Many Dayton families have a will, a few beneficiary forms on file, and feel confident their affairs are in order, right up until a parent dies and everyone discovers the inheritance is not going where anyone expected. A house ends up with one child, a retirement account goes to an ex-spouse, or probate takes far longer than anyone thought it would. The family is left asking how things went so wrong when their loved one tried to do the right thing.
If you live in Dayton or the Miami Valley and have worked hard to build a home, savings, and maybe a small business, you probably want a smooth, fair inheritance for your family. You may have seen a relative’s estate turn into a stressful court process or a painful family rift. That experience often raises a quiet question: could the same thing happen with your own plan, even if you already signed a will years ago?
At Lovett & House Co., LPA, we see this gap every day in probate courts across Dayton, the Miami Valley, and Central and Western Ohio. People tried to plan, but certain common mistakes in how their documents and accounts were set up created unintended results. In this article, we will walk through five inheritance planning mistakes we frequently see for Dayton residents, explain how they actually play out under Ohio law, and share practical ways to prevent them.
Outdated Wills Can Derail Your Ohio Inheritance Plan
Many clients sit down with us and proudly hand over a will they signed fifteen or twenty years ago. They often assume that having any will is enough to keep the family out of trouble. The problem is that life in Dayton rarely stays the same for that long. Divorce, remarriage, new grandchildren, the death of a spouse, or the purchase and sale of real estate can all make an old will a poor fit for your current reality.
Ohio probate courts generally follow the written document, even when it no longer reflects your relationships or assets. If your will names a spouse you later divorced, or leaves property to someone who has died, the court does not guess at what you “would have wanted.” It looks to the exact language in your will and to Ohio’s default rules for anything not clearly covered. That can mean assets fall into the residuary clause, go to people you never intended, or pass according to intestacy rules because the will no longer reaches them.
Consider a common Dayton situation. Years ago, a parent wrote a will leaving everything “to my spouse, and then to my children in equal shares.” Since then, the spouse passed away, and one child became estranged. Another child has serious financial problems. The parent always talked about leaving specific items and extra support for grandchildren, but never updated the will. When that parent dies, the probate court will divide assets exactly as written, with no extra protection for grandchildren and no way to skip or limit the share of the estranged or financially unstable child.
We often uncover these kinds of gaps during estate plan reviews at Lovett & House Co., LPA. Our Dayton-based team looks at how an older will interacts with current Ohio law and current family circumstances. Sometimes that means updating beneficiary names and distribution percentages. Other times, it means adding a trust or revising the plan entirely. The key is not simply having a will, but having one that matches your life as it is today, not as it was decades ago.
Beneficiary Designations Often Override Your Dayton Will
One of the most surprising lessons for many families is that their will does not control everything. In fact, some of the largest assets we see in Dayton area estates do not pass under the will at all. Life insurance policies, retirement accounts such as 401(k)s and IRAs, and many bank or investment accounts often pass by beneficiary designation or pay on death instructions. The financial institution usually follows the last signed form on file, even if your will says something else.
This is where people often run into trouble. A client might have updated their will after a divorce to remove an ex-spouse, but never changed the beneficiary on a life insurance policy purchased years earlier. In that situation, the insurance company typically pays the proceeds to the ex-spouse named on the form, even if your current will leaves everything to your children. The same happens with retirement accounts that still list a first spouse, a deceased parent, or a single child when you now have several.
Legally, these assets are often treated as non-probate assets. They pass a contract between you and the financial institution. Ohio probate courts generally do not have the authority to rewrite those contracts simply because your will says something different. This can leave families in Dayton stunned when they learn that a major retirement account bypassed the estate and went entirely to a person everyone assumed had been removed from the plan.
During our estate planning reviews, we do not stop at reading the will or trust. We ask clients to gather statements for life insurance, retirement plans, and key accounts so we can see who is actually named as beneficiary, pay-on-death payee, or transfer-on-death recipient. Often, we uncover mismatches, such as accounts still naming parents who have died, or only one child in a family that has grown. Correcting those designations is usually straightforward and can dramatically change how an inheritance plays out for your family.
A practical first step for many Dayton residents is to make a simple list of all accounts that might have beneficiary designations and check each one. Look at employer retirement plans, IRAs, life insurance through work, private life insurance, and larger bank or investment accounts. If you cannot remember the last time you completed a form, that is a sign to request a copy and review it. Coordinating those designations with your will or trust is one of the most effective ways to prevent surprises.
