The Ohio Estate Tax Was Repealed. So Why Are Families Still Losing Fortunes? A Lawyer’s Guide to the Real Risks in the Buckeye State.

Part I: The Myth of the Vanquished Dragon: Deconstructing Ohio’s “Death Tax” Repeal

Introduction: A Story of False Relief

As an estate planning attorney in Ohio, I remember the calls that flooded my office in late 2011 and throughout 2012.

They were calls of relief, even jubilation.

Governor Kasich had signed the budget bill repealing Ohio’s estate tax, and for countless families, it felt like a decades-long siege was finally over.¹

“So, we can tear up our trust now, right?” a small business owner asked me, the relief palpable in his voice.

“We’re safe?”

At the time, I shared their sentiment.

For years, we had all planned around Ohio’s so-called “death tax.” It was a formidable adversary, notorious for having the lowest exemption in the entire country, a mere $338,333.¹

This wasn’t a tax just for the ultra-wealthy; it ensnared farmers, small business owners, and middle-class families who had diligently saved and invested in a home.

Its repeal felt like a victory for everyone.

Then, a few years later, a case crossed my desk that shattered this illusion of safety.

It involved the family of a former client, a couple who had put a comprehensive plan in place with me back in the mid-2000s.

After the husband passed away, the surviving wife, hearing the news of the repeal, assumed their planning worries were over.

She never came in for a review.

When she passed away years later, her children discovered the devastating truth.

The trust we had created was never properly updated or funded with new assets.

Their mother’s will, which they thought was their safety net, guaranteed them a spot in probate court.

The estate, which had grown significantly, was now exposed to the full force of the federal estate tax.

And before they could even think about inheritance, a catastrophic long-term care bill consumed a huge portion of what was left.

They had been told the dragon was slain, but their family fortune was still ravaged.

This experience was a harsh awakening.

It forced me to confront a difficult question: If the Ohio estate tax is gone, why are families still facing financial ruin? The answer, I discovered, is that the repeal didn’t eliminate the dangers; it merely masked them.

It created a fog of complacency that has left thousands of Ohio families dangerously exposed to a new set of threats—threats that are, in many ways, more complex and insidious than the old tax ever was.

This report is the map through that fog.

The Official Answer and Its History: Why Everyone Felt So Safe

To understand the current landscape, one must first appreciate the history.

The direct answer to the question “Does Ohio have an inheritance tax?” is a clear and simple “No.” Ohio has neither a state estate tax nor an inheritance tax.⁴

The Ohio Estate Tax was officially repealed for any individual dying on or after January 1, 2013.⁷

This change was enacted through House Bill 153, which was signed into law in June 2011 as part of the state’s biennial budget.¹

The relief that followed this repeal was immense precisely because the old law was so burdensome.

Prior to 2013, Ohio had the dubious distinction of possessing the lowest estate tax exemption in the United States: $338,333.¹

For context, in 2012, the federal estate tax exemption was over $5 million.³

This meant that while most Ohioans were far from being federally taxed, many were caught in the state’s Net. The tax rates were significant: 6% on the value of an estate between $338,333 and $500,000, and 7% on any value exceeding $500,000.²

For a family farm or a modest but appreciated home, this tax could force heirs to sell assets they wished to keep simply to pay the bill.

The repeal was the result of a long and contentious political fight.

Pro-repeal groups, such as the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, argued that the tax drove wealthy residents and their capital to other states like Florida and Arizona.¹

They faced intense opposition from a league of suburban municipalities and local governments, which received 80% of the tax revenue and relied on it to fund local services.⁷

The victory in 2011 was therefore seen as a landmark achievement, freeing Ohioans from a tax widely perceived as unfair and economically damaging.

It is important to note that the repeal was not retroactive.

Estates of individuals who died before January 1, 2013, were still subject to the old rules and tax filings.³

To finally close the books on this era, the legislature later passed a “sunset provision” in House Bill 110.

This provision states that, effective January 1, 2022, no Ohio estate tax is due on property discovered after that date, regardless of when the death occurred.⁹

This effectively ended the administration of the old tax and eliminated the need for tax waiver forms (like the ET 12/13/14) that were previously required to transfer a decedent’s assets.⁹

Posing the Central Mystery

With this formidable and widely disliked tax officially vanquished, the logical conclusion for many Ohioans was that the need for complex, and often expensive, estate planning had vanished with it.

This created a paradox.

The very act of solving one major, visible problem inadvertently made countless families more vulnerable to other, less obvious dangers.

