Overview

Practice Areas

Ralph has over three decades of experience advising clients on estate planning, business succession, and transfer tax issues.

He has extensive experience in trust administrations, both as counsel to trustees and as a fiduciary, and handled numerous probate estates over the years. Ralph prepares estate plans for clients with diverse planning needs and manages matters from modest portfolios to complex estates valued in the hundreds of millions.

Practice Areas

Representative Experience

  • Serving as co-trustee and legal counsel for irrevocable trusts with an aggregate fair market value in excess of $300 million.
  • Provided counsel to clients and prepared documents for a $70 million bequest to The Cleveland Foundation, to be used for charities in Northeast Ohio.
  • Represented numerous probate estates throughout different counties in Northeast Ohio ranging in size from less than $35,000 to up to $16 million.
  • Prepared and handled the audit for federal and Ohio estate tax returns with values of up to $62 million.

Education & Admissions

Education

  • University of Notre Dame, J.D., cum laude, 1980
  • University of Notre Dame, B.B.A., magna cum laude, 1977

Bar and Court Admissions

  • State of Ohio

Involvement

Professional Affiliations

  • American Bar Association, Member
  • Ohio State Bar Association, Member
  • Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, Member

Community Involvement

  • Court Community Service, Trustee
  • The Cyrus Eaton Foundation, Trustee
  • The Arthur L. Parker Foundation, Trustee
  • The LaRue Foundation, Trustee
  • University Hospitals, Diamond Advisory Group, Member
  • Magnificat High School, Member of Board of Directors (2008 – 2016)
  • Lakewood Catholic Academy, Member of Board of Directors (2011 – 2018)

Firm Involvement

  • Frantz Ward, Founding Partner

Awards & Honors

  • Awarded the Distinguished Advisor Award by Diamond Advisory Group of University Hospitals (2020)
  • Named to The Best Lawyers in America® in Trusts and Estates (2021 – Present)
  • Recipient of Estate Planning Lawyer of the Year in Ohio as awarded by the International Advisory Experts (2018)
  • Listed as AV Preeminent Peer Review rated by Martindale-Hubbell
  • Named to the Ohio Super Lawyers list (2004, 2006)

Presentations & Lectures

  • “Estate Planning,” Association of Corporate Counsel (August 2019)

 

Representative Experience

  • Serving as co-trustee and legal counsel for irrevocable trusts with an aggregate fair market value in excess of $300 million.
  • Provided counsel to clients and prepared documents for a $70 million bequest to The Cleveland Foundation, to be used for charities in Northeast Ohio.
  • Represented numerous probate estates throughout different counties in Northeast Ohio ranging in size from less than $35,000 to up to $16 million.
  • Prepared and handled the audit for federal and Ohio estate tax returns with values of up to $62 million.

Education & Admissions

Education

  • University of Notre Dame, J.D., cum laude, 1980
  • University of Notre Dame, B.B.A., magna cum laude, 1977

Bar and Court Admissions

  • State of Ohio

Involvement

Professional Affiliations

  • American Bar Association, Member
  • Ohio State Bar Association, Member
  • Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, Member

Community Involvement

  • Court Community Service, Trustee
  • The Cyrus Eaton Foundation, Trustee
  • The Arthur L. Parker Foundation, Trustee
  • The LaRue Foundation, Trustee
  • University Hospitals, Diamond Advisory Group, Member
  • Magnificat High School, Member of Board of Directors (2008 – 2016)
  • Lakewood Catholic Academy, Member of Board of Directors (2011 – 2018)

Firm Involvement

  • Frantz Ward, Founding Partner

Awards & Honors

  • Awarded the Distinguished Advisor Award by Diamond Advisory Group of University Hospitals (2020)
  • Named to The Best Lawyers in America® in Trusts and Estates (2021 – Present)
  • Recipient of Estate Planning Lawyer of the Year in Ohio as awarded by the International Advisory Experts (2018)
  • Listed as AV Preeminent Peer Review rated by Martindale-Hubbell
  • Named to the Ohio Super Lawyers list (2004, 2006)

Presentations & Lectures

  • “Estate Planning,” Association of Corporate Counsel (August 2019)

 

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