Mineral Sale vs. Force Pooling vs. Oil and Gas Lease
Determining the best way to monetize minerals is a pivotal decision. Each of these alternatives can have drastically different effects and purposes.
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McCleery Law Firm
Extraordinary Legal Help for Those in Need
McCleery Law Firm was founded by Attorney Greg McCleery shortly after passing the bar, as a solo practice. From the beginning, he focused on setting an extraordinarily high bar for customer service and responsiveness. Under his leadership, the firm embarked on a program of exponential growth, opened six new branch office locations, and brought on experienced legal talent to join the McCleery Law team. He has handled hundreds of family, juvenile, and criminal law cases and worked extensively on oil and gas title research and curative matters for corporate and individual clients. One of his passions is working with local business owners to offer guidance on how to succeed, innovate, and grow their own businesses, and leverage new technology to their advantage. In addition to managing his legal practice, Greg continues to work with local agencies to address issues of domestic violence and to ensure equal access to justice.
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Our Mission
Practicing law requires being willing to fight other people’s battle just as hard as if they were your own. People call us when they are facing problems without easy answers. Whatever it is that they need solved, they’re looking for someone who understands what they’re up against, and can help them through that process, confidently and capably. We begin every day with the mindset that people are depending on us to do our best in their toughest situations. Putting the client’s needs first, using all our skill and energy and creativity to help solve those problems, is how we measure success.
We ask our lawyers to be down to earth, easy to work with, tough advocates in the courtroom, and to always recommend the best option for the client. If we might be able to solve a problem with a five-minute phone call instead of a five-month court case, we’ll let you know about that option. Serving our clients well starts with having attorneys whose heart is in the right place, and we’re proud to work with a team who shares that with one another.
With our main office in New Philadelphia and branches in Akron, Canton, Coshocton, Millersburg, Carrollton, and Cadiz, we are able to serve many communities across eastern Ohio. We also travel to neighboring counties to serve our clients. Our lawyers have experience with a wide range of legal issues, including divorce and family law, criminal law, personal injury, probate, trusts and estate planning, bankruptcy, business planning, and more.
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Disclaimer: As required by the Ohio Supreme Court, please be advised that every case and fact pattern is unique. Prior results do not guarantee the same result in another case.
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Landowner’s Guide to Oil and Gas Leases and Mineral Sales
It is critical for landowners to educate themselves about the lease process. These transactions can have unpredictable consequences.
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Planning Ahead- Early Estate Planning Can Save Time and Money
For many families, estate planning is only something that they tackle as they or their loved ones are nearing the end of their lives. While that’s entirely natural, it results in many people not learning about simple steps they can take to protect their interests in advance – many of which do not require an attorney. Easy Steps to Simplify Estate Planning These are the primary objectives to remember when making your plan 1. Keep as many assets out of probate court as possible, in order to cut down on time and expenses. 2. Make the process easy as possible for family members. 3. Minimize any potential tax ramifications and maximize access to government aid, particularly for long-term nursing care through Medicare. 4. Accomplish all these issues before there is any question of competency or senility that could be raised to complicate an administration. For many of these issues, a quick twenty minute appointment with an attorney can generate most of the documents you need to plan for end of life issues. Item #3 is an issue better suited to another article entirely, but briefly, many people don’t realize that if their estate plan isn’t set up over five years before they might need to use it, they could needlessly lose practically their entire estate to the Medicare program in order to pay for long-term care. That’s where an irrevocable trust may come in handy, even for relatively modest estates. Staying on top of these issues takes very little time or effort, but can save thousands upon thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees, down the line. There are also numerous details that can be handled without attorney assistance at all, which is what we’ll focus on today, with two simple but critical suggestions. Estate Plan Step 1: Transfer on Death Designations Virtually every major asset – your home, your checking account, your retirement accounts, insurance policies, your car – can be automatically transferred on death if you set up the right documentation. These automatic transfers, sometimes called Payable on Death, skip probate entirely, saving a substantial amount of time and money. Checking accounts, retirement accounts, and insurance policies are usually very simple to set up, and require simply designating joint owners or beneficiaries. This is very commonly done. A simple form through the BMV can transfer ownership of your car without probate Very few people however are aware that they can also set this up for vehicles that they own, including watercraft and outboard motor vehicles. Before you plan your next trip to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, you can track down a “form BMC 3811” with the BMV, have the form notarized, and then return it to your local BMV. To complete the transfer with the BMV, any heirs will need to bring the original Ohio title for the vehicle, a certified copy of the death certificate, an application for Certificate of Title (form BMV 3774), an identification card, and payment for title fees. This is one of the most common items that people miss, and not infrequently requires either instructions or action from an attorney on how to address this issue. Another major item that is often missed is real estate. For married couples or sometimes for people buying property jointly, the most common type of deed used by most attorneys is a survivorship deed. This transfers the property automatically to their spouse, upon death. However, after the spouse’s death, or if you don’t have a survivorship deed, additional action may be necessary. Although there are a variety of strategies on how to handle this, one of the most common is a Transfer on Death Affidavit. Because these are put on record in the recorder’s office, they typically require an attorney’s assistance to do properly. When properly executed, they allow you to continue to own the property until your death, and to revoke the affidavit if you so choose. Upon death, they fast-track the process of conveying the property to your designated heir or assign. Ideally, with good planning, virtually all of an estate’s assets aside from personal property items can be dealt with in advance, greatly reducing the cost of work needed to be done to close an estate. Keeping organized records dramatically simplifies estate management for heirs Estate Plan Step 2: Keep Good Records, and Keep Them in the Right Place One of the most arduous and time-consuming aspects of administering an estate can be having to research what a person owned at the time of their death, and gaining access to all their accounts and records. However, if those documents are securely stored, and well-organized in a single place that your loved ones are aware of or can easily find, that can save an incredible amount of effort. The container you select should also be securely locked, and fire-proof. Ideally, these materials should be kept in clearly labeled folders or binders, for ease of use and updating as necessary. Your executor should be given access to a key or at a minimum, knowledge of where the key is stored. When dealing with the emotions and other difficulties that can come with losing a loved one, sometimes unexpectedly, the last thing that most families wish to take on is a weeks-long scavenger hunt for financial information. You should make a list of all the information that should be stored, that your executor may need to have access to. That list should be included in the lockbox as well. Some of the documents that may be relevant to include are: · Password preservation worksheet – Consider whether a password preservation worksheet and/or security answer worksheet is right for your situation. Your password-protected information may be very sensitive and financially valuable, so you should think carefully about which, if any, passwords you are comfortable recording in writing, even in a secured location. Should you choose to do so, we recommend that you never store or transmit this password information in any electronic format, due to the risk of...
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