Adams County, OH Probate Information

Ohio's statewide duties apply here in full: file the inventory within three months (R.C. 2115.02), account within six months of appointment unless an exception applies (R.C. 2109.301), and deal with claims inside the six-month window from the date of death (R.C. 2117.06). Adams County adds a handful of duties on top of them that a first-time executor or administrator will not find in the statewide forms, and the court enforces them with citations.

Keep the court's address book current. Local Rule 413(H) requires every executor, administrator and their attorney to tell the court in writing within 30 days of any change of address or telephone number. Keep the estate's assets where the court can see them: Local Rule 413(E) provides that where the applicant lives outside Adams County, and outside the contiguous Ohio counties, all estate assets shall remain in Adams County, and Local Rule 413(F) applies the same rule, expressly including financial accounts, real estate and vehicles, where the applicant lives outside Ohio, unless the court dispenses with the requirement on motion for good cause. The court may also order intangible property to be held in the joint control of the fiduciary and counsel (Local Rule 413(G)).

Serve documents, not just notices. On filing the inventory the fiduciary must send a copy of the inventory and appraisal itself, as well as the hearing notice, to the next of kin and beneficiaries listed on Form 1.0 unless the court waives it (Local Rule 414(B) and (C)), and at the time any account is filed a copy goes to each heir of an intestate estate and each beneficiary of a testate estate (Local Rule 427(G)). On a final account, notice of the hearing goes to all heirs in an intestate estate, the residuary beneficiaries in a testate estate, counsel of record and, where a will creates a charitable trust, the Ohio Attorney General's Charitable Trusts Division.

Document everything before the account goes in. Local Rule 427 requires copies of all bank statements for the accounting period, vouchers or other proof for every disbursement, the closing statement where real estate was sold, supporting statements for anything still held, and, on a final account, a bank statement showing the estate account at a zero balance. Where an heir or beneficiary is a minor, a guardianship has to be established before any distribution unless the will says otherwise or the distribution is $10,000.00 or less and goes to a custodian under Ohio's Uniform Transfers to Minors Act. If an account is late and no extension was arranged, the court issues a citation compelling both the fiduciary and the attorney to appear, and Local Rule 428 requires the cited fiduciary to appear personally, with sanctions up to removal available.

Two duties belong to counsel but affect the family directly. Local Rule 432(A) makes counsel for the fiduciary responsible for making sure the surviving spouse is properly notified of the spouse's statutory rights and their separate deadlines, and Local Rules 414(A) and 425(C) require counsel to examine record title to the decedent's real estate before the inventory is filed. Local Rule 409(E) also limits who can serve: the court will not appoint co-executors unless the will specifically provides for them, and will not appoint co-administrators in an intestate estate.

Adams County uses two form sets at once, and you need both. Ohio has one set of Standard Probate Forms prescribed by the Supreme Court of Ohio and used in all 88 counties, and Local Rule 401 requires those forms for all filings, allowing attorneys to generate additional pleadings and affidavits where more information has to be presented. On top of them Adams County publishes its own numbered local forms, prefixed AC, and a step-by-step checklist for each estate route: full administration, relief from administration, summary release, ancillary administration, special administration and reopening an estate. Local Rule 003(A) makes the court's website the official source and requires you to check it for the current version before filing, and Local Rule 008(E) lets the court reject a filing that does not include everything the checklist requires. The checklists also tell you to write the county name and the division on every form and give the judge's and the magistrate's names to use, so take those names from the checklist page rather than from an older document.

