Legal-Ease: Can I trust my trust?

Lee R. Schroeder is an Ohio licensed attorney with Schroeder Law LLC in Ottawa. He limits his practice to business, real estate, estate planning and agriculture issues in northwest Ohio. He can be reached at lee@leeschroeder.com or at (419) 523-5523. This article is not intended to serve as legal advice, and specific advice should be sought from the licensed attorney of your choice based upon the specific facts and circumstances that you face.

Trusts must be prepared by attorneys as they’re legal documents. While many trusts are created by local attorneys, others are created by attorneys from outside of our area who offered a “free steak dinner” to discuss the protection of the client’s assets. The generic statements of “safety” and “protection” that were often mentioned in relation to the preparation of trusts for the last several decades are often misunderstood.

Over the last several decades, many people in Northwest and West Central Ohio have purchased trusts that were often marketed as “the best way to avoid the evils of probate.”

Because a trust is a legal document, it must be prepared by an attorney. Many trusts have been created by local attorneys. However, some trusts were created by out-of-area attorneys, many of whom invited people to come to a “free” steak dinner to learn how to “protect your assets.”

Read more about trusts in Lee’s article in the Lima News here: Legal-Ease: Can I trust my trust?

Source: LimaOhio.com, “Legal-Ease: Can I trust my trust?,” by Lee R. Schroeder, September 26, 2015

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