Joint Ownership Can Create Inheritance Surprises
Another common pattern we see in the Miami Valley is a parent adding one adult child to a bank account or even a house deed “just to help with bills” or “to make things easier.” On the surface, joint ownership feels like a simple convenience. In reality, joint accounts and property with rights of survivorship can completely change who inherits those assets, often cutting out other children or beneficiaries you meant to include.
When you hold an account or a piece of real estate jointly with right of survivorship, the surviving owner typically becomes the full legal owner at your death. The asset does not pass under your will. It does not get divided among all your children according to your carefully drafted percentages. It simply belongs to the surviving joint owner. That might be the child who lived nearby and helped with errands or caregiving, but it may not be the result you intended for the rest of your family.
We frequently hear variations of the same story in Dayton. A parent added one local child to a checking account so that the child could write checks and handle day-to-day expenses. After the parents’ death, the other siblings learn that the account held a substantial portion of the parents’ savings and that, legally, it now belongs solely to the child whose name was on the account. The parent may have verbally said “this is to be split among you,” but without clear planning and documentation, the law treats it as the surviving owner’s property.
There are better tools to allow someone to help with finances without changing who inherits. A financial power of attorney lets you appoint a trusted person to manage accounts in your name, while you remain the owner. Properly structured trusts can also centralize management while still dividing assets as you direct. At Lovett & House Co., LPA, we help clients compare these options, explain how Ohio treats joint ownership in probate and outside of probate, and design a plan that matches both your need for help now and your inheritance goals later.
If you already have joint accounts or jointly titled property with a child or other relative, it is worth reviewing whether that structure still makes sense. In some cases, we recommend retitling or adjusting the overall plan to balance things out. The main goal is to avoid a situation where “for convenience” today becomes a source of resentment and conflict tomorrow.
Ignoring Nursing Home Costs Can Wipe Out Your Children’s Inheritance
Many people in Dayton think of inheritance planning as deciding who gets what after they are gone. They do not always connect it to what might happen if they or a spouse needs years of nursing home care near the end of life. Yet nursing home and long-term care costs in Ohio can be high enough that a lifetime of savings gets redirected to pay for care, leaving little or nothing to pass on to children or grandchildren.
We often meet couples who assume their home and savings will go to their children, but have never discussed what would happen if one of them needs extended care. In a common scenario, one spouse enters a nursing facility and, over several years, the couple spends down their savings to pay the bills. By the time the second spouse passes away, the estate is much smaller than anyone expected. Children are surprised to learn that there is not enough to cover even basic goals, such as paying off their own debts or setting aside money for their grandchildren’s education.
There are legal programs, such as Medicaid, that may help with long-term care costs when certain conditions are met, but qualifying and planning around those rules can be complex. Last-minute transfers or quick fixes often create more problems, both for care eligibility and for family relationships. Thoughtful planning done earlier, while everyone is still relatively healthy and able to participate, usually creates more options for protecting at least part of the family’s wealth while still meeting care needs.
At Lovett & House Co., LPA, we treat nursing home planning as part of estate planning, not a separate issue. When we work with Dayton and Miami Valley families on their wills and trusts, we also talk about what would happen if one spouse needed long-term care, how that might affect the home, and what strategies might be available to preserve resources for a spouse or children within the bounds of Ohio and federal rules. The specifics vary from family to family, but the central point is consistent. Ignoring nursing home costs is itself an inheritance planning mistake.
If you have aging parents in the region, or you are approaching retirement yourself, it is worth raising this topic now rather than waiting for a crisis. Even a basic conversation about potential care, possible insurance, and how certain assets are held can highlight where more detailed planning is needed. That planning can be the difference between an estate that is largely consumed by care and one that still reflects your long-term intentions for your family.
Failing To Plan For Blended Families And Special Situations
Families in Dayton and across Central and Western Ohio are often more complex than they appear on paper. Second marriages, stepchildren, children from prior relationships, and relatives with disabilities or addictions all create situations where a standard, “simple” will may not produce anything close to a fair or peaceful outcome. Yet many people still rely on boilerplate documents that do not address these realities.
Ohio’s default inheritance rules and even many form wills tend to favor certain relationships, often the current spouse or blood children, without much nuance. For example, a person in a second marriage who leaves everything outright to the surviving spouse may assume that the spouse will later share with stepchildren. In practice, the surviving spouse can often leave all assets to their own children or new partner instead. Stepchildren from the first marriage may end up with nothing, even if the original intent was to “treat everyone fairly.”
