Can a will executed in OH be probated in another state, or is it neccessary to return to OH probate court?

A document valid in one state must be recognized by the other 49 states. This is the full faith and credit clause of the U.S. Constitution, Article IV.

If the will that you had drawn up for you in Ohio had all of the formalities required by that state, including witnesses and any attestation clause, etc., then every other state would have to recognize the will.

I have probated wills in one state that were drawn up in another state.

This answer is provided for informational purposes only. True legal advice can only be provided in an office consultation by an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction and with experience in the area of law in which your concern lies.

I am in agreement with Mr. Myers. If your will was valid under Ohio law at the time of its execution, Georgia courts would recognize the validity of that will. If you die a resident of Georgia, your executor would probate your will in the county of your residence. No other jurisdiction would be proper (although if you owned property in other states, ancillary probate in such states could be required.) Thus, to answer your question, yes, upon your death, your executor can and should probate that will (even though it was drafted when you were an Ohio resident) in the Georgia county in which you resided at the time of your death.

Even though the Ohio will may be legally valid, you may wish to have the will reviewed by an attorney licensed to practice law in Georgia and familiar with probate and estate administration. Georgia allows testators to waive bond, inventory and returns (which can relieve some of the burden of the process from your executor) where many other states do not permit such waivers. This is just one example of a change that might be warranted given the difference in state law. Other changes to your will might be prudent based upon other life changes which may have occurred since you executed the will in Ohio.

THIS COMMUNICATION DOES NOT CREATE AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP AND IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.

This answer is not intended to provide you with legal advice regarding your particular situation, or to create any attorney-client relationship.

The place where a Will should be submitted for probate depends on where the deceased person was "domiciled." Your domicile is, in general, the place where you intend to maintain your permanent home. It is not necessarily a simple determination, and it's not even necessarily where you live at the given moment. Instead, you may need to look at a variety of factors to determine where a deceased person was domiciled at his death when the deceased person has lived in multiple states or maintains residences in multiple states.

For example, the address a person uses for his driver's license, voter registration, car tags and titles, and income tax returns may be the address he thinks of as his primary home. If, however, the person has moved to that address for a period of time which was intended to be temporary, and he intended to return to his prior state for a long-term or permanent basis after some period of time, then the person may still be domiciled in the prior state, and not in the state where he maintains the items discussed above.

To determine your domicile, you should consider what your intent was when you moved to Georgia from Ohio. Did you intend to make Georgia your new primary home, and not to return to Ohio on a permanent or long-term basis, or did you intend to spend a few years in Georgia (for a job, for example), but to return to Ohio as soon as reasonably possible? Where is your driver's license issued? What state do you claim as your primary residence for tax purposes? Where do you vote? Do you have residences in both states, or only Georgia? Your answers to these sorts of questions can help you figure out whether you are domiciled in Georgia or Ohio.

If you turned out to be domiciled in Georgia, then your appointed executor would submit your Will to the probate court in the Georgia county where you lived at the time of your death. However, if you turned out to still be domiciled in Ohio, then your appointed executor would need to return to Ohio to submit your Will for probate, likely to the county you last lived in there.

And the first respondent is generally correct when he indicates that Georgia would normally allow your Ohio Will to have effect in Georgia. However, if you really intend to live in Georgia permanently, I would encourage you to have your Will and other estate planning documents reviewed by a good Georgia attorney, to make sure that it will work as well as possible under Georgia law. The states all have different requirements and different laws, and Georgia, in particular, seems to be more different from the rest than most of the others are from each other.