CFAES Give Today
News Releases Archive (Prior to 2011)

College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

CFAES

OSU Extension Offers Fact Sheets on Estate Planning

January 10, 2008

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State University Extension has developed a series of fact sheets to aid individuals in understanding the basic concepts of estate planning and the process of developing an estate plan.

Jim Skeeles, an OSU Extension educator for Hocking County and one of the authors of the fact sheets, said that the material is intended to help individuals understand the concepts needed to arrange for the well-being of loved ones and self while living and after death.

"The emphasis of the fact sheets is not only financial matters but also personal considerations. A successful estate plan not only provides for retirement while passing the largest possible estate to loved ones, but also does this in a way that people are amicable through the process and after the estate is settled," said Skeeles. "The fact sheets are in no way, shape, or form intended to replace legal counsel. In fact, it is our hope that after reading the fact sheets people will be more likely to visit an attorney to initiate an estate plan."

The fact sheets are divided into 12 topics:

• Introduction, including objectives such as treating children equally or equitably, continuing a viable business, liquidity needed, preserving equity and investment or using up assets during retirement.

• Costs involved in transferring estates.

• Tax basis for transferred property.

• Wills.

• Letter of instruction.

• Life insurance.

• Trusts.

• Giving.

• Sale of residence.

• Nursing home dilemma.

• Medicare and Medigap.

• Generation-skipping trusts, limited liability companies, and conservation/agricultural easements.

The fact sheets can be downloaded for free from OSU Extension's Ohioline Web site, at http://ohioline.osu.edu/ep-fact/index.html.

The OSU Extension office in Hocking County will also print and mail the fact sheets for a $30 fee. To order, contact Jim Skeeles at (740) 385-3222 or skeeles.1@osu.edu.

Author(s): 
Candace Pollock
Source(s): 
Jim Skeeles