Greene County, OH Probate Information

Ohio's fiduciary duties are statewide and are covered on the Ohio state page. What follows is what Greene County Probate Court adds on top of them in its Local Rules of Practice, amended effective July 1, 2023, and its own checklists, because these are the requirements that get a filing refused or a fiduciary cited here.

Everything you file must be typed, single sided and unstapled. All four of the court's estate checklists carry the same three sentences: all paperwork must be typed and the court will not accept handwritten documents, all filings must be single sided and the court will not accept double-sided originals, and original paperwork must not be stapled. Loc.R. 57.3(A) adds 8.5 by 11 inch paper with no backing and a font no smaller than 10 point and no larger than 12, Loc.R. 57.3(D) explains that staples interfere with the court's document imaging, and Loc.R. 57.3(E) requires irregular items such as certified-mail return cards to be taped to plain letter-size paper, no more than three to a page. Loc.R. 57.3(B) prohibits the use of an electronic /s/ signature on any document filed with the court.

File the contact information form, and keep it current within 30 days. Loc.R. 75.3 requires every applicant and party to file complete contact information at the start of a probate proceeding on GC Form 75.3-A, including a street mailing address rather than a post office box, a daytime telephone number and an email address. Loc.R. 75.3(D) then requires written notice of any change within 30 calendar days by filing an amended GC Form 75.3-A. Loc.R. 75.3(C) makes it your job to configure your devices so the court's emails are not filtered as spam, and says the court is not responsible if you do not receive its email because of your settings. This matters because Loc.R. 57.5(B) makes email the court's preferred way to transmit judgment entries, orders and notices wherever the law does not require another method.

If you are not using a lawyer, file the acknowledgment with your first filings. Loc.R. 75.1(A) permits self-representation, but Loc.R. 75.1(B) holds self-represented people to exactly the same standards as attorneys, and Loc.R. 75.1(C) requires every self-represented person to sign and file a self-representation acknowledgment on GC Form 75.1, with the initial filings, confirming they understand that the court and its deputy clerks are not permitted to give legal advice to anyone in any circumstances. The court's website states the same warning at the top of its probate pages.

Every application needs a proposed entry you prepared. Loc.R. 57.5(A) requires all applications and motions to be accompanied by a proposed entry prepared by the person applying, and allows the court to decline to accept the filing without one. The court's Best Practices note adds that if the entry calls for dates you should propose them rather than leaving blanks for the court, because a court filling in the blank may pick a shorter period than you wanted. In a contested matter the prevailing party prepares and presents the entry within five Court Days after the hearing (Loc.R. 57.5(A)).

Only an Ohio resident can be appointed administrator here, and a nonresident executor has extra conditions. The court's intestate checklist states that only Ohio residents can serve as administrator, and its release checklist requires the applicant for commissioner to be an Ohio resident, citing R.C. 2109.01 and R.C. 2109.21. A nonresident executor or testamentary trustee must be represented by an attorney licensed and in good standing in Ohio and must satisfy one of the three Loc.R. 60.4(B) conditions: a substantial portion of the intangible personal property deposited in a custodial account at a financial institution located in Greene County under R.C. 2109.13, with a verification of receipt and deposit on GC Form 60.4-C filed no later than the inventory; an Ohio-resident co-fiduciary named as an alternate or successor in the instrument serving alongside; or a bond under R.C. 2109.04 even where the instrument waives bond. The supplemental application is GC Form 60.4-A with entry GC Form 60.4-B, and the Loc.R. 60.4(C) exception for a nonresident executor who is also a residual beneficiary runs on GC Forms 60.4-D, 60.4-E and 60.4-F.

Put real value estimates on the application. Loc.R. 60.3(C)(1) requires the application for authority to administer to contain a good faith estimate of the value of the estate assets, and the court will not accept an application whose estimates are blank, entered as $0.00, stated as unknown or otherwise show no positive value. Exact figures are not required, only good faith estimates, and the exception is narrow: a fiduciary appointed solely for a limited purpose with no known probate assets to administer, such as pursuing a wrongful death claim, files a notice of appointment for limited purpose on GC Form 60.3-A instead. The court's own guidance is that if the values are genuinely unknown you should consider the Loc.R. 60.1 investigative administrator procedure first.

Accounts must be itemized, and a zero account is not allowed. Loc.R. 64.2(G) sets out the court's preferred itemization of Form 13.1 receipts and disbursements, categorized to match the recapitulation on page 2 of Form 13.0. Loc.R. 64.2(E) prohibits a partial account showing zero receipts and zero disbursements without advance court authority, and requires every loan, advance or payment a third party, including the fiduciary personally, makes to or for the estate to be itemized as a receipt in the period it was made, with matching itemized disbursements. If that is not disclosed on the current account, the fiduciary may not repay the third party without prior court approval. Loc.R. 64.2 also requires a status report on GC Form 64.2-B with each partial account or waiver of partial account, so waiving an account does not excuse the report.