The public and political focus on the state “death tax” had for years been the primary motivator for families to seek professional planning advice.

With that motivation gone, a collective guard was lowered.

This leads to the central question of this report: If the primary threat has been eliminated, why is comprehensive estate planning in Ohio more critical now than ever before? What are the hidden financial dangers that this celebrated legislative victory has managed to conceal? The truth is that the financial landscape for Ohio families did not become simpler after 2013; it became more complex.

The risks simply shifted, transforming from a single, well-known dragon into a host of stealthier predators.

Part II: The Real Threats: Unmasking the Dangers in a Post-Repeal World

The Hurricane Analogy: A New Framework for Understanding Risk

To help my clients understand this new, more complex landscape, I developed an analogy.

The repeal of the Ohio estate tax was like the National Weather Service announcing that Ohio, against all meteorological odds, would no longer be hit by Category 5 hurricanes.

The public rejoiced.

Relieved, residents stopped boarding up their windows, canceled their flood insurance policies, and stored their emergency supplies in the attic.

They felt safe.

What they forgot, however, is that even without a direct hurricane hit, the remnants of a powerful storm system can still cause immense, and often unexpected, damage.

The real dangers were never just the 150-mph winds.

They were, and still are, the secondary effects:

• A powerful Federal Storm Surge: A massive wave of federal estate tax that can inundate even large estates, especially with the law set to change dramatically.
• Widespread Localized Flooding: The slow, costly, and public process of probate court that seeps into nearly every unplanned estate, regardless of size.
• A deadly Long-Term Care Undertow: The silent, powerful current of catastrophic healthcare costs that can pull a family’s entire life savings out to sea before anything can be passed on.
• Unexpected Cross-Border Cyclones: The inheritance tax systems of other states that can spin up and strike an Ohio beneficiary when they least expect it.

For over a decade, Ohioans have been enjoying the sunshine, unaware that these other weather events are gathering strength just over the horizon.

It’s time to check the forecast.

Threat 1: The Federal “Storm Surge” – The Looming 2026 Estate Tax Cliff

The most immediate and financially significant threat facing many Ohio families is the federal estate tax.

While Ohio may have opted out of the death tax business, the federal government most certainly has not.⁴

This tax is levied on the total value of a decedent’s estate before any assets are distributed to heirs.¹⁸

For several years, this federal “storm surge” has been held back by a historically high sea wall.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 dramatically increased the federal estate tax exemption, which is the amount an individual can pass on without incurring the tax.¹⁷

For 2024, that exemption is $13.61 million per person, and it is projected to rise to approximately $13.99 million in 2025.⁴

For married couples, this exemption is “portable,” meaning with proper legal steps, a couple can shield nearly $28 million from federal estate tax.²

This incredibly high threshold created a “golden window” of low tax anxiety, reinforcing the sense of security that began with the state-level repeal.²¹

However, this sea wall is temporary.

The law was written with a “sunset” provision.

If Congress does not act, on January 1, 2026, the exemption amount will automatically be cut roughly in half, reverting to its pre-2017 level of $5 million, adjusted for inflation.

Experts estimate this will land somewhere between $6 and $7 million per person.¹⁷

The impact of this change will be sudden and severe.

The federal estate tax rate on amounts exceeding the exemption is a staggering 40%.⁴

This creates a perilous situation, particularly for Ohio families with estates valued between $7 million and $27 million.

These are families who, for the last decade, have correctly believed they had no state or federal estate tax problem.

They have been conditioned to think they are not the “wealthy” who need to worry.

As of 2026, they will be squarely in the crosshairs.

The combination of Ohio’s repeal and the temporary federal increase has created a perfect storm of complacency meeting a hard deadline.

To make this abstract threat concrete, consider the following scenario for a single individual with a $15 million estate.

Estate Value	Year of Death	Federal Exemption	Taxable Estate	Estimated Federal Tax Owed (at 40%)
$15,000,000	2025	~$13.99 million	~$1.01 million	~$404,000
$15,000,000	2026	~$7.0 million (est.)	~$8.0 million	~$3,200,000

Data compiled from sources.⁴

As the table starkly illustrates, the same estate could face a tax bill that is nearly eight times larger simply because of a change in the calendar year.

This is not a distant problem; planning to mitigate this risk must happen now, while the higher exemption is still in place.

Gifts made under the current high exemption will not be “clawed back” when the limit drops, making the next year a critical window for strategic wealth transfer.²¹

Threat 2: The “Probate Flood” – The Expensive, Public, and Unavoidable Process You’re Ignoring

One of the most persistent and dangerous myths in estate planning is the belief that having a will allows your family to avoid probate court.

