Ohio Estate Planning Guide: what sophisticated families need to know.

What documents usually belong in an Ohio estate plan

Ohio gives families some of the most useful non-probate transfer tools in the country, which means a well-built Ohio plan is often simpler than its NY or NJ counterpart — but only when designed deliberately. The typical document set:

• Last Will and Testament. Executed under Ohio R.C. §2107.03 — signed by the testator and attested by two competent witnesses.
• Revocable living trust. Commonly used in Ohio to avoid probate, hold real estate, and provide continuing trusts for beneficiaries.
• Durable financial power of attorney. Ohio adopted a version of the Uniform Power of Attorney Act at R.C. Chapter 1337. Older forms remain valid but newer drafting is recommended.
• Health care power of attorney (R.C. §1337.11 et seq.) and Living Will Declaration (R.C. §2133.02).
• HIPAA authorization.
• Transfer-on-Death Designation Affidavit for Ohio real estate under R.C. §5302.22 — a uniquely Ohio tool, discussed below.
• Beneficiary designation audit across retirement plans, life insurance, and payable-on-death accounts.
• Irrevocable trusts where justified, including Ohio Legacy Trusts (the Ohio domestic asset protection trust under R.C. Chapter 5816) where appropriate.

Ohio probate at the county Probate Court

Ohio probate is handled at the county Probate Court (Hamilton County for Cincinnati, Franklin for Columbus, Cuyahoga for Cleveland, and so on). The system is more formal than New Jersey's Surrogate process and includes inventories, accountings, and creditor notice procedures under R.C. Title 21.

Common frictions:

• The will and inventory of probate assets become public record.
• Creditor claim periods, notice to next of kin, and accountings must be handled correctly.
• Real estate held individually is a probate asset unless covered by a TOD affidavit, a survivorship deed, or a trust.
• Contested matters — will contests, fiduciary disputes — may require separate litigation counsel depending on the facts. See probate & trust administration.

Ohio's Transfer-on-Death Designation Affidavit and trust-based planning together can dramatically reduce or eliminate probate for most Ohio families, when set up correctly.

Trust planning for Ohio families

Ohio trust law lives in the Ohio Trust Code (R.C. Chapter 5801 et seq.), a state-modified version of the Uniform Trust Code. Common structures:

• Revocable living trust — the workhorse for probate avoidance and continuity of management.
• Continuing trusts for children and grandchildren — instead of outright distribution at 18 or 21, with trustee, standards, and staged control.
• ILIT for life insurance held outside the federal taxable estate.
• Ohio Legacy Trust (DAPT) under R.C. Chapter 5816, an Ohio domestic asset protection structure for clients with a documented planning rationale. Asset protection is fact-specific and is not a guarantee against creditors; existing claims and improper transfers can defeat the structure.
• SLATs and GRATs for high-net-worth couples and pre-exit founders.

As with every state, an unfunded trust does almost nothing. Funding is part of the engagement.

Ohio estate and inheritance tax — the good news

Ohio is one of the more tax-friendly states at death:

• No Ohio estate tax. Ohio's estate tax was repealed effective January 1, 2013.
• No Ohio inheritance tax.

The binding tax constraint for Ohio families is usually the federal estate tax. The federal basic exclusion is approximately $15 million per person in 2026, indexed for inflation, with portability available between spouses. Exemption levels are subject to legislative change and should not be assumed to stay at any specific level.

Multi-state families should be careful: an Ohio resident who owns real estate in NJ or NY may still face that other state's tax regime on that situs property and may face ancillary probate as well. Cross-border coordination is one of the reasons our practice is licensed in NY, NJ, and OH.

Planning for minor children

For Ohio families with young children, two decisions matter most:

1. Guardian nomination in the will. Ohio Probate Court gives significant weight to the parent's nomination under R.C. §2111.121 but applies a best-interests standard. Name a primary and a successor.
2. How money is held. Without a trust, a child's inheritance is usually held by a custodian under the Ohio Transfers to Minors Act and distributed outright at 21. For most families with meaningful assets, a continuing trust with thoughtful trustee selection, distribution standards, and staged ages is far more protective.

Life insurance, 529 plans, and retirement accounts should be designed to flow into the trust rather than directly to a minor.

Planning for Ohio real estate

Ohio gives families a flexible toolset for transferring real estate at death:

• Transfer-on-Death Designation Affidavit (R.C. §5302.22). The owner records an affidavit naming a TOD beneficiary; the property passes at death without probate. Powerful, but blunt — it does not provide trust-level management, creditor protection, or continuing oversight for minors or vulnerable beneficiaries.
• Survivorship deed. Joint with right of survivorship — useful between spouses but the same caution applies as elsewhere: adding an adult child as joint owner creates gift, creditor, and basis problems.
• Revocable trust ownership. The most flexible option, especially for clients with rental property, an out-of-state vacation home, or beneficiaries who should not receive real estate outright.
• LLC-held rentals. For investment property, the LLC interest is transferred into the trust; the deed itself stays in the LLC.

Planning for Ohio business owners

Ohio is home to a deep bench of family-owned businesses. The estate plan and the company governance documents need to be drafted together:

• Does the operating agreement or buy-sell restrict transfers to trusts? Many do — secure consents on the front end.
• How is the buy-sell funded? An ILIT can keep insurance proceeds outside the federal taxable estate.
• For founders pre-exit, gifting strategies (SLATs, GRATs, dynasty trusts) and QSBS stacking deserve early review. See QSBS stacking.
• For multi-generation family businesses, governance documents — voting trusts, family councils, trustee selection — matter as much as the tax design.

Digital asset planning

Ohio adopted RUFADAA at R.C. Chapter 2137. Your fiduciary's ability to access your digital life depends on the layered hierarchy: the platform's own tools first, then your estate planning documents, then default rules.

• Use platform-level legacy tools (Apple, Google, Facebook) where available.
• Include RUFADAA-compliant authorizations in your will, trust, and POA so the fiduciary can request content, not just metadata.
• Maintain a secure account inventory with password manager access and 2FA recovery, kept separate from the legal documents.
• For crypto, plan custody and seed-phrase access for the fiduciary, and address transfer mechanics in the trust.

Common Ohio mistakes

1. Relying on a TOD affidavit alone when minor or vulnerable beneficiaries are involved. A TOD passes outright — there is no trustee.
2. Adding an adult child as joint owner on the deed to "avoid probate."
3. Letting beneficiary designations contradict the will.
4. Trusts signed and never funded.
5. Out-of-state real estate held individually by an Ohio resident, triggering ancillary probate.
6. Old powers of attorney banks reject. Refresh periodically.
7. Treating an Ohio Legacy Trust as a creditor-proof shield instead of a planning tool with strict requirements and limits.