Estate Planning “hacks” are everywhere, with articles, Facebook posts, AI platforms, and Tik Toks providing families with all of the “tips and tricks” to avoid probate and achieve estate planning goals using online resources. But, online platforms aren’t learning about what actually matters to you and your family, and sometimes they can make things harder in the long run.

Every month, we meet with clients who are considering - or who have signed - estate planning documents using an online platform. The accessibility of these platforms are great, but the downfalls are significant.

What Websites Do Not Know About The Buckeye State

When you hear “OH”, most know to respond “IO!”. But when uninitiated visitors come to Ohio, they may be surprised to learn about Columbus’s Doo Dah parade or struggle to merge onto G70. Similarly, online estate planning forms use national standards, and often do not provide the provisions needed by most Ohioans.

Estate planning is governed by the state in which you live and especially where you own real property. Ohio especially has particular rules on how real estate is titled, how assets are determined, how beneficiary designations interact with trusts, and how powers of attorney are structured. Without considering these, an estate plan's effectiveness can crumple quicker than you can say “Go Buckeyes!”.

Online platforms are intended to generate fill-in-the-blank documents, not walk a person through aligning those documents through their assets, discussing strategies, and actually making the trust work for you.

The Hidden Coordination Between Your Will and Trust

Everyone needs a will, even if you have a trust. However, if you have a trust, the actual provisions of your will are going to differ. This is why we draft “pour-over” wills for all of our estate planning clients who elect to have a revocable trust. But, online platforms cannot always make this distinction appropriately.

Commonly, we review online wills and trusts that do not coincide with one another. In fact, they often diametrically oppose each other by naming different fiduciaries, distributing assets differently, and even creating completely contradictory guidelines. This contradiction can create unnecessary complications in the face of incapacity and death. The failure to coordinate factors within your estate planning documents can lead to unnecessary court intervention and the application of State laws you may not be aware of until it’s too late.

If this is not resolved during life, it becomes the responsibility of our family, and friends to handle after we are gone. To us, this goes against one of the core principles of estate planning, which is making things less stressful for our children and loved ones in times of stress or grief.

The Unspoken Step of Setting Up Your Trust

Setting up a revocable trust is a two-part process. The first part is setting up and signing the actual documents themselves, which governs your assets and tells your loved ones what goes where, and on what conditions.

However, the rarely-mentioned second part is “funding” your trust. This is the process of actually assigning or transferring your assets into your trust.

“But, our trust says that all of our assets are held in this trust! Isn’t that enough?” Unfortunately, no. There is always a bit of homework after you actually sign with blue ink. This is not because the online document is always invalid or ineffective, but because of the way Ohio’s laws interact with estate planning documents. What controls at your death is dependent on how your assets are titled. Your estate plan can only govern what it has the authority to.

Part of our estate planning package includes the preparation and filing of a Quitclaim Deed, which puts your personal residence into your trust. At our estate planning signings, we want to provide you with a sigh of relief when the hard part is over, but also talk through the steps moving forward on how to fund your trust with your bank account, investments, LLC membership units, and beyond. We want to ensure that your assets are legally and effectively tied to your estate plan.

Online platforms can provide accessible forms, but they come with a price that is often paid by our loved ones after we are gone. Estate planning can be stressful at times, but the team at Lardiere McNair and Stonebrook will take the time to answer your questions, talk through concerns, and provide a customized and nuanced estate plan that feels like your family, from one Ohioan to another.

Disclaimers: Artificial intelligence is used as a tool to supplement, enhance, make suggestions, and generate blog language from the thoughts, ideas, and opinions of our human lawyers. The final product is reviewed and edited by an attorney.

The information presented here has been prepared by Lardiere McNair for promotional and informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. This information is not intended to provide, and receipt of it does not constitute legal advice. Nor does the receipt of this material create an attorney/client relationship. An attorney client relationship is not established until such time as Lardiere McNair enters into a written engagement agreement with a specific client for a specific legal matter.