Make your own Ohio will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Document generation isn’t currently available in Ohio while we review its rules for online legal document services. The signing requirements below still apply.
Document generation isn’t currently available in Ohio.
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. Choose witnesses who don't inherit under your will: some states void or reduce a gift to a witness, and the exact Ohio rule is covered below. 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 $15 million in 2026) 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. A child who arrives after you sign, and who isn't named or accounted for in the will, is covered by Ohio law rather than by your wishes. The safest practice is to update your will when your family changes.
Ohio Rev. Code §2107.34: where after making a will a testator has a child born alive, adopts a child, or designates an heir under §2105.15, or where a child or designated heir who was absent and reported dead proves to be alive, and no provision has been made in the will or by settlement for that person or that person's issue, the will is not revoked. Unless it appears by the will that the testator intended to disinherit the pretermitted child or heir, the devises and legacies granted by the will, except those to a surviving spouse, abate proportionately, or in any other manner necessary to give effect to the testator's intention as shown by the will, so that the pretermitted child or heir receives a share equal to what that person would have taken out of the estate had the testator died intestate with no surviving spouse, owning only the portion of the estate not devised or bequeathed to or for the use and benefit of a surviving spouse. If the pretermitted child or heir dies before the testator, that person's issue take the share the parent would have received (§2107.34(A)). Where a pretermitted child or heir supposed to be dead has lineal descendants for whom the testator did make provision, the other legatees and devisees need not contribute at all: the pretermitted person instead takes the provision made for those lineal descendants, or so much of it as the probate judge thinks equitable, and any portion of the estate an interested party already received by way of advancement counts as part of the estate and is charged to that party (§2107.34(B)). Section 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 clearly provides otherwise, in which case the child must be born within one year and three hundred days of the death; division (C) does not apply to the terms of a testamentary trust. Though measured by Chapter 2105, the share is a testate succession, and the section does not prejudice a fiduciary acting under a power given by the will or the title of innocent purchasers for value (§2107.34(D)).
A spouse you married after signing. Updating the will after marriage avoids relying on whatever Ohio law provides by default.
Ohio has no Uniform Probate Code style omitted-spouse share, and a will executed by an unmarried person is not revoked by a subsequent marriage (Ohio Rev. Code §2107.37), so a spouse married after the will was made takes nothing automatically. The remedy is the election under §2106.01 to take against the will under §2105.06 instead of under it. What that yields is capped: a spouse electing against the will takes not more than one-half of the net estate, or not more than one-third where two or more of the decedent's children or their lineal descendants survive, with the net estate figured before federal and Ohio estate taxes and other apportionable taxes (§2106.01(C)). The election is time-limited and its default runs against the spouse: after the initial appointment of an administrator or executor the probate court issues a citation to the surviving spouse to elect, the election must be made no later than five months from that appointment, the court may allow more time only on a motion filed before the five months run and for good cause, and if the spouse does nothing it is conclusively presumed that the spouse elects to take under the will (§2106.01(E)). Where a will contest or a proceeding for advice is begun within that period, the election may be made within three months after its final disposition if the will is not set aside. Electing against the will accelerates the rest of the estate as though the surviving spouse had predeceased the testator, unless the will expressly says otherwise (§2106.01(D)). A spouse who is the sole devisee and legatee is presumed to elect under the will absent a contrary intention (§2106.01(F)). The mansion-house election under §2106.10 and the $40,000 family allowance under §2106.13 are separate.
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Document generation isn’t currently available in Ohio.