Chad Baker, ESQ.

Chad Baker is a board-certified specialist in Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law (certified by the Ohio State Bar Association). He provides integrated wealth planning, business transition, and professional trustee services for affluent families, and he advises several public charities and private foundations.

Chad spent the first 20 years of his practice in large law firms, including five years serving on management committees. Although Chad found those experiences rewarding, he decided to start Baker Law, Ltd. in 2020 to focus exclusively on estate and business succession planning, probate and trust administration, and professional trustee services.

Chad is a trusted advisor to a select group of families, helping to integrate legal, tax, and investment matters with their family goals and specific circumstances. Building on lessons from early mentors and the skills gained through experience and ongoing study, Chad is a trustee for family trusts and foundations. He finds this role to be one of the most fulfilling and challenging aspects of his legal practice. In this capacity, he provides an exceptional trust experience with highly personalized attention to families and beneficiaries, helping them optimize their financial, intellectual, and social capital.

Working with families to develop and implement their philanthropic goals has motivated Chad to use his expertise to assist several large private foundations and public charities in navigating the complexities of laws regulating tax-exempt organizations and planned giving.

Bar Admissions


Ohio
Michigan
Florida
New York
United States Tax Court

Education


University of Toledo College of Law-JD
Ohio University-BSBA, Economics

Representative Matters

  • Designing and implementing multi-generational trusts to optimize the use of the Generation-Skipping Transfer (GST) Tax Exemption and create leveraged multi-generational wealth creation
  • Working with families to thoughtfully design and integrate distribution guidelines in trust agreements so that family wealth enhances the life of beneficiaries and the community rather than provide a destructive resource
  • Assisting owners of closely held businesses design and implement effective transition plans
  • Designing and implementing buy-sell agreements for closely held and family-led businesses
  • Judicial and Non-Judicial modifications of irrevocable trusts to optimize tax outcomes
  • Designing and implementing “defective” grantor trusts providing enhanced estate and GST tax benefits
  • Designing and implementing estate plans incorporating assets in multiple states
  • Planning for family vacation properties
  • Assisting families in making law and state domicile decisions for trusts and personal tax benefits
  • Establishing private foundations and other charitable gifting strategies to develop and implement family philanthropy
  • Coordinating assets and investment policies to optimize outcomes for multiple trust structures
  • Serving as a trustee for several families, effectively integrating their family wealth management and responsible for making distributions to beneficiaries consistent with trust terms and applicable law; selection and monitoring of investment advisors; coordination of asset custody; tax planning and return preparation; collecting income and payment of expenses consistent with principal and income accounting standards; bill payments on behalf of beneficiaries; and counseling beneficiaries on the positive benefits provided by trusts
  • Serving as a trusted advisor to family trusts
  • Serving as a director for several private foundations

Awards and Other Recognition

  • Board Certified Specialist, Estate Planning Trust and Probate Law (Ohio State Bar Association)
  • AV® (Preeminent) Rating by Martindale Hubbell
  • Twice awarded Toledo Tax Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers in America®
  • Listed in Best Lawyers in America® for both Tax (since 2013) and Trusts & Estates (since 2012)
  • Recipient of the 20 Under 40 award for outstanding professional and community achievement under 40 years old
  • Listed in Toledo Business Journal “Who’s Who in Toledo Law” for Estate Planning
  • Former adjunct professor of law at the University of Toledo College of Law teaching courses in Trusts & Estates, Estate Planning, and the Law of Tax-Exempt Charitable Organizations

Memberships and Activities

  • Council Member, Ohio State Bar Association Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law Section
  • Former Director, Toledo Estate Planning Council
  • American Bar Association Section on Real Property, Probate, and Trust
  • Florida Bar Association Real Property, Probate, and Trust Section
  • Former Director, Harbor Behavioral Healthcare
  • Former Director, American Red Cross, Northwest Ohio
  • Former President/Trustee, Maumee Schools Foundation
  • Former Member Board of Trustees, Toledo Opera
  • Former President, Harbor Foundation
  • Elder and former member of Session, First Presbyterian Church of Maumee

