Ohio Will Signing Requirements: Witnesses, No Notary and No Self-Proving Affidavit

By Rozsa Gyene, California estate planning attorney, State Bar of California #208356. Published October 4, 2026. Last reviewed October 4, 2026.

This guide quotes or closely follows the words of each section of chapter 2107 of the Ohio Revised Code, read on codes.ohio.gov on October 4, 2026, then explains why Ohio differs from states that use a notarized self-proving affidavit, what happens to a will that was not signed correctly, and how a will is revoked, stored and admitted to probate. It is general information, not advice about a particular will.

Who may make a will: R.C. 2107.02

A person who is eighteen years of age or older, of sound mind and memory, and not under restraint may make a will (2107.02). The same capacity is required to revoke one: a testator's revocation of a will is valid only if the testator, at the time of the revocation, has the same capacity as the law requires for the execution of a will (2107.33(E)).

The method of making a will: R.C. 2107.03

The section is short enough to follow sentence by sentence.

1. In writing

Except oral wills, every will shall be in writing, but may be handwritten or typewritten (2107.03). Ohio does not treat a handwritten will differently from a typed one; both must be signed and witnessed the same way, and chapter 2107 has no separate provision for an unwitnessed handwritten will.

2. Signed at the end

The will shall be signed at the end by the testator or by some other person in the testator's conscious presence and at the testator's express direction (2107.03). The signature line therefore belongs after the last dispositive paragraph, before the witnesses' attestation.

3. Two or more competent witnesses

The will shall be attested and subscribed in the conscious presence of the testator, by two or more competent witnesses, who saw the testator subscribe, or heard the testator acknowledge the testator's signature (2107.03). Conscious presence means within the range of any of the testator's senses, excluding the sense of sight or sound that is sensed by telephonic, electronic, or other distant communication (2107.03). The witnesses must be in the room, not on a screen or a telephone. A testator who has already signed may instead acknowledge the signature to the witnesses, who then sign in the testator's presence. No person under eighteen years of age shall witness a will executed under 2107.03 (2107.06).

4. A witness who inherits

If a devise or bequest is made to a person who is one of only two witnesses to a will, the devise or bequest is void; the witness shall then be competent to testify to the execution of the will, as if the gift had not been made, and if the witness would have been entitled to a share of the estate had the will not been established, the witness takes so much of that share as does not exceed the gift (2107.15). The rule bites only when the beneficiary is one of just two witnesses; with three witnesses, two of whom receive nothing, it does not apply. The simplest practice is two adult witnesses who are not named in the will.

Why there is no notary: Ohio has no self-proving affidavit

A self-proving affidavit is a sworn statement by the will's witnesses, signed before a notary, that some states accept in place of the witnesses' testimony. Ohio's chapter 2107 does not provide one. On October 4, 2026 we read the chapter's index of 65 sections, from 2107.01 (Will construed) to 2107.77 (Later wills), and searched the index and the text it carries for self-proving, affidavit and notary; no section matched. Instead, the probate court shall admit a will to probate if it appears from the face of the will, or, if the court requires in its discretion the testimony of the witnesses, if it appears from that testimony, that the execution of the will complies with the law in force at the time of execution in the jurisdiction where the testator was physically present, with Ohio law at the time of death, or with the law of the testator's domicile at death (2107.18). If a witness has gone to parts unknown, became incompetent after attesting, or cannot be found to testify within a reasonable time, the will may be admitted upon such proof as would be satisfactory as if the witness were dead (2107.16(A)). Because the statute relies on the attestation clause and, when needed, the witnesses themselves, the Ohio will in this site's package carries the witnesses' attestation only and is not signed before a notary; the signing guide delivered with it says the same. A testator who wants certainty during life may instead file a complaint in the probate court for a judgment declaring the will valid (R.C. 5817.02(A)); a will so declared valid shall be admitted to probate if it has not been revoked (2107.16(B), 2107.18).

A will that was not signed correctly: R.C. 2107.24

If a document that purports to be a will is not executed in compliance with 2107.03, it shall be treated as if it had been, if the probate court, after holding a hearing, finds that the proponent has established by clear and convincing evidence all of the following: the decedent prepared the document or caused it to be prepared; the decedent signed the document and intended it to constitute the decedent's will; and the decedent signed it in the conscious presence of two or more witnesses, conscious presence again excluding sight or sound sensed by telephonic, electronic or other distant communication (2107.24(A)). Two witnesses present at the signing are still required; the section cures a defect in how they attested, not their absence. If the court makes those findings, the executor may sue to recover court costs and attorney's fees from the attorney, if any, responsible for the execution of the document (2107.24(B)).

