Franklin County Probate Forms

Last Updated - December 12, 2023

Hire a probate assistant for about $39 per year?

It's not possible. There's no assistant (or software package for that matter) you can get for that price -- excepting FCPF. That's the approximate average cost per year when the price of Franklin County Probate Forms is divided by the number of years you receive free updates. Of course we can't guarantee against future changes in the law or Windows, but if the past is any indicator, that's the longevity you can expect from FCPF. A bargain you can't beat!

Background

If your law office handles the administration of probate estates in Franklin County, you'll be interested in this very special program.

For almost 30 years, the all-Ohio version has been Ohio’s number one probate software. And although the all-Ohio version is county-generic, there are always forms that are modified for or unique to a specific county. For that reason we’ve put together a new Franklin County version of our Basic Ohio Probate Forms application. We did more than simply add a couple forms; the Franklin County version is substantially rewritten to provide more ease of use, better worksheet printouts, and exquisitely printed forms. The complete list which includes over 150 pages of forms is below.

Web Forms

Free Web Forms. The court's web forms are tolerable for non-professionals trying to avoid employing an attorney, but if you're a professional in the business of completing probate forms, you need this application. If you're curious about the advantages of FCPF over the probate court's PDF web forms, click here.

Face-Lift

FCPF has a new look you’re going to like. We’ve taken a lesson from the most successful new programs that are based on large-scale user studies. The tree view is an outline of the administrative process related to standard probate forms. Take a look at the opening screen of our free demo or click here to see a screen illustration.

A Probate Processor

No Learning Curve. FCPF is a stand-alone Windows application that follows standard Windows programming conventions. It is not a simple template, HotDocs or script, but instead is a true 32-bit Windows application, and likewise the Mac version is a native 32-bit Mac OSX application. What this means is that opening, saving and printing files is done just like it is in any other application. You won’t need to learn needlessly different or new ways to do the same old thing. Note the Mac version requires MS Word. The Windows version does not.

Notices, Consents & Waivers

Over half the standard probate forms involve the spouse, kin and legatees, so you’ll be wanting your probate application to fully complete all the necessary notices, consents and waivers. FCPF does just that! If you have 20 beneficiaries, FCPF completes all the notices, etc. automatically - one for each individual or entity that needs one. No work-arounds or cutting and pasting.

Quality Not Quantity

Instead of paying for hundreds of forms that you never use or that are incorrect, FCPF includes a complete decedent's estate set of “Standard Probate Forms” as specified by the Ohio Supreme Court under Rules 51 and 52 of the Rules for the Superintendence of Common Pleas Courts. In addition we include non-probate forms for transferring real estate, stocks and bonds, motor vehicles, and enclosure letters for notifying next of kin and cashing life insurance policies. Even if have some of these forms as "dumb" word processing templates, nothing beats having the forms fill themselves out - especially if you're contacting multiple next of kin and legatees.

Completely Redesigned Date Entry Screens - as easy to look at as they are to work in. The tree view keeps all forms one mouse click away. See screen illustrations at the product information page of our web site. www.puritas-springs.com/products/frank.aspx

Additional Features

• Automatic continuation pages—this feature alone saves incalculable time. Inventories, accounts, notices, waivers and consents are all available in near-limitless depth.

•  Automatic Calculations—say goodbye to complicated inventories and accounts that don’t balance. Many forms complete themselves! Key forms like the Inventory and Accounting are 100% complete! FCPF uses simple spreadsheet-style worksheets and does the math automatically. This includes not just the mathematically-oriented forms like the inventory and accounting forms, but also all consents, waivers and notices will contain the beneficiary name and address information automatically.

• Exports probate files to our U.S. Estate Tax application—a true single entry system that saves large amounts of time on large estates.

• Infinitely modifiable—because everything can previewed in Word (if you own it) before printing, your printed forms are extensively modifiable as word processing documents.

• Asset & Expense Worksheets can be sorted by any field.

• Multiple forms—if there are 40 kin, in 40 different states, and each needs a particular notice, you can prepare all 40 notices in one quick and easy step.

• Saves and loads probate estates as ordinary simple files. There is no need to follow ridiculous procedures like saving save each form or page individually. Your entire set of forms is saved and opened just as you would any normal data file—after all you don't save each page of a word processing document individually do you? Of course not, you save all the pages at one time.

