drafted it. Administration counsel is informed by the strategy that shaped the plan rather than by a different attorney’s interpretation of someone else’s drafting choices, and the family is not asked to begin again with a new attorney during a season that may be difficult to navigate.
This is the point of one relationship for the legal life of your family and your life’s work. Estate, family, business, property, and protection do not stay in separate lanes, so the same firm that plans is our firm that administers. For Ohio families and business owners building plans meant to carry across decades, this continuity is one of the ways the work is designed to compound over time.
What is a trust?
A trust is a legal arrangement in which one party, the trustee, holds and manages property for the benefit of another party, the beneficiary, according to terms set by the person who created it, the settlor or grantor. Trusts can be revocable or irrevocable, and they can operate during a person’s lifetime or take effect at death.
A trust is created by a written trust document that names a trustee, identifies the beneficiaries, and sets the rules the trustee must follow. In Ohio, trust administration is governed by the Ohio Trust Code (O.R.C. Chapters 5801 to 5811). A revocable living trust can be amended or revoked by its settlor during the settlor’s lifetime, while a trust that becomes irrevocable, whether by its own terms or at the settlor’s death, is administered strictly according to the document and the Ohio Trust Code.
What is an estate?
An estate is the total of a person’s property, assets, and legal obligations at a given point, most often assessed at death. It includes real property, financial accounts, personal property, and business interests, along with any debts owed. An estate does not settle itself; it is administered by an executor, administrator, or trustee under a process the law sets out.
When a person dies owning property in their own name, that property becomes part of the probate estate, and Ohio probate administration is governed by O.R.C. Chapter 2113. Property already titled in a trust, or passing by beneficiary designation or survivorship, generally avoids probate and is administered outside the probate estate, according to the trust document or the applicable designation.
What is probate in Ohio?
Probate is the court-supervised process for settling the estate of someone who has died: proving any will, paying valid debts and taxes, and transferring what remains to the right people. In Ohio it runs through the probate division of the county court under O.R.C. Chapter 2113, and it is a matter of public record.
Only assets titled in the deceased person’s sole name, with no beneficiary or survivorship designation, pass through probate. Property held in a funded trust, or passing by beneficiary designation, payable-on-death account, or joint survivorship, moves outside it. That is why so much of estate planning is about how assets are titled: titling decides how much, if anything, has to go through the court at all.
What is the difference between a trust and a will?
A will directs how a person’s probate estate is distributed after death and takes effect only through the probate process, while a trust can hold and manage property during life, at death, or both, often without probate court involvement. Many Ohio estate plans use a will and a revocable living trust together, each doing different work.
A will names an executor and a guardian for minor children and is filed with the probate court under O.R.C. Chapter 2113 after death. A revocable living trust is funded with a person’s assets during their lifetime, and property held in the trust generally passes to beneficiaries according to the trust document, without a probate filing for those assets. Because a will alone still requires probate, many Ohio plans pair the two instruments so that funded trust assets pass privately while the will serves as a backstop for anything left out.
What is a trustee in a trust?
A trustee is the person or institution named in a trust document to hold, manage, and distribute trust property for the beneficiaries, according to the terms the settlor set and the duties Ohio law imposes. A trustee owes fiduciary duties to the beneficiaries and must administer the trust in good faith.
Under the Ohio Trust Code (O.R.C. Chapters 5801 to 5811), a trustee must administer the trust in accordance with its terms, keep beneficiaries reasonably informed, account for trust property, and act impartially among beneficiaries when a trust has more than one. A successor trustee, named to serve when an original trustee dies, resigns, or becomes incapacitated, steps into these same duties, and we counsel successor trustees through the accounting and distribution work the role requires.
The parts of a trusts and estates plan
Both halves break into the pieces below. Planning sets a plan in place; administration carries it through once it is called upon.
Setting the plan in place, before it is ever called upon.
Who we counsel in Trusts and Estates
Individuals, couples, and families
Ohio individuals, married couples, families, and business owners shaping how their assets and wishes are structured for the years ahead.
Executors, trustees, and beneficiaries
Executors, administrators, successor trustees, and beneficiaries who have stepped into a role that needs counsel to carry properly.
Some clients begin at the planning stage and return for administration counsel years later. Others come to Rhodium Law only at administration, having stepped into an executor or trustee role that needs counsel to carry properly. Both are part of the work, and both are shaped to the family or fiduciary they serve. You can read more about the founding attorney.
Frequently asked questions
What is an estate plan?
An estate plan is the coordinated set of documents and decisions that direct how a person’s assets, healthcare, and family responsibilities are handled during incapacity and after death. A typical Ohio estate plan combines a will, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and often a revocable living trust into one coordinated strategy rather than a single stand-alone document.
What is a living trust?
A living trust is a trust created and funded during a person’s lifetime, most often a revocable living trust that the person who created it can amend or revoke. Assets titled in a properly funded living trust generally pass to beneficiaries according to the trust document, without the probate filing a will alone requires under O.R.C. Chapter 2113.
What is the purpose of a trust?
A trust lets a settlor set specific terms for how and when property is managed and distributed, rather than leaving those decisions to default probate rules. Purposes range from avoiding probate and keeping a plan private, to providing for a minor or a beneficiary with special needs, to protecting assets across generations.
Does a trust replace the need for a will in Ohio?
Usually not entirely. Even a well-funded revocable living trust is typically paired with a short backstop will, sometimes called a pour-over will, that directs any asset left outside the trust into it through probate under O.R.C. Chapter 2113. Ohio estate plans commonly use both instruments together rather than one instead of the other.
Who administers a trust or estate after a death?
An estate passing through probate is administered by an executor named in the will, or an administrator appointed by the probate court if there is no will, under O.R.C. Chapter 2113. A trust is administered by the trustee named in the trust document under the duties set out in the Ohio Trust Code (O.R.C. Chapters 5801 to 5811), separately from any probate proceeding.
A first conversation.
If you are an Ohio individual, family, or business owner and you want to understand how we might counsel you on the planning side or the administration side of Trusts and Estates work, reach out to the Team at Rhodium Law. The first step is a complimentary 15-minute Strategy Session, a short call to learn what you are facing and decide together whether we are the right fit. If it is, that call books your Vision Meeting, where your strategy begins to take shape. You walk through what you own, what you want, and who you want to provide for, or through the administration matter that has brought you to us, and you walk away with a clear picture of what your situation looks like if you do nothing and what it could look like with a considered plan in place.
One relationship for the legal life of your family and your life’s work.