FRAUD ALERT: Avoid Tax Return Scams!

By Joseph E. Balmer   |   March 4th, 2017

Fraudulent tax return preparers are back!

Tips On How To Avoid Fraudulent Tax Preparers

With this being tax season, the Federal Justice Department urges the public to look out for and avoid fraudulent tax preparers who illegally swindle both their clients and the federal treasury.  Below are some tips that may seem obvious and others that may not seem so obvious.

  1. Look for a PTIN.  The IRS requires that all paid tax preparers register with the IRS and obtain a preparer tax identification number (PTIN).
  2. Never allow your refund to be deposited directly into a tax preparer’s bank account.  Courts have barred such a practice.
  3. Never sign a blank return or a return without fully reading it from beginning to end first.
  4. Never allow your tax preparer to mischaracterize expenses.  By this, I mean that you should never allow personal purchases to be wrongly characterized as deductible expenses.
  5. Never allow your tax preparer to fabricate expenses or deductions.  
… View Full Article → “FRAUD ALERT: Avoid Tax Return Scams!”

Reflections About My Impending Retirement From The Practice of Law…

By Anne Shale   |   February 25th, 2017

FROM EVERYONE AT HOLZFASTER, CECIL, McKNIGHT & MUES: Anne, throughout your legal practice you have always exemplified the highest standard of competence, professional and civility in in your dealings with clients, staff, Courts and other lawyers. We will ALL miss you as will the entire domestic relations bar! Please stay in touch as you transition into retirement!

To become organized and prepared to write this Ohio Family Blog Article, I spent some time reflecting upon my entire life and determined it would be more clear to the reader if I described the four (4) stages of my life. They are as follows:

Stage 1 – Growing Up and Being a Student:  The first stage of my life encompassed the ages of birth through graduation from college in 1967. I was a student during most years of Stage 1. I was very fortunate to be raised by an intact family. My parents loved and adored one another and they loved and cherished the four (4) of us.… View Full Article → “Reflections About My Impending Retirement From The Practice of Law…”

Dissolution In Ohio: Can Parties Request Conciliation and Mediation Services?

By Robert "Chip" Mues   |   February 18th, 2017

Dissolution In Ohio: The Conciliation Process in Warren and Montgomery County Explained. How A Dissolution Can End Up In Mediation

This was a novel question that was recently asked me by a client a week or so before their scheduled final dissolution hearing. Conciliation proceedings are not all that common even in divorce actions.  I asked my paralegal, Robin Lovins, to investigate the answer for me.  That answer was interesting I thought. Always looking for a new blog article topic, I asked Robin to help incorporate that information into a blog article about dissolution. Here it is:

Section 3117.05 of the Ohio Revised Code states that “Prior to or during pendency of any action for divorce, annulment, or legal separation, one or both spouses may file in the court of common pleas a petition for conciliation…”. The question becomes: Does conciliation apply in dissolution cases? Although it is unusual for parties participating in a dissolution proceeding to request a conciliation through the courts, if a petition is filed, the courts will accept it.… View Full Article → “Dissolution In Ohio: Can Parties Request Conciliation and Mediation Services?”

Grandparents Active with Their Grandkids May Live Longer According to This New Study!

By Robert "Chip" Mues   |   February 11th, 2017

Can Grandparents Live Longer Simply By Caring For Their Grandchildren? Study Says…

Grandparents who help out with childcare or provide support to others in their community tend to live longer than seniors who do not care for other people, according to a study from Berlin, Germany. While having full-time custody of grandchildren can have a negative effect on health, occasional helping can be beneficial for seniors.

An international research team has found that grandparents who care for their grandchildren on average live longer than grandparents who do not. The researchers conducted survival analyses of over 500 people aged between 70 and 103 years, drawing on data from the Berlin Aging Study collected between 1990 and 2009.

In contrast to most previous studies on the topic, these researchers deliberately did not include grandparents who were primary or custodial caregivers. Instead, they compared grandparents who provided occasional childcare with grandparents who did not, as well as with older adults who did not have children or grandchildren but who provided care for others in their social network.… View Full Article → “Grandparents Active with Their Grandkids May Live Longer According to This New Study!”

Estate Planning in Ohio ALERT: Is My Trust Still Appropriate?

By Joseph E. Balmer   |   January 28th, 2017

Estate Planning And The Revocable Living Trust

A perfect example of the benefits of reviewing your estate planning documents on, at least, an occasional level, can be seen with the marital revocable living trust, also sometimes known as an “A-B” trust.  Should you have such a document, and if it was prepared long ago and never updated, it is probably set up to accomplish exactly the OPPOSITE of what you want it to do.

There are many types of trusts.  There are many reasons to set up a trust.  With a married couple, the most common type of trust is a marital revocable living trust.  Historically, the main purpose of this type of trust was to avoid the probate process at death and to maximize estate tax savings.  Prior to the year 2000, all assets passing to a surviving spouse were exempt from estate taxes.  However, for assets not passing to a surviving spouse, the maximum estate tax exemption for Ohio estate taxes was $25,000 and the maximum estate tax exemption for federal taxes was $600,000.  … View Full Article → “Estate Planning in Ohio ALERT: Is My Trust Still Appropriate?”

LGT Parent: What Impact Does It Have On a Child?

By Robert "Chip" Mues   |   January 21st, 2017

“‘Not a big deal’? exploring the accounts of adult children of lesbian, gay and trans parents (LGT)”

A recent article in Psychology & Sexuality, studied the effects that having an LGT (lesbian, gay, transexual) parent has on adult children.  Because most research to date has centered on younger children and their well-being at the time, the authors of the article wanted to look at how these children feel now that they are adults and have families of their own. Entitled, “‘Not a big deal’? exploring the accounts of adult children of lesbian, gay and trans parents,” authors Victoria Clarke and Eleni Demetriou surveyed 14 adults.  Thirteen of the subjects were born to a heterosexual couple where one partner was later outed as gay, lesbian or trans.

In their research, the authors hoped to learn what impacts, if any, these children who were now adults, experienced during their formative years.  The participants included 13 women and 1 man who ranged in age from 21 to 60 and completed on-line questionnaires in lieu of in-person interviews.… View Full Article → “LGT Parent: What Impact Does It Have On a Child?”

Child Custody Evaluations: Helpful or Harmful?

By Robert "Chip" Mues   |   January 7th, 2017

Child Custody Evaluations Tool Under Fire

Divorces can be messy – potentially even more so when children are involved.  Emotions run high and often cause rational thinking and behavior to be thrown out the window.  Because of this, the court system has different “tools” to help it determine what is in the best interest of the children when custody is at stake.

One such tool is a child custody evaluation.  These evaluations are typically conducted by a mental health provider who give the court a recommendation regarding where the children should live, parenting time, and basically an overall picture of the family dynamic as it relates to the custody case.

In theory, these evaluations should help both the parties involved and the court.  However, a recent study seems to show otherwise.

In an article published in Court Review, Dr. Ira Daniel Turkat, a licensed psychologist and family law litigation specialist, conducted what he claims to be the first known quantitative study on the detrimental effects of child custody evaluations.… View Full Article → “Child Custody Evaluations: Helpful or Harmful?”

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