How Can You Protect Your Inheritance?
By Barry Zimmer on August 22nd, 2017 in Inheritance Planning
A Cincinnati inheritance planning lawyer provides advice on protecting assets that will transfer to loved ones. As a person nears the end of his or her life, there could be substantial medical costs incurred and costly long term care services could be necessary. Unless plans are made to protect assets, it is possible that wealth will have to be spent and a lifetime’s hard work could be lost. Even if a senior is able to qualify for Medicaid, which is a primary payor of nursing home care services, Medicaid estate recovery could put an inheritance at risk because the state could try to make a claim during probate, acting as a creditor to recoup funds for certain benefits.
Because of these threats to a person’s wealth at the end of his life, making an inheritance plan is important for anyone who wants to pass their money and property on to the people they love. However, it is not just the person who is leaving a legacy who will need to make an inheritance plan and use legal tools effectively to ensure that assets are kept safe. Those who actually stand to inherit should also know their legal rights and should consult with an experienced attorney about some of the proactive steps they can take to keep their inheritance safe.
To find out more about how a Cincinnati inheritance planning lawyer can help you to make an inheritance plan so your loved ones can receive your money and property when you are gone, give us a call today to talk with a compassionate and experienced legal professional at Zimmer Law Firm. If you are supposed to be receiving an inheritance and you want to make sure you protect it, you can also give us a call.
How to Protect Your Inheritance
If you stand to inherit, the first key thing you need to do to protect your inheritance is to determine how your inheritance will be transferred to you. If the deceased person (the decedent) had owned property with you as joint tenants with survivorship rights, you should inherit automatically. If the decedent had created a pay-on-death account and specified that ownership of the account assets should transfer to you after death, then this also makes inheriting simple and quick.
However, if you are going to inherit assets that will pass to you through trust administration or through the probate process, you should expect a bit more complexity– and sometimes much more complexity. The trust administration process will be used to facilitate the transfer of assets left in a trust while the probate process will be used to facilitate the transfer of assets in other situations.
The trust administrator oversees the trust administration process while the executor of an estate will oversee the probate process. Both the trust administrator and the executor of an estate have a fiduciary duty, which is the highest duty a person can owe, but trust beneficiaries and heirs named in the will should make sure that they have a legal advocate on their side to monitor the processes to ensure that assets are being cared for and that steps are being taken to transfer assets quickly. A Cincinnati inheritance planning lawyer can provide assistance.
Those who inherit should also make sure they know any and all special rules or requirements imposed by the law or by the deceased person in connection with the inheritance. For example, if someone inherits an IRA, there are specific steps that may need to be taken to maintain tax benefits associated with the Individual Retirement Account or to avoid a substantial tax bill, depending upon who the deceased was and who inherited. Zimmer Law Firm can provide assistance understanding any rules and requirements associated with a specific inheritance and can help to make it possible for those who receive money or property to protect the gift they have been given.
Getting Help from A Cincinnati Inheritance Planning Lawyer
A Cincinnati inheritance planning lawyer at Zimmer Law Firm will offer you the advice and assistance you need to keep wealth safe, whether that wealth is money and property you wish to pass on to loved ones or whether it is money or property that you stand to inherit.
You should not hesitate to get the right legal help to keep assets safe both at the end of life and after death. Join us for a free seminar to find out more about the kinds of assistance an attorney can provide and when you’re ready to make your own asset protection plans, give us a call at 513.721.1513 today.