This is fundamentally untrue.

In Ohio, a will is essentially a letter of instruction to the probate judge; it is the very document that guarantees your estate will go through this court-supervised process.²³

The repeal of the Ohio estate tax had absolutely no effect on the probate requirement.²⁵

If you die with assets titled in your name alone—a house, a bank account, a car—your estate is headed for probate.

This “probate flood” can be slow-moving but incredibly damaging, eroding an estate’s value through three primary avenues:

1. Financial Costs: Probate is not free. In Ohio, the fees for the fiduciary (the executor or administrator) are set by statute: 4% on the first $100,000 of personal property and income, 3% on the next $300,000, and 2% on the balance over $400,000.²⁵ On a $500,000 estate, that’s a potential fiduciary fee of $16,000. This does not include mandatory court costs, appraisal fees, and, most significantly, attorney’s fees, which can easily add thousands more to the total bill.²²
2. Time Delays: The probate process is notoriously slow. A straightforward estate administration in Ohio can take a minimum of 8 to 12 months, and often longer if any complications arise.²² During much of this time, assets can be frozen. Bank accounts may be inaccessible, and property cannot be sold or distributed until the court gives its approval, placing a significant strain on family members who may be relying on their inheritance.²⁸
3. Loss of Privacy: Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of probate for many families is that it is a public process. Your will becomes a public document, available for anyone to read at the county courthouse. A detailed inventory of your assets—your home, your bank accounts, your investments—is filed with the court. Your debts are listed. The names of your heirs and what each of them will receive are all part of the public record.²⁸ This public airing of a family’s private financial affairs is an unwelcome intrusion for many.

Many people mistakenly believe that because the state “death tax” is gone, the main reason to plan to avoid probate is also gone.

This is a costly misunderstanding.

The financial drain, lengthy delays, and public exposure of probate remain a potent threat to every Ohio estate that has not taken specific steps to steer clear of the courthouse.

Threat 3: The “Long-Term Care Undertow” – How a Lifetime of Savings Can Vanish

For the majority of middle-class Ohio families, the single greatest financial threat is not a tax that applies after death, but a cost that can strike with devastating force during life: the expense of long-term care.

This silent “undertow” can pull a lifetime of savings out from under a family, leaving little to nothing for a surviving spouse or children.

The costs are staggering.

Nursing home care can easily exceed $100,000 per year.

Many families assume that Medicaid will eventually step in to cover these costs.

While this is true, Medicaid is a means-tested program.

To qualify, an individual must first “spend down” their countable assets to a very low level, often just a few thousand dollars.

This means the family home, savings, and investments must be liquidated and spent on care before government assistance begins.

This is where the critical failure of post-repeal complacency becomes clear.

Many families, relieved of the pressure to plan for estate taxes, stopped thinking about asset protection altogether.

Yet, modern estate planning is as much about protecting assets during your lifetime as it is about distributing them after your death.

The primary tool for this protection is the irrevocable trust.

By transferring assets into a properly structured irrevocable trust well in advance of needing care, those assets are no longer legally considered yours.

Therefore, they are not counted for Medicaid eligibility purposes and are shielded from being spent down on care costs.²³

This type of planning must be done proactively.

Medicaid has a five-year “look-back” period, meaning any assets transferred within five years of applying for benefits can trigger a penalty period during which the applicant is ineligible for coverage.

The repeal of the Ohio estate tax created a dangerous disconnect.

It encouraged people to focus only on post-mortem events while ignoring the far more probable risk of financial devastation from long-term care costs during their final years.

A truly comprehensive Ohio estate plan must be a life and legacy plan, designed to protect a family not just from the tax man after death, but from financial ruin during a period of incapacity.

Threat 4: The “Cross-Border Cyclone” – The Inheritance Tax Trap You Don’t See Coming

The final threat is one that catches many Ohioans completely by surprise.

It stems from a fundamental confusion between two types of taxes: an estate tax and an inheritance tax.

• An Estate Tax is paid by the estate of the person who died, before the assets are distributed. The federal tax is an estate tax.⁴
• An Inheritance Tax is paid by the beneficiary who receives the assets. The tax rate often depends on the relationship of the heir to the decedent.¹⁹

Ohio has neither.

But this is where the trap lies.

If you are an Ohio resident and you inherit money from a relative or friend who lived in a state that does have an inheritance tax, you could be on the hook for that other state’s tax bill.¹⁷

Several states, including some of Ohio’s neighbors, have these taxes.

