Specialized Services

Individuals’ personal planning problems and issues are as unique and varied as individuals themselves. Some examples of our specialized services include dispute resolution, trust reformation, and premarital agreements.

Dispute Resolution
Sometimes a family member does not think that the inheritance that was left to him or her in a Will or Trust was what the decedent intended. For example, a mother with two children might change her Will to leave her entire estate to the child who cared for her. The other child might recall that her mother always said that her estate was to be split equally. The left out child might want to file a “Will Contest” case alleging that her sibling unduly influenced her mother or that her mother was not competent when she signed the last Will. We might be asked to represent either child or the estate itself (a neutral party).

We also represent estates in audits with the Internal Revenue Service concerning a wide range of issues such as valuation of assets and complex calculation of estate tax deductions.

When trust administration continues for a long period of time, disputes can arise between the beneficiary and the trustee about investment management, distributions, fees, or similar issues. Disputes can also arise between trust beneficiaries about their relative distributions. When representing a party in such a dispute, we try to achieve a resolution without litigation.

Trust Reformation
An irrevocable trust might have terms that are no longer appropriate to the current situation. For example, the trust might have been created long ago and specify that the beneficiary receive income of $100 per month even though the trust now has assets of $1 million.

In another common example, a child beneficiary might have become severely disabled after a parent’s death and would be eligible for Medicaid benefits if it were not for the availability of trust assets.

Without Medicaid, those assets will be depleted for the beneficiary’s care and the child will soon end up on Medicaid anyway, but without the trust assets to pay for small benefits like a television or art supplies.

In such cases, a trust can often be “reformed” to honor the creator’s intent to provide for the primary beneficiary despite changing circumstances. The reformation can sometimes be done by agreement of all the parties but often requires consent of the local Probate Court.

Premarital Agreement
Today, more and more people enter into an agreement about their financial and other marital rights before they marry. Under current Ohio law, marital agreements, other than those related to termination of marriage, are enforceable only if signed before marriage. Therefore, they are called premarital or prenuptial agreements, or “prenups.”

Those marrying for a second time, particularly if one or both spouses have children from a first marriage, and those with family wealth, have a particular interest in delineating or waiving their property rights in a premarital agreement. Without such an agreement, a spouse has substantial property rights in the event of divorce or death.

It is extremely important that each spouse have his or her own attorney when entering into a premarital agreement. Each party must have a complete understanding of the assets and liabilities of the other, the rights each would have in the event of divorce or death without the agreement, and the rights that each will have or not have after signing the agreement. That understanding is best achieved only with the advice of competent counsel, given to each party separately.