Estate Planning and Probate Lawyer in Brecksville, Ohio
Estate planning is instructions. Probate is what happens when the instructions are missing, outdated, or incomplete. One conversation is while everyone is healthy. The other is after a death, when the house, the car, and the accounts have to move.
Robert G. Stiefvater reviews estate and probate files at Stiefvater Law, LLC. Call (216) 867-0429. Not every file is accepted.
Limited Clients. Proven Results.
What should most households review?
- Last will and testament
- Durable financial power of attorney
- Health care power of attorney
- Living will
A home, a retirement account with an old beneficiary form, a checking account in one name, and adult children with different ideas about what happens next — that is a typical file. Online forms fill blanks. They do not ask the questions that prevent a later problem.
A will alone does not move non-probate assets. Trusts and beneficiary coordination are added when the facts require them. Paper you do not need is not the work.
What happens in probate after a death?
Ohio probate is inventories, deadlines, and people who want answers. Real estate is usually the asset that forces the filing. Banks and title companies do not accept family consensus as a deed.
Which assets go through probate and which pass outside it is the first sort. If there is no will, Ohio’s statute decides heirs, not family custom. If there is a will, it still has to be admitted and administered.
Contested matters and messy beneficiary problems are reviewed before they are accepted. Some estates will need to go elsewhere.
What if someone needs an adult guardian?
That is a probate-court file, not a will. Do not treat a power of attorney as a guardianship. They are different papers.
Bring what you already have: the proposed ward’s situation, any existing power of attorney, and whether there is already a case number.
Does Medicaid take the house after death?
Sometimes the state files a claim against the probate estate for Medicaid benefits paid. That claim is not the same as a will contest, and it is not the same as a creditor fight over a credit card.
Say on the first call if the person who died was on Medicaid, if a house is still in that person’s name, and if a surviving spouse is still in the home.
How do you start?
Planning: a list of real estate, accounts, life insurance, and the people you trust.
Probate: the death certificate, the will if one exists, and a rough asset list.
A family that just finished a criminal case often needs a power of attorney the same year. A death after an injury claim can open a probate estate. Say what is already open.
A death after a crash can be a probate estate and a wrongful-death claim. Say both.
Calls come from Brecksville, Broadview Heights, North Royalton, Independence, Strongsville, Garfield Heights, Parma, Berea, Bedford, Rocky River, Lakewood, and the rest of Ohio.
Call (216) 867-0429 or use the contact form.