Consider two prominent examples: Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

• Pennsylvania imposes an inheritance tax with rates of 4.5% for direct descendants (children, grandchildren), 12% for siblings, and a steep 15% for all other heirs, which includes nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. Transfers to a spouse are exempt.³²
• Kentucky has a more complex system that classifies beneficiaries. Class A beneficiaries (spouses, parents, children, siblings) are fully exempt. Class B beneficiaries (nieces, nephews, children-in-law, aunts, uncles) receive a small $1,000 exemption and then pay a tax of 4% to 16%. Class C beneficiaries (cousins, friends, etc.) get only a $500 exemption and pay 6% to 16%.³⁵

For an Ohioan, this means that the tax consequences of receiving an inheritance have nothing to do with Ohio law and everything to do with where the deceased person lived.

This “cross-border cyclone” can result in an unexpected and significant financial hit.

If you (an Ohio resident) inherit $100,000 from a…	Your relationship to them is…	Your PA Inheritance Tax Bill is…	Your KY Inheritance Tax Bill is…
…resident of Pennsylvania	Sibling	$12,000 (12%)	N/A
…resident of Kentucky	Sibling	N/A	$0 (Class A)
…resident of Pennsylvania	Niece/Nephew	$15,000 (15%)	N/A
…resident of Kentucky	Niece/Nephew	N/A	~$3,960 + 5% on excess over $10k (Class B)
…resident of Pennsylvania	Unrelated Friend	$15,000 (15%)	N/A
…resident of Kentucky	Unrelated Friend	N/A	~$5,940 + 8% on excess over $20k (Class C)

Tax estimates compiled from sources.³²

Rates are illustrative and subject to specific calculations.

This table demonstrates the critical importance of understanding that your financial world does not end at the Ohio border.

The repeal of Ohio’s estate tax has made many residents inwardly focused, forgetting that a web of interstate laws can still impact their finances significantly.

Part III: Building Your Modern Shelter: The Essential Ohio Estate Planning Toolkit

Understanding the real threats—the federal storm surge, probate flood, long-term care undertow, and cross-border cyclones—is the first step.

The second is to build a modern shelter, a comprehensive estate plan designed not just for the old world of Ohio estate tax avoidance, but for the complex realities of today.

This is not about a single document, but a coordinated set of legal tools.

The Foundational Blueprint: More Than Just a Will

Every effective estate plan in Ohio is built upon a foundation of several essential documents.

Relying on a will alone is one of the most common and costly mistakes.²⁸

• Last Will and Testament: A will is still a crucial document, but its role must be understood correctly. Its primary functions are to name an executor to manage your estate through probate, to nominate a guardian for your minor children (a vital function no other document can perform), and to state how your assets that pass through probate should be distributed.²³ It is not a tool for avoiding probate. For a will to be valid in Ohio, it must be in writing, signed by you (the testator), and witnessed by at least two competent individuals who are not beneficiaries and who watch you sign.²²
• Durable Financial Power of Attorney (POA): This may be the most important document you can have during your lifetime. It allows you to appoint a trusted person (your “agent”) to manage your financial affairs—pay bills, manage investments, file taxes—if you become incapacitated and unable to do so yourself. Without a durable POA, your family would be forced to go to court to have a guardian appointed, a process that is expensive, public, and stressful.³⁰
• Health Care Power of Attorney and Living Will (Advance Directives): These documents govern your medical decisions. The Health Care POA appoints an agent to make medical decisions on your behalf if you cannot communicate them. The Living Will (or “Advance Directive”) states your specific wishes regarding end-of-life care, such as the use of life-sustaining treatment. Together, they ensure your wishes are honored and relieve your family from the burden of making agonizing decisions during a crisis.³⁹
• HIPAA Release Authorization: A practical but essential document. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has strict privacy rules. This release gives your doctors permission to share your medical information with the agents you named in your powers of attorney, allowing them to make informed decisions.²⁸

The Fortress: Using Trusts to Neutralize Modern Threats

While the foundational documents are essential, the most powerful tool for neutralizing the modern threats of probate, federal taxes, and long-term care costs is a trust.

The core difference between a will and a trust is simple: a will is a set of instructions for the probate court after you die.

A trust is a private legal agreement that creates a separate entity to hold and manage your assets, allowing you to bypass probate court entirely.²³

• The Revocable Living Trust (The Probate Shield): This is the most common type of trust and the primary vehicle for avoiding probate.

