Summary release from administration: Ohio’s funeral-bill track under R.C. 2113.031
Ohio has two release procedures, and the smaller one is the one people search for by name. Release from administration under R.C. 2113.03 is the $35,000 / $100,000 route described above. Summary release from administration is a separate section, R.C. 2113.031, built around the funeral bill rather than around a general value ceiling.
Who may apply, and up to what value, depends on who paid the funeral. Under division (B)(1), “if the value of the assets of the decedent’s estate does not exceed the lesser of five thousand dollars or the amount of the decedent’s funeral and burial expenses, any person who is not a surviving spouse and who has paid or is obligated in writing to pay the decedent’s funeral and burial expenses” may apply. So for a non-spouse the ceiling is $5,000 or the funeral and burial bill, whichever is lower: an estate of $4,200 with a $3,800 funeral bill does not qualify, because the lower figure is $3,800.
A surviving spouse uses division (B)(2) instead. The spouse may apply where the funeral and burial expenses were prepaid, or were paid (or contracted in writing to be paid) by the spouse, and the estate does not exceed the total of “the allowance for support that is made under division (A) of section 2106.13” to the spouse and any minor children and “an amount, not exceeding five thousand dollars, for the decedent’s funeral and burial expenses.” Division (A)(3) limits “surviving spouse” to a spouse left with no minor children, or with minor children who are all children of both the decedent and the spouse.
Division (C) lists what the court must find before it orders the release. The application must describe all assets known to the applicant, be in the Supreme Court’s prescribed form, and be signed and acknowledged before a notary public or a deputy clerk of the probate court; it must give the year, make, model and VIN of any motor vehicle, the institution and complete account number of any account, and the details of any shares or bonds. It must be accompanied by a receipt, contract or other document confirming the funeral payment or obligation (or the prepayment, for a spouse), by an application for a certificate of transfer if real property is included, and by the fee under R.C. 2101.16(A)(59). At the time the court decides, no administration or R.C. 2113.03 release proceeding may be pending, and there may be no known assets other than those in the application.
Under division (D) the order relieves the estate from administration, directs delivery of the personal property and its title to the applicant, and directs transfer of title to any real property interest. Division (F) keeps both other routes open: the section “does not affect the ability of qualified persons to file an application to relieve an estate from administration under section 2113.03” or to apply for letters.
Source: Ohio Rev. Code § 2113.031 (summary release from administration), eff. Oct. 12, 2006, read from the enacting state’s own official publication on 2026-10-09. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.