Make your own Ohio will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Legally valid in Ohio. Free to create, or add secure online document storage with the $29/year subscription.
Is a self-written will legal in Ohio?
Yes. Ohio recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is Ohio Rev. Code §2107.01 et seq..
Your will needs to be in writing, signed by you, and witnessed by 2 adults. You don't need a notary in Ohio.
You must be at least 18 years old and of sound mind. Witnesses cannot be people who inherit under your will (or in some states, the spouse of a person who inherits). This tool walks you through the rules so you don't trip over them.
A will you write yourself has the same legal force as one drafted by an attorney, provided you follow the signing rules. Courts admit self-written wills to probate every day. An attorney's value is in advising on complex estates, not in drafting the document itself.
What it costs to make a will in Ohio
A Ohio estate-planning attorney typically charges $300 to $600 for a simple will, and $1,000 to $1,500 for a will-plus-revocable-trust package. Rates run higher in dense metros and lower in rural areas. Most attorneys bill at $250 to $400 per hour and need one or two meetings to draft a basic will.
You can also write a will entirely from scratch with a sheet of paper and a pen, with no software at all. Ohio requires the same 2-witness signing process regardless of who drafts the document. The risk with a from-scratch will is technical: a missing self-proving affidavit, a witness who's also a beneficiary, or wording that creates ambiguity for the probate court. That's what this tool prevents.
Will.com is free at the document level. The $29/year subscription adds cloud-stored, zero-knowledge-encrypted access so you can edit and update your plan as life changes.
Ohio will requirements at a glance
How it works
- 1
Answer a few questions
About you, your family, and what you own.
- 2
Download your will
A complete, personalized document, formatted for Ohio courts.
- 3
Sign with witnesses
Print and sign in front of 2 adult witnesses. Keep the signed copy somewhere safe.
When you might want an attorney instead
An online will works for most people. It's the right tool when your situation is straightforward: you want to leave your assets to family or friends, you don't have complex tax issues, and you're not anticipating a fight over your estate.
Consider hiring an attorney if any of these apply:
- Your estate is large enough to trigger federal estate tax (over $13.99 million in 2025) or Ohio estate or inheritance tax.
- You own a business, complex investments, or assets in multiple states or countries.
- You're in a blended family, especially if you want to leave assets to a current spouse while protecting children from a prior relationship.
- You have a child or beneficiary with special needs and want a supplemental-needs trust that won't disqualify them from public benefits.
- You expect someone to contest the will, or you're disinheriting a close family member.
- You have substantial retirement accounts and want sophisticated beneficiary planning.
If none of these apply, an online will is genuinely fine. The legal validity of your will doesn't depend on who drafted it, only on whether Ohio's signing rules were followed.
Who can witness your will in Ohio
Each witness must be eighteen (18) years of age or older (Ohio Rev. Code §2107.06); a devise or bequest to a person who is one of only two witnesses is void under §2107.15, although the witness may recover up to the intestate share, with other beneficiaries contributing as for an after-born child under §2107.34. Adding a third disinterested witness preserves the gift
Family changes after you sign
A child born or adopted after the will. Ohio has a default rule under Ohio Rev. Code §2107.34: when a testator has a child born or adopted after the will (or designates an heir under §2105.15) and the will makes no provision for the omitted child or heir and contains no evidence of intent to disinherit, the omitted child or heir receives an intestate share, with devises and legacies abating proportionately; §2107.34(C) bars any person born more than three hundred days after the testator's date of death from inheriting under the will unless the will expressly provides otherwise, in which case the child must be born within one year and three hundred days from the date of death for an after-born child who isn't named or accounted for in the will. The safest practice is to update your will when family changes.
A spouse you married after signing. Ohio's default rule for an omitted spouse is at Ohio has no UPC-style omitted-spouse intestate share. Ohio Rev. Code §2107.37 provides that a will executed by an unmarried person is not revoked by a subsequent marriage; the surviving spouse's protections are the elective share (ORC §2106.01), the mansion-house election (ORC §2106.10), and the $40,000 family allowance (ORC §2106.13). Updating the will after marriage avoids relying on the default.
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