Ohio Probate and Intestate Succession: What Happens Without a Will (2026)

Ohio handles probate through a dedicated Probate Court in each of its 88 counties, a specialized division of the Court of Common Pleas. Ohio has not adopted the Uniform Probate Code and instead runs its own release-from-administration system for smaller estates.

Information last verified on 2026-07-16. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

How Probate Works in Ohio

Ohio's Probate Court is a distinct, specialized division of the Court of Common Pleas in each of the state's 88 counties, tracing its constitutional basis to the 1968 Modern Courts Amendment to the Ohio Constitution, Article IV, Section 4, and its statutory jurisdiction to Ohio Revised Code 2101.24. Some counties, including Franklin, Cuyahoga, and Hamilton, brand their probate court with its own separately elected probate judge at the local level, but the underlying jurisdictional structure is the same statewide.

Ohio has not adopted the Uniform Probate Code and does not use the informal-versus-formal distinction found in UPC states. Instead, Ohio runs three tracks of its own. Full estate administration is the standard process: the court appoints an executor or administrator, who then inventories assets and files accounts for court approval, with the probate court retaining ongoing oversight throughout, since Ohio has no separate supervised-versus-unsupervised election the way UPC states do. Release from administration under ORC 2113.03 is available for smaller qualifying estates and lets the court relieve the estate from full administration entirely, covered in detail below. Summary release from administration is a narrower, faster option available when the estate's assets do not exceed the decedent's funeral, burial, and certain other allowed expenses.

Intestate Succession in Ohio: Who Inherits Without a Will

Ohio's intestate succession statute is the statute of descent and distribution, ORC 2105.06, and like North Carolina's, it turns on how many children survive and whether those children are also the surviving spouse's children. If there is no surviving spouse, the estate passes in equal shares to the decedent's children, or to their descendants per stirpes if a child predeceased the decedent. If the decedent leaves a spouse and one or more children, and every one of those children is also a child of the surviving spouse, the entire estate goes to the surviving spouse, no split at all.

The outcome changes once even one surviving child is not also the spouse's child. If the decedent leaves a spouse and exactly one child, or that child's descendants, who is not a child of the surviving spouse, the spouse takes the first $20,000 of the estate plus one-half of the balance, and the child or descendants take the remainder. If the decedent leaves a spouse and two or more children, or their descendants, and at least one of those children is not a child of the surviving spouse, the calculation depends on whether the spouse is a parent of any of the decedent's children at all: the spouse takes the first $60,000 plus one-third of the balance if the spouse is the natural or adoptive parent of at least one of the decedent's children, or only the first $20,000 plus one-third of the balance if the spouse is not the parent of any of the decedent's children. In either version of this scenario, the remainder passes to the children per stirpes.

If no spouse and no descendants survive, the estate passes to the decedent's parents equally, or to the surviving parent if only one survives. If neither parent survives, it passes to the decedent's siblings, whole and half, and their descendants per stirpes, then to grandparents, then to next of kin, and ultimately escheats to the state only if no kindred at all can be found, which is rare in practice.

One way to make sure your property goes to the people you actually choose, rather than following Ohio's intestate succession order, is to have a valid will in place. recordinglaw.com's free Ohio Last Will and Testament Generator can help you create one, with no account required.

Small Estate and Simplified Probate in Ohio

Ohio's release from administration procedure under ORC 2113.03 is available when estate assets are $35,000 or less. That threshold rises to $100,000 or less if either a valid will leaves the decedent's entire estate to the surviving spouse, or the decedent died without a will and the surviving spouse is entitled to the whole estate under ORC 2105.06. To use it, an interested party applies to the probate court, notice goes to the surviving spouse and heirs at law, and by newspaper publication unless that requirement is waived, and if the court is satisfied the estate meets the threshold, it orders the estate released from administration and directs the property delivered or transferred directly to those entitled to it, without the inventory-and-accounting burden of full administration.

Ohio also offers summary release from administration, an even narrower option for estates whose assets do not exceed the decedent's funeral and burial expenses and certain other allowed costs. Both mechanisms exist specifically to keep genuinely small Ohio estates out of full probate, and both can close in a matter of weeks rather than the months a full administration commonly takes.

Does Ohio Have an Estate or Inheritance Tax?

Ohio has no state estate tax; the legislature repealed it effective January 1, 2013, under 2012 House Bill 153, so no Ohio estate tax return or payment is owed for deaths on or after that date. Ohio also has not had a state inheritance tax in the modern era. That leaves the federal estate tax as the only estate or inheritance tax that can apply to an Ohio decedent, and it reaches only the largest estates. For deaths in 2026, the federal basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 per person, confirmed on IRS.gov, following the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.

Do You Need a Probate Attorney?

Many straightforward Ohio estates, particularly ones that qualify for release from administration, are genuinely navigable without hiring a probate attorney. An attorney becomes more valuable once a will is likely to be contested, once the estate includes a business interest, once the family is blended in a way that creates gaps intestate succession does not cover well, or once the estate is large enough to raise a real federal estate tax question. For a fuller look at how probate works generally and how Ohio compares with other states, see Probate by State.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about probate and intestate succession in Ohio as of the verification date above. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. It is not a substitute for advice from a probate attorney licensed in Ohio, particularly for a contested estate, a business interest, a blended family, or an estate large enough to raise federal estate tax questions. Figures, thresholds, and program details change; verify current details directly with the Ohio courts or the relevant statute before relying on any figure here.

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Last updated: 2026-07-16. Figures and statutes cited reflect their in-force version as of 2026-07-16.

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