Appraise anything whose value is not readily ascertainable. Loc.R. 61.1 requires the fiduciary to apply, with a proposed entry, for appointment of a suitable, disinterested appraiser where an asset's value is not readily ascertainable. For real estate the court will appoint a licensed agent, broker, auctioneer, credentialed appraiser or real estate loan officer with substantial experience in selling or valuing similar property in Greene County. Anyone who is an heir or beneficiary, or who is related to the decedent, the fiduciary or the fiduciary's attorney by blood, marriage or employment, is disqualified (Loc.R. 61.1(C)), and an appraiser may not buy an asset they appraised, though they may act as the agent or broker on the sale (Loc.R. 61.1(D)).

Watch the two local deadlines the statutes do not carry. In a release from administration the report of distribution on GC Form 101.1-D is due no later than 90 days from the filing date of the Entry Relieving Estate from Administration, per the court's release checklist. And where Greene County land is being transferred, the certificate of transfer must carry the County Auditor's approval stamp on the legal description before it is filed in Probate Court. Neither appears in the Revised Code, and both are easy to miss if you work from a statewide guide.

Greene County uses two layers of forms and both are mandatory. The first layer is the statewide set: Ohio has one set of Standard Probate Forms prescribed by the Supreme Court of Ohio and used in all 88 counties, published on the Supreme Court's decedent's estate forms page. The Supreme Court's own page says these forms should be filed in the local county court and that the local court may have additional forms that must be filed. Greene County states the same thing in its rules and enforces it: Loc.R. 51.1 provides that where the Supreme Court has prescribed a form for a probate purpose the applicable Supreme Court form must be used and the court will accept no other form in its place, even one that purports to contain the same information.

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 (Waiver of Notice of Probate of Will), Form 2.2 (Notice of Probate of Will), Form 2.3 (Entry Admitting Will to Probate) and Form 2.4 (Certificate of Service of Notice of Probate of Will), 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 4.4 (Notice and Citation of Hearing on Appointment of Fiduciary), 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) and Forms 5.2 to 5.6 for the notice and entry, Form 5.10 (Summary Release From Administration) with Form 5.11 (Entry Granting Summary Release From Administration), 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) and Form 7.0(A), the Form 8 series on the surviving spouse's elective rights, Form 12.0 (Application for Certificate of Transfer) with Form 12.1 (Certificate of Transfer), and Form 13.0 (Fiduciary's Account) with Forms 13.1, 13.2, 13.4, 13.6 (Certificate of Termination), 13.8 and 13.10. Note that the summary-release form is Form 5.10 and the application to relieve an estate from administration is Form 5.0. Confirm the current version on the Supreme Court of Ohio forms page before you file, because form numbering and titles are revised from time to time.

The second layer is Greene County's own GC Form library, and Loc.R. 51.2 makes it just as mandatory: where the court has prescribed a form to implement its rules, that form must be used and no substitute is accepted. Loc.R. 51.3 goes further and refuses for filing any prescribed form, statewide or local, whose furnished text has been altered, with narrow exceptions for adding the word amended or naming the type of accounting; extra information has to go in a separate supplement or memorandum. The GC Forms a decedent's estate is most likely to need are GC Form 75.3-A (Contact Information Form), which every applicant and party files at the start of a case, GC Form 75.1 (Self-Representation Acknowledgment), which an unrepresented person must file with the initial filings, GC Form 60.3-B (Fiduciary Acceptance), which the applicant signs and files with the application, GC Forms 75.2-A, 75.2-B, 75.2-G and 75.2-H on dispensing with a fiduciary's bond, GC Forms 60.4-A to 60.4-F for a nonresident fiduciary, GC Forms 60.1-A to 60.1-F for the investigative administrator procedure, GC Forms 56.1-A and 56.1-B to extend a filing deadline in a decedent's estate, GC Forms 53.3-A and 53.3-B to appear by videoconference, GC Form 57.4-A, the cover page required on a fax filing, GC Form 64.2-B (Status Report), GC Forms 78.2-A, 78.2-B and 78.2-C to transfer a vehicle or watercraft or consent to an alternate distribution of tangible personal property, GC Form 100.1-B (Waiver of Right to Reimbursement), GC Form 100.2-C (Affidavit of Heir or Beneficiary Whereabouts Unknown) and GC Form 101.1-D (Report of Distribution), which closes out a release from administration.

Use the court's checklists as the packing list. Greene County publishes a printable checklist for each estate route, each updated March 1, 2025, on the matching page of its site: full administration with a will, full administration without a will, release of estate from administration, and summary release. Each one opens with the exact filing fee and its add-ons, states the residency and value requirements for that route, and then lists every form and attachment in order, including the conditional items such as the nonresident fiduciary set, the spousal elective-rights set and the vehicle and real-estate transfer paperwork. There are further checklists for supplemental filings, covering the inventory and transfers, accounts and waivers and certificates of termination, extended administration and extensions of time, attorney and fiduciary fees, and newly discovered assets and reopening an estate.