The load-bearing statewide items for a decedent's estate are Form 1.0 (Surviving Spouse, Children, Next of Kin, Legatees, and Devisees), Form 2.0 (Application to Probate Will) with Form 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 for waiver, notice, the entry admitting the will and the certificate of service, Form 3.0 (Appointment of Appraiser), Form 4.0 (Application for Authority to Administer Estate) with Form 4.2 (Fiduciary's Bond), Form 4.3 (Waiver of Right to Administer) and Form 4.5 (Entry Appointing Fiduciary; Letter of Authority), Form 5.0 (Application to Relieve Estate From Administration) with Form 5.1 (Assets and Liabilities of Estate to be Relieved from Administration), Form 5.10 (Summary Release From Administration) with Form 5.11, Form 6.0 (Inventory and Appraisal) with Form 6.1 (Schedule of Assets), Form 7.0 (Certification of Notice to Administrator of Medicaid Estate Recovery Program) with Form 7.0(A), Form 12.0 (Application for Certificate of Transfer) with Form 12.1, and Form 13.0 (Fiduciary's Account) with Form 13.1 and Form 13.9. Confirm the current version on the Supreme Court of Ohio forms page before you file, because numbering and titles are revised from time to time.

The Adams County forms an estate filer runs into most are Form AC-001 (Notice of Appearance) and Form AC-002 (Waiver of Counsel), both required from any party without an attorney under Local Rule 033(C); Form AC-400 (Affidavit of One and the Same), required where a name varies between the will, the Form 1.0 and the other documents; Form AC-416, the required attachment that has to be sent with any hearing notice in an estate administration; Form AC-407 (Entry Setting Hearing and Ordering Notice); Form AC-419 (Affidavit for Publication, Probate), required for any publication request; Form AC-406 (Application and Entry for Transfer of Titled Property) for a vehicle, watercraft, mobile home, recreational vehicle or trailer; Form AC-420 (Report of Distribution); Form AC-422 (Fiduciary's Acceptance, Estate); Form AC-444 (Certificate of Service of Notice); the Citation Notice, numbered Form AC-402 in the court's form library, although Local Rule 407(B) refers to it as AC-403, a copy of which an attorney must give the fiduciary before filing it; Form AC-011 (Motion and Entry for Appearance by Audio/Video); Form AC-012 (Financial Disclosure and Fee Waiver Affidavit and Order); and Form AC-016 (Certification and Disclosure of Artificial Intelligence Use), which Local Rule 034 requires whenever AI was used to prepare anything submitted to the court. Local Rule 402 also governs computer-generated versions of the statewide forms: the words, sequence and page position must match the standard form, and the court may reject or strike a form that does not.

Adams County is one of the Ohio counties that publishes its own figures, so you do not have to guess, but it publishes them in two places with two different dates and you should work from the later one. Local Rule 400 of the local rules approved February 3, 2026 is the current schedule. The court's separate Fee Schedule web page carries the same estate figures but is headed "Civil Fees, Effective January 1st, 2018", and the two disagree on at least one item outside estates, a change of name at $105.00 on the 2018 page and $155.00 in Local Rule 400. Under Ohio law most of the underlying fee items are statutory: $35.00 to appoint a fiduciary, $15.00 to probate a will, $60.00 to relieve an estate from administration or grant a summary release, $10.00 for an inventory with appraisement, $12.00 for an account and $1.00 per page for certified copies (R.C. 2101.16(A)), with each court allowed to add computerization and dispute-resolution charges (R.C. 2101.162, R.C. 2101.163). Ohio also caps an advance deposit required by local rule at $125.00 (R.C. 2101.16(E)), and Adams County's $125.00 deposits for a full administration and a release from administration sit exactly at that ceiling.

Three practical points sit on top of that table. First, the deposit has to be paid before the court will accept any pleading, and the court's own checklists say so in capitals; outstanding costs from a prior proceeding also block a new filing unless the court approves a Form AC-012 fee waiver (Local Rule 004(C)). Second, the court does not publish a combined total, so the relationship between the Local Rule 400 deposit and the Local Rule 007(B) special projects fee is not stated anywhere: call (937) 544-2921, extension 3, and ask what to bring before you drive to West Union. Third, payment method is narrow. The court accepts cash, debit or credit cards and money orders, and states plainly that personal checks are not accepted.

Two lines that appear both in Local Rule 400 and on the court's Fee Schedule page, a will with a non-taxable return filed at $28.00 and a will with a taxable return filed at $33.00, predate the repeal of Ohio's estate tax and cannot arise for a current death: Ohio has no estate tax and no inheritance tax for deaths on or after January 1, 2013. Ask the court which line applies if you are filing a will for record only. The 2018 page also carries a $25.00 deposit-of-wills fee that Local Rule 400 does not list, which is worth confirming before you deposit a will for safekeeping.