There are also special considerations when leaving assets to a child with a disability. A direct inheritance can disrupt eligibility for certain public benefits, even if well-meaning. In some situations, a properly drafted supplemental needs or special needs trust can allow a parent or grandparent to set money aside for that child’s future without disqualifying them from important support programs. Simply naming the child directly in a will or beneficiary form does not address these concerns and may create new obstacles.
We regularly work with blended families in the Miami Valley who initially thought a one-page will or an online form would be enough. When we walk through real-life scenarios with them, they often realize that their current plan could unintentionally favor one branch of the family, leave a vulnerable relative exposed, or set up conflicts among children and stepchildren. Taking time to talk through actual family dynamics, not just legal labels, allows us to design Ohio-appropriate structures that match what the client means by fairness.
If your family includes stepchildren, a second spouse, or anyone with special needs, it is especially important to move beyond one-size-fits-all planning. That may mean creating a trust that holds property for the benefit of a surviving spouse during life, then passes specific shares to children from a prior marriage, or setting up a separate trust for a disabled child. The right solution will depend on your assets and values, but the first step is recognizing that generic documents are unlikely to get you there.
Leaving Your Estate Plan Uncoordinated And Uncommunicated
Even when Dayton families have a will, a trust, and updated beneficiary designations, problems often arise because the pieces do not fit together or because no one knows where anything is. An inheritance plan is a system. Wills, trusts, beneficiary designations, powers of attorney, and living wills all serve different roles. If each document is created in isolation or updated at different times without review, gaps and contradictions can create confusion, delay, and conflict.
We commonly see situations where a client has a well-drafted trust, but key accounts are still titled in their individual name with no reference to the trust. In that case, those accounts may still need to go through probate, partly defeating the purpose of the trust. In other cases, a power of attorney is missing or out of date, leaving no clear authority for someone to manage finances if the client becomes incapacitated. Families end up scrambling in probate court for guardianship just to pay bills or handle basic matters.
There is also the practical side. Heirs may not know where documents are stored, which attorney drafted them, or what the deceased person really intended regarding personal belongings or family property. This uncertainty can add months of searching and guessing to an already emotional time. Simple steps, such as keeping an updated list of assets and accounts, confirming how each is titled, and telling at least one trusted person where documents are kept, can dramatically smooth the process.
At Lovett & House Co., LPA, we treat estate planning as a coordinated process. When we review a Dayton resident’s plan, we look not only at the language in each document, but also at how titles and beneficiaries line up with that language. We talk through who will actually step into key roles, such as executor, trustee, or agent under a power of attorney, and make sure those people understand the basics. The goal is a plan that works in real life, not just on paper.
If you are unsure whether your documents are aligned, one useful exercise is to walk through a hypothetical. If you died tomorrow, which assets would go through probate, which would pass by beneficiary designation, and who would be in charge at each step? If you cannot answer those questions confidently, that is a sign your plan may be uncoordinated and would benefit from a structured review.
How Dayton Families Can Avoid These Inheritance Planning Mistakes
The inheritance planning mistakes we see in Dayton and across the Miami Valley rarely come from bad intentions. They come from everyday decisions, like leaving an old will in place, never revisiting beneficiary forms, putting a child on an account for convenience, or avoiding tough conversations about nursing home care and blended families. The good news is that these are fixable problems once you see where they tend to hide.
A practical way to start is with a short checklist. Gather copies of your will, any trusts, powers of attorney, and living will. List your major assets, including bank and investment accounts, retirement plans, life insurance, and real estate, and note who is on the title or listed as beneficiary for each. Write down major life changes since you last updated your documents, such as marriages, divorces, births, deaths, and significant health changes. This simple exercise often reveals mismatches before they become crises in probate.
From there, a focused estate planning review with a firm that understands Ohio law and local probate practice can help you decide what to update, what to retitle, and where a different structure might better protect your family. At Lovett & House Co., LPA, we see our role as guiding Dayton, Miami Valley, and Central and Western Ohio families through these decisions, explaining in plain language how their current setup would play out, and suggesting tailored adjustments.
If you prefer to start by learning more, you can also take advantage of educational opportunities, such as free seminars, to get comfortable with the concepts before making changes. Whether you are reviewing an old will or putting a plan in place for the first time, the most valuable step is moving from assumptions to clarity. A coordinated, up-to-date plan can spare your family from surprises and give you confidence that what you intend today is what will actually happen tomorrow.
Call (937) 909-0770 to schedule a time to review your inheritance plan with Lovett & House Co., LPA.