Ohio splits probate costs in two. Most fee items are set statewide by statute in R.C. 2101.16(A), and on top of them R.C. 2101.16(E) lets a probate court require an advance deposit for costs of up to $125.00 by local rule, with optional computerization and dispute-resolution charges under R.C. 2101.162 and R.C. 2101.163. Greene County Probate Court is a clear exception to the usual Ohio pattern: it takes no cost deposit at all. Its fee page states that all filing fees are on a pay only for what you file basis and that the court does not hold costs on deposit, and Loc.R. 58.1(B) requires advanced payment of the full amount of costs anticipated in the proceeding being filed, with anything filed later charged and paid when it is filed. Costs must be paid in the exact amount stated on the court's website, and the court will not accept a document for filing or perform a service until the amount due is paid in full (Loc.R. 58.1(A) and (B)). The figures below are the court's own, effective March 1, 2025, and each carries its source.

Greene County Probate Court fixes several of its own intervals in its Local Rules of Practice, amended effective July 1, 2023, and publishes its hearing days, which makes a Greene County estate more schedulable than most in Ohio. The court publishes no filing-to-hearing wait and no counter wait, so the sequence below uses only the deadlines, notice periods and hearing days its own rules and checklists set, alongside the statutory ones.

1. Hearings sit on three days a week. The court conducts hearings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and reserves Monday and Friday for other court business, making exceptions only to meet a statutory time limit or a true emergency (Loc.R. 53.3). Hearings are scheduled back to back and start promptly, and every participant checks in at the front desk no later than five minutes before the scheduled time (Loc.R. 53.3(A) and (B)).
2. To appear remotely, apply at least five days ahead. A party who wants to appear by videoconference applies on GC Form 53.3-A with a proposed entry on GC Form 53.3-B no later than five days before the scheduled event (Loc.R. 53.3(C)). Telephone is allowed only where videoconference is impracticable, and no remote appearance is permitted at a citation hearing (Loc.R. 53.3(D)).
3. Investigative administrator: 90 calendar days, with no extensions. Where the court appoints an investigative administrator under Loc.R. 60.1, that authority terminates automatically on the earlier of 90 calendar days after the entry appointing the investigator or the issuance of letters, an entry releasing the estate from administration or an order granting summary release, and Loc.R. 60.1(G) states that the court will grant no extensions. Notice of the appointment goes out by regular mail on GC Form 60.1-E within seven calendar days of appointment (Loc.R. 60.1(D)).
4. Inventory: within three months of appointment. The fiduciary files the inventory of Ohio real property and the personal property to be administered within three months after appointment unless the court extends the time for good cause shown (R.C. 2115.02), on Form 6.0 with Form 6.1.
5. Creditor claims: six months from the date of death. The window runs from death rather than from appointment or any publication, and a claim not presented within it is forever barred (R.C. 2117.06), subject to the Medicaid estate recovery exception in R.C. 2117.061(D).
6. Report of distribution in a release from administration: 90 days. The court's release checklist sets the report of distribution on GC Form 101.1-D no later than 90 days from the filing date of the Entry Relieving Estate from Administration, and requires the report to match that entry, so changed asset values mean amending both the assets and liabilities form and the entry.
7. Final account or certificate of termination: six months from appointment, and it cannot be waived. Loc.R. 64.2(A) tracks R.C. 2109.301 and adds that this account cannot be waived under any circumstances.
8. To extend the administration, act before the six months run out. If the estate qualifies under one of the circumstances in R.C. 2109.301(B)(1)(a) to (e), file the Notice to Extend Administration on Form 13.10 no later than the day the initial six-month period expires; the extension is automatic and needs no court approval (Loc.R. 64.2(B)(1)). If it does not qualify, file the Application to Extend Administration on Form 13.8 at least five Court Days before the period expires, and expect to establish by clear and convincing evidence that material circumstances beyond the fiduciary's and the attorney's anticipation and control prevented closing the estate (Loc.R. 64.2(B)(2)).
9. First account after a valid extension: 13 months from appointment. Where a notice is filed or an application is approved, the first account or certificate of termination is due no later than 13 months after appointment, and where an application is denied the final and distributive account is due within 60 calendar days after the initial six-month period expires (Loc.R. 64.2(B)(3)). Filing a partial account early does not extend anything.
10. An unsold house is not automatically a reason to extend. Absent exceptional circumstances, Loc.R. 64.2(B)(2) provides that an inability to sell real estate is not valid grounds for extending the administration unless the fiduciary shows the property has been actively listed for sale for at least 45 consecutive calendar days immediately before the application is filed.
11. Later accounts run annually from the 13-month anniversary. After the first partial account, an account is filed annually on or before the anniversary of the thirteenth month after appointment, each numbered on its first page, and later partial accounts may be waived in the manner R.C. 2109.301(A) allows unless the court orders an actual accounting. Waiving a partial account does not waive the annual status report (Loc.R. 64.2(D)).
12. Other extensions of time: five Court Days ahead, on the local form. Any application to extend a filing deadline in a decedent's estate uses GC Form 56.1-A with the entry GC Form 56.1-B and must be filed at least five Court Days before the actual due date (Loc.R. 56.1).
13. Records requests: allow one to two Court Days. A certified, authenticated or exemplified copy must be requested at least one Court Day in advance and paid for before it is made, and a closed file has to be retrieved from off site, for which the deputy clerks need at least two Court Days notice (Loc.R. 55.1(A) and (D)).

Page last reviewed: July 2026.