• How it Works: You, the creator (or “grantor”), create the trust and transfer your assets into it. You typically name yourself as the trustee, so you maintain full control over the assets during your lifetime. You can amend, change, or completely revoke the trust at any time.²³ Upon your death, the person you named as your successor trustee steps in and distributes the assets to your beneficiaries according to the private instructions in the trust document—no court involvement needed. This saves the time, expense, and public exposure of probate.²⁹
• The Critical Step: Funding: A trust is an empty vessel until you put something in it. For a trust to work, you must “fund” it by retitling your assets (the deed to your house, your non-retirement investment accounts, your bank accounts) into the name of the trust. Failure to fund the trust is the single most common mistake in DIY or poorly supervised estate planning, rendering the trust completely useless.²²
• The Irrevocable Trust (The Asset Fortress): This is a more advanced and powerful tool designed for asset protection.

• How it Works: When you transfer assets to an irrevocable trust, you are giving up control and ownership of them. The trust becomes the new owner. Because the assets are no longer legally yours, they are generally protected from your future creditors, shielded from federal estate taxes (for very large estates), and, most importantly for many Ohioans, not counted as assets when determining eligibility for Medicaid to pay for long-term care.²³
• The Trade-off: The strength of the irrevocable trust is also its main characteristic: it is irrevocable. You generally cannot change your mind and take the assets back. This is why it is a powerful tool that requires careful consideration and expert legal guidance.

Strategic Reinforcements: Advanced and Digital-Age Planning

A truly modern plan goes beyond the basics to address the nuances of today’s financial and digital world.

• Beneficiary Designations: Using Transfer on Death (TOD) or Payable on Death (POD) designations on assets like bank accounts, investment accounts, and even real estate and vehicles is a simple and effective way to keep them out of probate.²⁹ Life insurance policies and retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s) also pass directly to named beneficiaries. It is critical to review these designations regularly, as they override any instructions in your will or trust.³⁹
• Retirement Account Planning: The landscape for inheriting retirement accounts has changed. The SECURE Act eliminated the “stretch IRA” for most non-spouse beneficiaries. Now, they are generally required to withdraw all funds from an inherited IRA within ten years of the original owner’s death.²² This can create a significant income tax bomb for beneficiaries, pushing them into higher tax brackets. Planning for this tax impact is now a crucial part of any estate plan.
• Digital Asset Planning: Our lives are increasingly online. Ohio has adopted the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which recognizes your online accounts, photos, and social media presence as assets.⁴¹ Your estate plan should explicitly grant your executor and trustee the authority to access, manage, and distribute or delete these digital assets according to your wishes.
• Beware the “Zombie” Plan: A final, critical warning for Ohioans: if your estate plan was created before 2013, it may be a “zombie plan”—technically alive but dangerously outdated. Many pre-2013 plans, especially for married couples, contained complex “A-B” or “bypass” trust provisions. These were designed specifically to maximize both spouses’ exemptions under the old Ohio estate tax.⁴⁴ Today, these provisions are often unnecessary and can be counterproductive. They can needlessly tie up assets from a surviving spouse, require costly extra administration and tax filings, and prevent the surviving spouse’s assets from receiving a second “step-up” in tax basis at their death, potentially creating a large capital gains tax bill for the children down the road. Any plan drafted to solve the old Ohio tax problem must be reviewed and updated for the modern world.

Conclusion: From Complacency to Confidence

I often think back to that family who faced disaster because they believed the repeal of the Ohio estate tax meant they were safe.

After the initial shock and the difficult process of settling their mother’s unplanned estate, they came back to my office.

This time, we built a new plan from the ground up, one designed not for the ghost of a vanquished tax, but for the real world they now inhabited.

We created a fully funded revocable living trust to shield them from the publicity and cost of probate.

We implemented advanced trust strategies to protect the inheritance from future creditors and to mitigate the impact of the looming federal estate tax cliff.

We put in place robust powers of attorney and healthcare directives.

They walked out of my office not with the false relief of a problem avoided, but with the earned confidence of a future secured.

The repeal of the Ohio estate tax was not the end of the story for Ohio families.

It was the start of a new chapter, one that demands a more sophisticated understanding of risk.

It was a signal to stop focusing on a single, visible threat and to start building a truly comprehensive shelter—a modern plan designed to withstand the actual storms that Ohio families face today.

The goal is no longer just about dodging a tax.

It’s about navigating probate, planning for incapacity, protecting against long-term care costs, and understanding a complex federal and interstate tax system.

It is about moving from a dangerous state of complacency to a well-earned state of confidence, knowing that the legacy you’ve worked a lifetime to build will be protected for the generations to come.

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