• Ghost Prompts—in certain fields you'll see gray text suggesting the expected entry. The ghost prompt disappears when you start typing and are invisible when printing. A great tool form helping make sure you're entering the correct information in the correct location.

• Source Hints—ever wonder where information was transferred from? You won’t with FCPF. Right-click any automatically-completed field and a hint appears detailing the data source of that field.

• Print-Shop-Perfect Forms—lose the fill-in-the-blank look. All printing is done via carefully formatted word processing files. As a result you’ll get professional-looking forms, unlimited formatting options, and more.

• PDF File Conversion, Emailing, Spell-Checking—all these functions and more are readily available and easily accessible as part of the preview/print process.

• Not Internet Dependent—you’re in business regardless of whether you’re connected to the Internet.

Click here to try free, fully functioning demo.

New Forms

We’ve added special Franklin County specific forms as well as various transfer documents and enclosure letters. For example, transferring real estate to the surviving spouse, transferring motor vehicles, transferring stocks and bonds and a core set of handy enclosure letters that can be customized to look like your office stationary. If it’s useful, you’re going to find it in FCPF's library of forms. Note that many of the probate forms come in multiple pages. An inventory for example can be up to 80 pages long, or you could send Form 2.2 Notice to Probate to 80 different heirs!

List of Included Forms

Print Shop Perfect Probate Forms

Every form is fully formatted, picture perfect and ready to file. Strict compliance with the typographical specification set forth in Rules 51 and 52 of the Supreme Court Rules for Superintendence for Courts of Common Pleas assures acceptability in all Probate Courts. 

No Repetition - Automated Forms

The main design principle of FCPF is that you enter basic information one time. FCPF automatically completes the forms based on your single entry (i.e., decedent's name, address, date of death; applicant or fiduciary's name, address and telephone number; attorney's name, address, telephone number and registration number; surviving spouse's name, address and telephone number; all court information, county name, court title, presiding judge, etc.). Enter assets and liabilities once. Then simply direct the entries to the appropriate forms by pointing and clicking. That means you type lengthy legal descriptions a single time. Enter any information you want and use it as a default over and over in different decedent files without retyping!

Compatibility With U.S. Estate Tax for Windows

FCPF is compatible with our U.S. Estate Tax (P706) software. FCPF files can be converted into nearly complete P706 files that you need only check over and then print. This, in itself, saves hours of time and reduces errors that may occur in the preparation of the estate tax return. The process is extremely easy. Simply mark an asset or debt to direct it to a particular schedule of the estate tax form. Our P706 application can open the file created by FCPF. It's as easy as saving and opening a file!

A Complete, Stand-Alone Probate System

FCPF is not a script or macro. FCPF is a complete system in itself. It automatically completes and formats the probate forms based on information you enter in the worksheets. It prints picture perfect probate forms on all printers—laser, ink jet, even dot matrix printers. All printer fonts are part of Windows and maintained internally and automatically. Additional software fonts or hardware font cartridges are unnecessary. Note that although the Mac version is as true 32-bit Mac OSX application, it does require that you have MS Word installed as your word processor. The Windows version does not require MS Word.

User Friendly, No Prohibitive Learning Curve, No Expensive Training Needed

When we say we use a standard user interface, it means that our program looks and feels like a normal application. It has a File menu with saving and printing commands in the customary locations. For the user this means that you can dive right in instead of having to learn new ways to do things you already know how to do. Unconventional buttons and interface gimmickry are okay for games, but business and legal software should always stick to the standard operating system interface you're familiar with.

User Friendly Prices

When you realize that other legal software (i.e., bankruptcy packages, probate software, office management systems, etc.) start at about $500 and up, you can appreciate the price-conscious value of FCPF. Like all the other software in the Puritas Springs Software legal library, we designed and priced FCPF to give you maximum bang for the buck! No other legal software gives you the same specialized, comprehensive assistance so inexpensively. There are no annual or periodic maintenance costs or other fees. Upgrades are absolutely free until the release of the next major version. If the last 30 years is an indicator, that means you'll be getting free updates for up to 5 or more years.