Taxation & Estate Planning

Wouldn’t This Be Nice

By Michael D. Bonasera, Esq.

Joel Shoenmeyer writes here about the (relatively) new Illinois law (Public Act 95-0784) that allows an individual to name a beneficiary of a car thus allowing it to pass outside of probate…  This would be great.

There is only so much work one can do in Ohio to assitt clients with avoiding probate but there’s always something…  Whether its the $1,500 burial policy the decedent took out in 1964 or a car, it can be dificult to escape the ever-widening grasp of probate courts. 

It is true that in Ohio one can own a car jointly which would vest survivorship rights in the surviving joint-owner after the death of the first, but jointly owning assets has its own headaches (I’m thinking mostly of liability here) that make it ill-advised as a planning device to invoke solely for probate avoidance.  There is also the allowance that a surviving spouse can take any two cars of their deceased spouse so long as their aggregate value is less thatn $40,000 and that can be done with an affidavit only (without having to open a full estate).

Here’s hoping our legislature take a short look west and takes the hint.  This would be nice.

Thanks Joel!

Full post as published by The Ohio Trust & Estate Blog on December 22, 2008 (boomark / email).