It is always questionable whether or not you should give your money away, even to your children. Giving away all of your money means you will lose your independence. Certainly, the first concern should be for yourself. A person should not give away assets just to avoid probate expenses or estate taxes when his or her standard of living may depend upon access to the assets in the future.
If you give your money to your children now, there would be no guarantee that the money would be available to you in the future. Further, if you held on to your assets, your children would have more of an incentive to continue to provide you with the love, affection and attention you deserve.
People sometimes embrace a gift program when they desire to reduce their estate assets to reduce their estate taxes. Some people also give away their assets because they face the prospect of spending the rest of their life in a nursing home and they desire to have "medicaid" pay for the nursing home expense. If you do make gifts, keep in mind that the current Federal annual gift exclusion (for 2014) is $14,000 per donee, per year. The annual exemption had been $13,000 per person from 2009 through 2012, and increased to $14,000 per person in 2013. The gift must be of a present interest in property, such as cash. If a spouse joins with his or her spouse in splitting the gift, they will be able to increase the $14,000 to $28,000 per donee, per year.
Ohio does not have a gift tax per se. Gifts made within three years of death may be deemed, however, to have been made in contemplation of death and therefore, taxed as an estate asset for Ohio estate tax purposes. However, unlike the annual $14,000 Federal gift exclusion, Ohio had a $10,000 exclusion per year, per donee for those gifts made within three years of death. Now that Ohio has repealed its estate tax, it also effectively repealed any "gift" tax.