Agreements to make a will and incorporation by reference

No agreement to make a will or to make a devise or bequest by will is enforceable unless it is in writing, signed by the maker or by another at the maker's express direction, and, if signed by another, subscribed by two or more competent witnesses who heard the maker acknowledge that it was signed at the maker's direction (2107.04). An existing document, book, record or memorandum may be incorporated in a will by reference if referred to as being in existence when the will is executed, and must be deposited in the probate court when the will is probated or within thirty days after (2107.05(A)). A trust instrument is incorporated only if the will manifests that intent through the word incorporate, the words made a part of, or similar language; language that only identifies a trust is not enough (2107.05(C)). That rule matters for a pour-over will, which gives the residue to the trustee of a living trust without incorporating the trust: R.C. 2107.63 lets a testator devise or bequeath property to the trustee of a trust evidenced by a written instrument signed before or on the same date as the will and identified in the will, and the property becomes part of the trust estate and is administered under the trust's terms, including amendments made before the testator's death unless the will provides otherwise. The termination or entire revocation of the trust before the testator's death invalidates the gift (2107.63).

Oral wills: R.C. 2107.60

An oral will, made in the last sickness, is valid in respect to personal property if reduced to writing and subscribed by two competent disinterested witnesses within ten days after the speaking of the testamentary words; the witnesses must prove that the testator was of sound mind and memory, not under restraint, and called upon some person present to bear testimony to the disposition as the testator's will, and no oral will may be admitted to record unless offered for probate within three months after the death (2107.60). An oral will cannot pass real property.

Revoking a will: R.C. 2107.33

A will is revoked by the testator tearing, canceling, obliterating or destroying it with the intention of revoking it; by another person doing so at the testator's request and in the testator's presence, or under the testator's express written direction; by some other written will or codicil executed as chapter 2107 prescribes; or by some other writing that is signed, attested and subscribed in the manner the chapter provides (2107.33(A)). Divorce, dissolution, annulment, or a separation agreement intended to settle the spouses' property rights fully and finally, revokes any disposition to the former spouse, any power of appointment conferred on the former spouse, and any nomination of the former spouse as executor, trustee or guardian, unless the will expressly provides otherwise; the property passes as if the former spouse failed to survive, and the provisions revive if the testator remarries the former spouse (2107.33(B) and (C)).

Storing the signed will: deposit with the probate court

A will may be deposited by the testator, or by some person for the testator, in the office of the judge of the probate court in the county in which the testator lives, before or after the testator's death; upon payment of the fee of twenty-five dollars to the court, the judge shall receive, keep, and give a certificate of deposit for the will (2107.07). The will goes in a sealed envelope indorsed with the testator's name, which may also name the person to whom it is to be delivered after death; it is not opened or read until delivered to a person entitled to receive it, and it is not a public record until an application is filed to probate it (2107.07). During the testator's life the deposited will is delivered only to the testator, to a person the testator authorizes by written order, or to a probate court at the testator's request for a validity determination; after death it is delivered to the person named on the envelope, or, if no one demands it, publicly opened in the probate court within one month after notice of the death and kept until offered for probate (2107.08). The Columbus page describes the probate court a Columbus resident would use.

After death: admission, notice and recording

Once a will is admitted to probate under 2107.18, the fiduciary or the applicant shall, within two weeks of the admission, give notice to the surviving spouse, to all persons who would inherit under chapter 2105 if the testator had died intestate, and to all legatees and devisees named in the will; a person may waive the notice in writing filed with the court, and a certificate that notice was given or waived must be filed not later than two months after the fiduciary's appointment or, if none, after admission (2107.19(A)). Every will admitted to probate is filed in the office of the probate judge and recorded, and a certified copy of the recorded will with the order of probate is as effectual as the original (2107.20). What the executor does next is in the Ohio probate process guide, and a surviving spouse's choices are in the elective share guide.

Wills and a living trust

An Ohio trust package pairs the living trust with a pour-over will, signed under 2107.03 exactly like any other will, which sends anything left outside the trust to the trustee under 2107.63. The trust itself is a separate instrument that is not a will and is not governed by chapter 2107; the deed that moves a home into it is acknowledged before a notary or another officer listed in R.C. 5301.01, as the transfer on death guide explains. The Ohio living trust page lists each document in the package and how it is signed.