Ghosts from the Grave-Inheriting through the Predeceased under Ohio Law

This Article seeks to advise the estate-planning attorney that Ohio\u27s laws concerning inheriting through predeceased persons is a labyrinth of arbitrary rules, the majority of which serve no apparent public policy. Specifically, very different sets of rules apply to inheriting through a predeceased person via intestacy, a will, a living trust, or a beneficiary designation type account, such as a payable on death account (hereinafter P.O.D.). Additionally, Ohio law contains surprisingly high doses of ambiguity in some of the most basic principles of law relating to inheriting through predeceased next of kin or predeceased named-beneficiaries in a dispositive-planning instrument. Rather than an exercise in academia, this Article will argue that understanding and then planning around the problems contained in these rules is extremely important to the Ohio estate-planning attorney