See an attorney early on in your life planning process.  If you have children, you need to protect them with a Trust.  No minor child, and many adult children, are unable to manage money until they have attained some degree of maturity.  Scientific studies have shown that a person’s brain is not fully developed until age 21 or after.  Create a plan that you and your children can live with long into the future.

A Trust is a living document.  It can be modified whenever your needs or wishes change.  It provides for management of your assets and the care of your children until they are old enough to manage their own affairs.  When that age arrives is anyone’s guess.  The Trust provides flexibility to deal with such circumstances.  Once married, the Trust can protect your assets from a child’s spouse that may not have good intentions in the long run.  It can help maintain their inheritance as a separate asset, not subject to division on divorce.  Eventually, the assets will become available to your children as adults.  At some point, you need to let them be in charge.

If you are older and your children are mature, then the process is simpler and less expensive.   Once you are at that stage in life, we can help you avoid the probate court process.  Ohio has a sometimes complicated process for probating an estate.  It can be expensive, even with a simple Will.  We work with you to find ways to meet your gifting goals, while avoiding probate.  There are lots of tools available which will direct your assets to your beneficiaries without need of filing in Probate Court.  These tools are often free.  It can cost as little as $500 a couple to keep your house and your other assets out of probate court, while ensuring that they go to your choice of beneficiaries.