Insolvent Probate Estate Claim-Payment Priority in Ohio
At a glance
| Statutory payment order | Ten ordered classes; no later-class payment until earlier classes are paid or provided for (§ 2117.25(A),(E)). |
|---|---|
| Administration costs | First: costs and expenses of administration (§ 2117.25(A)(1)). |
| Funeral and last illness | Class 2: up to $4,000 director-bill funeral costs, court-approved other funeral costs, and up to $3,000 burial/cemetery; class 5 last sickness; class 6 up to $2,000 more director-bill costs; class 7 last continuous long-term-care stay (§ 2117.25(A)(2),(5)–(7)). |
| Family and homestead allowances | Third: surviving spouse/minor-child support allowance (§ 2117.25(A)(3)). |
| Taxes and public claims | Fourth: federally preferred debts; eighth: personal property taxes, Medicaid estate recovery, and state/subdivision obligations (§ 2117.25(A)(4),(8)). |
| Secured claims | The ten-class list does not assign liens or collateral proceeds a separate class (§ 2117.25(A)). |
| Support and special debts | Ninth: manual labor in last 12 months, up to $300 per person; support allowance is third (§ 2117.25(A)(3),(9)). |
| General claims | Tenth: other presented and finally allowed debts, including director-bill amounts above the $6,000 preferred total and labor above $300 (§ 2117.25(A)(10),(B)). |
| Underfunded class | Creditors of an underfunded class are paid ratably (§ 2117.25(E)). |
Requirements one by one
Funeral and care expenses
Section 2117.25(A)(2) puts up to $4,000 of a funeral director's bill and up to $3,000 of burial and cemetery expenses in class 2. Other funeral expenses need probate-court approval for that class. If the director's funeral bill exceeds $4,000, up to $2,000 more occupies class 6; under § 2117.25(B), the part above the $6,000 preferred total moves to class 10 according to when the additional claim is presented. Last-sickness expenses are class 5, while a last continuous stay in a named long-term-care facility is class 7. A temporary absence of up to 30 consecutive days remains part of that stay.
Later classes and shortfalls
Section 2117.25(A)(8) groups personal property taxes, Medicaid estate-recovery claims, and obligations personally owed to Ohio or a subdivision in class 8. Manual labor performed in the last 12 months before death receives class 9 priority up to $300 per worker; the excess moves to class 10 under § 2117.25(B). Section 2117.25(E) bars paying a later class before the earlier one is paid or provided for and requires ratable payment within an underfunded class.
What trips people up
The support allowance is class 3, between the first funeral tier and federally preferred debts. Under § 2117.25(D)(1), administration costs and that allowance need no claim presentation, and the representative pays known class 4 and class 8 debts regardless of presentation. Section 2117.25(C) gives a person who pays a listed creditor a proportional reimbursement right at that creditor's rank.
Common questions
Does the order itself determine what happens to collateral? Section 2117.25(A) lists estate payment classes but does not assign liens or collateral proceeds a distinct class.
What if preferred payments exhaust the estate? Section 2117.25(F) makes exhaustion through prior or preferred payments a bar to an action on a claim without that priority or preference.
Statutes and sources
- Ohio Rev. Code § 2117.25. Verbatim enacted text, official URL, and access date appear in the source fields above.
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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