If you have created an estate plan to protect your spouse and children in the event of your death, you are already ahead of most people—the majority of American adults don’t have an estate plan. But if you have accumulated some wealth, or built on wealth that you have inherited, you may want to think about estate planning for multigenerational families.  Estate planning for multigenerational families means thinking beyond your own children to preserving wealth for grandchildren and perhaps future generations. Even if you have significant wealth right now, it’s a mistake to assume that tha ..read more

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times: every adult needs an estate plan. But about two-thirds of Ohio adults don’t have a will or any other estate planning documents. Maybe they were busy and kept putting it off. Maybe they didn’t know exactly what type of planning they needed. But most people do intend to get around to estate planning eventually—and that intention gives many estate planning scams their power. Estate planning scams flourish in part because of what they promise: an easy path to peace of mind and protection for assets and families. But those promises often yield ..read more

If you have ever had to plan funeral services for a loved one, you know that there are a lot of decisions to be made. Cremation or burial? Traditional funeral service, or celebration of life? Who will be invited to attend? Where will the final resting place of the remains be?  The task of making these decisions usually falls to a spouse or other loved one. But who decides when family members disagree, or if the person closest to the deceased, like a longtime romantic partner, disagrees with the decedent’s family members about what to do? What happens if a family deliberately overrides the ..read more

More than three years after COVID-19 first appeared on the scene, many aspects of our lives and world have gone back to something approaching normal: we are dining in restaurants, traveling on planes, attending work and school in person. But some things have been changed forever by the virus that took millions of lives too soon. In this blog, we will outline the changed landscape of estate planning post covid. The pandemic caught nearly everyone by surprise. People who thought they had years, perhaps decades, in which to make an estate plan, died suddenly. Families were left in grief and confu ..read more

What do you do if you have a life insurance policy or annuity, and discover that another policy or annuity better meets your needs? Do you have to pay tax on the gains in your old policy before transferring the cash value to a new one?  In many cases, the answer is “no,” thanks to the availability of a “1035 exchange.” The name refers to the section of the Internal Revenue Code that allows the cash value of a life insurance policy to be transferred to a new policy of equal or greater value without taxation of the gains.  The same code section allows a non-qualified annuity to be roll ..read more

If you asked 100 people on the street what estate planning is for, the great majority would probably say something like “to provide for your family,” or “to distribute your property after you die.” Those are certainly important reasons to have an estate plan, but there is another, equally important reason: incapacity planning. Estate planning isn’t just about what happens when you die. Many people overlook the reality that an important part of estate planning is creating a plan for the possibility that you will be incapacitated during your life. Who would take care of your financial affairs if ..read more

Ten states in the U.S. are classified as “community property” states, in which each partner in a marriage is considered to own half of the assets acquired during the marriage. Although community property jurisdictions constitute a small minority of states, individuals who are subject to community property laws make up a significant minority of the U.S. population, especially as two of the ten community property states are the two most populous states in the country, California and Texas. The others are Arizona, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. If you are ..read more

Repair the Roof: Our Estate Planning and Elder Law Podcast   Episode 1 Hello everyone, my name is Attorney Ted Gudorf. Welcome to the repair the roof podcast. This name comes from President Kennedy’s famous quote, the time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. In this show, we help individuals and families learn more about all thing’s estate planning and elder law. Welcome to today’s show. This is episode one, and this is attorney Ted Gudorf. This podcast is called repair the roof. This podcast will deal with all thing’s estate planning and elder law. Allow me to introduce mysel ..read more

Like everyone, you have a vision for your future, and plans for how it will unfold. Unfortunately, the prospect of a divorce throws a wrench in those plans. You may need to change course regarding a number of objectives, including your estate plan. The good news is that the overall goal of your estate planning—protecting yourself and your loved ones—remains the same. The bad news is that you will probably have to tinker with the mechanism for doing so.  Juggling two legal concerns, like divorce and estate planning, can be stressful. In this blog post, we’ll discuss what actions you should ..read more

If you have ever walked into a bank, you may have noticed signage that indicates that each depositor is insured to a certain amount by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). It’s likely that you’ve never given those signs—or the FDIC—much thought, but they are the reason you can bank with confidence that your money will be there when you need it. The FDIC protects deposit accounts in the United States, including insuring deposit accounts for trusts.  What is FDIC Insurance for Trust Accounts? President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Banking Act of 1933, which created the Fede ..read more