Adams County also publishes an attorney fee guideline, which matters because attorney fees are paid out of the estate and the court approves them. Local Rule 411(I) treats fees calculated on the inventory value plus ordinary income at 5.5 per cent of the first $50,000, 4.5 per cent of the next $50,000, 3.5 per cent above $100,000 up to $400,000 and 2 per cent above $400,000 as rebuttably reasonable, with 6 per cent of the first $10,000 and 2 per cent of the balance on real estate sold by judicial proceedings; no fee application or beneficiary consent is required where the fee is $2,000 or less; counsel must file a dated written fee agreement with the court by the time the inventory is filed and must submit a printout of the court's own attorney fee calculator; and Local Rule 411(N) does not allow fees for travel time incurred only because the attorney's office is outside Adams County or a contiguous county. All figures in this section were read from the court's own rules and fee page in July 2026.

1. Notice of the hearing on an application to administer an estate: at least seven days before the hearing date, served under Civil Rule 73, on the surviving spouse and all next of kin unless waived (Local Rule 413(A)). An applicant named in the will is excused from this notice, and every application is set for hearing before the magistrate unless all waivers have been obtained.
2. Notice of probate of a will: sent by certified mail to everyone listed on Form 1.0 whose address is known, unless waived (Local Rule 410(D)), and, for a death on or after April 8, 2004, sent within two weeks after the will is admitted to probate (the court's own checklist).
3. Certificate of Service of Notice of Probate of Will, Form 2.4: filed no later than two months after the fiduciary's appointment unless the court grants an extension (Local Rule 407(A)); the court's checklist warns that the applicant and the attorney are cited to appear if it is late.
4. Will contest: for a death on or after January 1, 2002, filed within three months after the Certificate of Service of Notice of Probate of Will is filed (the court's own checklist, citing R.C. 2107.71 and R.C. 2107.76). There is no form and the court cannot advise you.
5. Inventory: within three months after appointment unless the court extends the time for good cause (R.C. 2115.02); the court's checklist states the deadline as 90 days. Notice of the hearing on the inventory must be given no less than five days before the hearing unless waived on Form 6.2 (the court's checklist, with Local Rule 414(B)).
6. Publication where an interested party's name or address is unknown: once each week for three consecutive weeks (Local Rule 414(D)). Where the estate has insufficient funds for publication or the court directs posting instead, the notice is posted for three consecutive weeks and service is complete at 4 p.m. on the last day of the third week (Local Rule 431(E) and (F)).
7. Surviving spouse's election to take against the will: within five months from the initial appointment of the executor or administrator, after which the spouse is conclusively presumed to take under the will (R.C. 2106.01(E), Local Rule 432(C)). The court sends the citation to elect by certified mail, and the spouse must appear at the court to elect against the will.
8. Surviving spouse's other rights, per Local Rule 432: an application for the allowance for support should be made within eight months after the fiduciary's appointment (R.C. 2106.13); the right to purchase estate property at the appraised value must be exercised within one month after the court approves the inventory (R.C. 2106.16); and the election to take the mansion house must be made at or before the time the final account is rendered (R.C. 2106.10).
9. Remote appearance request: Form AC-011 filed at least seven days before the hearing, and only for a non-evidentiary hearing (Local Rule 020(D)). In a probate civil action, where Local Rule 406 applies the general division's procedure, a request to present remote testimony under Civil Rule 43 has to be filed thirty days ahead (Local Rule 101(J)).
10. Final and distributive account: within six months after appointment unless a statutory exception applies (R.C. 2109.301). If an estate is not fully administered within two years the magistrate decides whether the court needs to intervene, and any status conference the court sets may be attended by telephone with prior approval (Local Rule 407(D)). A special administrator files an account within 30 days of appointment (Local Rule 427(L)).

Page last reviewed: July 2026.