Will Revocation and Revival Requirements in Ohio

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law and scope

Ohio Rev. Code § 2107.33 lists the methods for revoking an ordinary will, including a written codicil as a revoking instrument, and separately addresses former-spouse provisions and revocation capacity. Section 2107.38 governs whether revoking a second will brings the first one back.

Later will, codicil, or writing

Section 2107.33(A)(4) permits another written will or codicil executed as Chapter 2107 prescribes. Division (A)(5) also permits a different writing, but only when it is “signed, attested, and subscribed” in the chapter's required manner. Under § 2107.03, a standard will is signed at the end and attested and subscribed in the testator's conscious presence by at least two competent witnesses.

Physical or electronic revoking act

The physical-act list is tearing, canceling, obliterating, or destroying the will. When the testator acts personally—or another person acts at the testator's request and in the testator's presence—the act must be done with the intention of revoking the will. Section 2107.33 does not list deletion or another electronic-record act.

Act by another person

Ohio has two routes for another actor. Under § 2107.33(A)(2), the person acts at the testator's request, in the testator's presence, and with revocatory intent. Under division (A)(3), the person acts pursuant to the testator's express written direction; that paragraph does not repeat a presence condition.

Partial revocation

A written codicil is one of the formal instruments § 2107.33(A)(4) authorizes to revoke a will. The section does not separately say that tearing, canceling, or obliterating only part of the document creates a valid partial revocation.

Intent, proof, and presumptions

The two physical-act paragraphs that specify the testator's personal request or action expressly require an intention to revoke. Section 2107.33(E) adds that the testator must have the same capacity at revocation that Ohio requires to execute a will. The cited sections do not create a separate evidence burden or missing-will presumption for the revocation question.

Divorce, annulment, and other family events

Section 2107.33(B) applies after divorce, dissolution, annulment, or actual separation followed by an agreement intended to fully and finally settle the spouses' prospective property rights. Unless the will expressly says otherwise, it revokes property dispositions or appointments to the former spouse or certain spouse-controlled trusts, powers of appointment, and nominations as executor, trustee, or guardian.

The revoked provisions operate as though the former spouse did not survive. If § 2107.33 alone revoked them, remarriage to that spouse—or termination of the separation agreement—revives them.

Revival after a later will or revoking act

Destroying, canceling, or otherwise revoking a second will does not automatically revive the first. Section 2107.38 recognizes two paths: the terms of the revocation show an intention to revive and give effect to the first will, or the testator later republishes the first will.

Reexecution, republication, and codicil effect

Section 2107.38 expressly recognizes republication but does not prescribe a separate statutory form for it. Section 2107.33 separately confirms that a written codicil, executed as Chapter 2107 requires, is a permitted revoking instrument.

What trips people up

The third-person rules are not identical. Presence is express when someone acts at the testator's request, but § 2107.33(A)(3) separately allows action pursuant to express written direction without repeating presence. Treating every third-person act as governed by only one of those paragraphs loses a real statutory distinction.

Ohio's separation rule is also narrower than separation alone. It requires actual separation plus an agreement intended to fully and finally settle the parties' prospective property rights. If that agreement later terminates, provisions revoked solely by § 2107.33 revive.

Common questions

Does divorce remove a former spouse nominated as guardian or executor?

Yes, unless the will expressly provides otherwise. Section 2107.33(B) reaches nominations as executor, trustee, or guardian, not only property gifts.

Can an unwitnessed note revoke an Ohio will?

Not under the separate-writing route in § 2107.33(A)(5). That writing must be signed, attested, and subscribed using the chapter's will formalities.

Does a contract to convey devised property revoke the gift?

No. Section 2107.33(D) says a bond, agreement, or covenant for valuable consideration to convey previously devised or bequeathed property does not revoke the gift. The property passes under the will subject to the contract remedies the section preserves.

Statutes and sources

• Ohio Rev. Code § 2107.33 — methods, former-spouse provisions, and capacity. Lists physical acts, two third-person routes, formal writings, divorce and separation effects, revival on remarriage or agreement termination, and the capacity rule. Official enrolled H.B. 595 text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Ohio Rev. Code § 2107.03 — execution formalities. Supplies the signature, two-witness, and conscious-presence requirements incorporated by § 2107.33's formal-writing routes. Official enrolled S.B. 124 text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Ohio Rev. Code § 2107.38 — first-will revival. Rejects automatic revival after revocation of a second will and recognizes shown revival intent or republication. Official enrolled S.B. 124 text (accessed 2026-08-01).