Ohio Probate Court Treats $25,000 As Loan from Estate Rather Than as a Gift From Dad, Learn How

Are you currently serving as the personal representative of your mother’s  estate only to learn that she had been giving your brother large sums of cash? You may be able to have the probate court view it as a loan, not a gift. Depending on the facts. This could change their right to an inheritance given the debt they owe to the estate. Check out this recent probate appeal from Ohio to learn more.

Inventory of an Estate

• Once you begin serving as the personal representative of the estate in West Palm Beach you will have to prepare an inventory.
• Do you know what that is?
• This is a piece of paper that is filed with the probate court outlining everything that the estate owns.
• In other words it is an inventory of assets.
• One thing you may find is that your relative had a lot of debts others owed them.
• Do you know where on the inventory these go?
• Did you know that you may be able to classify what appeared as gifts as loans so the estate gets repaid.
• Check out this case out of Ohio to learn more.

Estate of Ross

• In this case the Ohio executor, which is like a personal representative, filed his third amended inventory with the State Clerk.
• The son appealed the entry of that inventory because it categorized his $25,000 gifts as loans that he now had to pay back!
• Since the estate was to be shared equally by all the kids this really threw a wrench in his inheritance.
• Did you loan large amounts of money recently?
• How have you categorized them for estate planning purposes?
• At a hearing in this case the Court found that there were repayments going on that hinted to this being a loan.
• How are you going to prove it was really a loan years ago?

Want to learn more?

Check out the entire case by clicking here.