Estate Planning in Cincinnati, Ohio
Planning for the future is about more than preparing legal documents. It is about making thoughtful decisions for yourself, your family, and the people you trust to carry out your wishes.
Attorney Christopher M. Diedling helps individuals and families create practical, comprehensive estate plans designed around their lives, assets, families, and goals.
Chris primarily serves clients throughout Greater Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio, including Hamilton, Butler, Clermont, and Warren counties. As an Ohio-licensed attorney, he can assist clients throughout the state. If you live outside the Cincinnati area, our office can work with you to coordinate the estate planning process and, when appropriate, make arrangements to facilitate signing your documents in your area.
What is Estate Planning?
An estate plan is a personalized collection of legal documents that provides instructions for the management of your affairs during your lifetime, in the event of incapacity, and after your death.
Estate planning is not only for people with significant wealth. It is equally important for people who are single, married, have children, do not have children, own a home, have retirement accounts, operate a business, or simply want to make their wishes clear.
A well-designed estate plan can answer important questions before they become urgent:
Dying without an Estate Plan means that the Ohio Law decides how your assets will be distributed. This means that a Probate Court will need to appoint someone to administer your Estate to your heirs at law. Probate Administration comes with many rules and requirements that can complicate and delay the process of administering your Estate. Probate Administration often takes unnecessary time and exorbitant money to accomplish, and it can lead to results that are nothing like what you would have wanted for your family.
A Will allows you to define who will inherit your estate. A Trust can accomplish many goals, including avoiding Probate entirely, preserving wealth, and protecting young and vulnerable beneficiaries.
Chris is an educator to his clients when it comes to every aspect of Estate Planning. Chris counsels clients about the available Estate Planning tools and helps them make the best and most practical decisions for their circumstances.
Chris offers comprehensive Estate Planning services to address your unique circumstances and needs. Estate Planning services include:
- Who will make financial decisions for you if you cannot?
- Who will make health care decisions on your behalf?
- Who will manage your affairs after your death?
- Who should receive your property and other assets?
- How should assets be managed for children or other beneficiaries?
- Can probate be avoided or simplified?
- Are there beneficiaries who may need additional protection?
- What happens if your family circumstances change?
Making these decisions in advance gives you greater control and can make an already difficult time much easier for the people you care about.
What Happens If You Do Not Have an Estate Plan?
Without appropriate estate planning documents, Ohio law may determine who receives your probate assets and who has authority to administer your estate.
Your family may need to rely more heavily on the Probate Court to appoint someone to handle your estate and oversee the administration process. Depending on the circumstances, probate can involve court filings, notices, deadlines, expenses, and other requirements that could have been reduced or avoided with advance planning.
Just as importantly, the result may not reflect what you would have chosen for yourself or your family.
Estate planning allows you to make those decisions instead.
Wills, Trusts and Other Estate Planning Tools
A Last Will and Testament allows you to identify who should receive your probate estate, nominate an executor, and address other important matters after your death.
For some families, a Revocable Living Trust may provide additional benefits. Depending on your circumstances, a trust can help avoid probate, provide continuity in the management of assets, preserve wealth, and create protections for children, vulnerable beneficiaries, or other loved ones.
A comprehensive estate plan may also include Financial Powers of Attorney, Health Care Powers of Attorney, Living Wills, beneficiary planning, real estate planning, and other documents or strategies appropriate for your circumstances.
Estate Planning With an Educator
Chris believes you should understand your estate plan, not simply sign a stack of legal documents.
His approach is centered on education and practical guidance. Chris takes the time to explain the available estate planning tools, answer questions, discuss the advantages and limitations of different strategies, and help clients make informed decisions that make sense for their lives.
There is no single estate plan that is right for everyone. Your plan should reflect your family, your assets, your concerns, and what you want to accomplish.
Comprehensive Estate Planning Services
Chris assists clients with estate planning matters including:
- Last Wills and Testaments
- Revocable Living Trusts
- Financial Powers of Attorney
- Health Care Powers of Attorney
- Living Wills and advance directives
- Probate avoidance planning
- Beneficiary designation planning
- Real estate and Transfer on Death planning
- Planning for minor children
- Planning for vulnerable or special beneficiaries
- Asset protection and inheritance planning
- Business succession considerations
- Trust funding and asset coordination
- Review and updates of existing estate plans
- Durable Power of Attorney for Legal and Financial Matters
- Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
- Advanced Directive for Funeral Arrangements
- HIPAA Release Authorization
- Prenuptial Agreement
- Transfer-On-Death Beneficiary Designations
- Probate Avoidance Trust
- Family Distribution Trust
- Generation Protection Trust
- Life Insurance Trust
- Firearm Trust
- Special Needs Trust
- Irrevocable Trust
- Medicaid Asset Protection
- Ohio Legacy Trust
Whether you are creating your first estate plan or reviewing documents that no longer reflect your life, the goal is the same: to create a plan you understand, that reflects your wishes, and that works when it is needed.
How Chris Approaches Estate Planning
Chris takes a comprehensive approach to Estate Planning. Chris’s goals are to ensure that your assets go to the right people at the right time, that you have appropriate plans and directives in place in the event of your disability or incapacity, and to limit the cost and delay of administration by avoiding probate.