Dying Without a Will
ORC 2105.06 — the state's order, and where it surprises people
Where there is no will, the estate is divided by a section rather than by what anybody understood the arrangement to be. The section has one outcome most people expect and several they do not, and which one applies turns on a single question about the children.
Who handles this in Ohio: legal aid programs, lawyer referral and the state offices, listed in the Ohio directory.
Where every child is also the surviving spouse's child, the spouse takes everything. A spouse and children, and all of those children are also children of the surviving spouse: the whole estate goes to the spouse. No split, no shares held for the children, nothing set aside. This is the case people picture when they decide a will is unnecessary, and where the family is shaped that way they are largely right.
One child from outside the marriage changes the whole division. Where the spouse is the parent of some but not all of the children, and there is more than one child, the spouse takes the first sixty thousand dollars plus one third of the balance, and the remainder goes to the children equally. Where the spouse is the parent of none of them, the first figure drops to twenty thousand. A second marriage with children from a first is the ordinary case here, and the division happens whether or not the household ever thought of itself that way.
| Who survives | What the spouse takes |
|---|---|
| Who survivesSpouse, and all children are also the spouse's | What the spouse takesThe entire estate |
| Who survivesSpouse, parent of some but not all children, more than one child | What the spouse takesFirst $60,000 plus one third of the balance |
| Who survivesSpouse, parent of none of the children | What the spouse takesFirst $20,000 plus one third of the balance |
| Who survivesChildren but no spouse | What the spouse takesThe estate to the children, and to the descendants of a deceased child per stirpes |
Per stirpes means a deceased child's share passes down that child's line rather than being redistributed among the surviving children. A grandchild whose parent died first stands in that parent's place.
Not everything is in the estate to begin with. Property held jointly with right of survivorship, accounts with a named beneficiary, and life insurance proceeds pass outside this section entirely and are not divided by it. A house, a bank account and a policy can therefore go three different directions in the same death, and the will or the absence of one only decides one of them.
“Are all of the children also the surviving spouse's children.”
The surviving spouse's other entitlements, the family allowance, the right to purchase the residence, and the administration of an estate each sit in their own sections and are not on this page. Where there is no spouse and no children the section continues through parents, siblings and further out. What is in an estate, what passes outside it, and what a probate court will do with any of it are questions for a licensed Ohio attorney, and probate courts publish their own forms and local rules.
Sources for this section (1)
- ORC 2105.06 — Who inherits when there is no will, and in what shares
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.