Articles and Presentations

  • “Gift-Splitting for Transfers to Trusts” Trusts & Estates, June 2024 Issue
  • “Till Death Do Us Part…Or Not: Unintended Consequences of SLATs” Probate Law Journal of Ohio, March/April 2021 (co-authored with Ed Morrow, Esq.).
  • Moderator: Planned Giving Panel Discussion, Project 419: The Event for Estate and Financial Planners, May 19, 2016 (Panel discussion with Brian Kennedy, Director, President & CEO of the Toledo Museum of Art, Keith Burwell, President of the Toledo Community Foundation, and L. Paul Hood, Jr., Director of Planned Giving, The University of Toledo (www.project419toledo.com).
  • “Tax and Non-Tax Pitfalls of Charitable Giving” CLE presentation sponsored by the Sandusky County Communities Foundation, November 17, 2015.
  • “What’s My Role? Responsibilities of a Non-Profit Board Member” CLE presentation sponsored by the Defiance County Community Foundation, October 28, 2015.
  • “DING! Has the Opening Bell Sounded for Ohio Incomplete Non-grantor Trusts?” Presentation at the Third Annual Great Lakes Asset Protection Institute, April 17, 2015.
  • “What’s My Role? Responsibilities of a Non-Profit Board Member” CLE presentation sponsored by the Sandusky County Communities Foundation, November, 2014.
  • “DING! Has the Opening Bell Sounded for Ohio Incomplete Non-Grantor Trusts?-Part Two.” Probate Law Journal of Ohio, November 2013 Issue.
  • “DING! Has the Opening Bell Sounded for Ohio Incomplete Non-Grantor Trusts?-Part Two.” Probate Law Journal of Ohio, September 2013 Issue.
  • “Second Life for Lifetime QTIPs in Ohio.” Probate Law Journal of Ohio, July 2013
  • “Ohio Estate Tax Repeal: The End or Just the Beginning? Unlocking Opportunities After Repeal.” Probate Law Journal of Ohio, November/December 2011 Issue.
  • “Ohio Estate Tax Repeal: The End or Just the Beginning? Unlocking Opportunities After Repeal.” Presentation at the Pliskin Advanced Probate and Estate Planning Conference, September 16, 2011.
  • “Political Activities and Tax Exempt Organizations,” Daily Tax Report, Bureau of National Affairs (BNA), July 7, 2011.
  • “The Transition Game: Getting it Right.” Succeeding Generations, publication of the University of Toledo Center for Family and Privately Held Business, March 2011.
  • “Duties and Obligations of Nonprofit Directors” Leadership Toledo, January, 2011.
  • “Basic Tax Considerations in Estate Planning” Shumaker Alliance CLE, June, 2010.
  • “Basic Tax Considerations in Estate Planning” NBI, May, 2010.
  • “Directed Trusts: Rights, Powers and Duties of Trust Advisors and Trustees’” Toledo Estate Planning Council, February, 2010, Findlay Estate Planning Council, March, 2010.
  • Organizational and Operational Structures of Non-Profit Organizations,” Northwest Ohio Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals,” February, 2010.
  • “Using Irrevocable Trusts in Business Acquisitions,” Van Wert Community Foundation CLE Event, 2009.
  • “Marital Deduction and Credit Shelter Funding” CLE Article and Presentation.
  • “Chapter 14 Estate Freezes” CLE Article and Presentation.
  • “Types of Trusts” CLE Article and Presentation, August 15, 2006.
  • “The Logistics of Funding the Trust” CLE Article and Presentation, August 15, 2006.
  • ”Life Estates in Real Property: A Trap for the Unwary?” Probate Law Journal of Ohio, July/August 2003 (co-author with Dennis P. Williams, Esq.)
  • “Ethical Issues in Dealing with the Potentially Incapacitated Client,” OSBA CLE Presentation, 2002.
  • “Estate Planning Overview,” Ohio State Teachers Retirement System, 2002.
  • “Introduction to Trust Drafting,” Toledo Bar Association, CLE, 2001.
  • “Basic Estate Planning – Get What You Need, Protecting Yourself From Predators,” Ohio Attorney General and the Area Office on Aging, 2001.