Family farms and estate planning in Ohio was a pretty hot topic at a event that I spoke at. About 125 farmers from across the state showed up to hear me and the other speakers. One thing that struck me was that most of the farmers I spoke to said they’d never met an attorney who could explain why they should do estate planning and elder law planning. In this post I want to solve that issue and explain plainly why estate planning is necessary for farmers.

I recently had the opportunity to develop an estate plan for a same-sex couple and found several effective strategies for making sure each partner could receive inheritance and make healthcare decisions for the other just as if they were a married heterosexual couple. Actually, now they are probably better protected than most married heterosexual couples, because most couples don’t have an estate plan or living trust in place.