Do You Need a Trust to Skip Probate in Maryland?

Your mom dies in Baltimore County. She left a will. The house is worth $425,000, and there's about $80,000 in a brokerage account. You think the will means things move quickly.

It doesn't. You're now staring down 8 to 14 months of probate, a personal representative commission of about $16,380, and attorney fees that could easily land between $3,000 and $6,000 before the estate settles.

This is the part most Marylanders don't know until they're living it. And it's why the question — do I need a trust, or is a will enough? — keeps coming up in 2026.

What Maryland's $50,000 Rule Actually Means

Maryland splits estates into two tracks: small estate and regular estate. The line is $50,000. If a surviving spouse is the only heir, that bumps to $100,000. Anything over those thresholds goes through regular probate at the Register of Wills.

That's a low bar. Own a paid-off car, a modest 401(k) without a beneficiary listed, and a checking account with a few months of savings? You're already past it. Add a home — the median Maryland home price is well over $400,000 — and regular probate is essentially guaranteed if those assets are titled in your name alone.

A will does not skip probate. A will is the instruction manual a probate court reads. The court still has to open the case, notify creditors, inventory assets, and sign off before anything reaches your heirs.

What Probate Actually Costs in Maryland

Maryland law caps personal representative commissions at 9% on the first $20,000 of the estate and 3.6% on everything above that. Those are the maximums, and on contested or complex estates, courts often approve the full amount.

Run the numbers on a $500,000 estate:

• 9% of the first $20,000 = $1,800
• 3.6% of the remaining $480,000 = $17,280
• Statutory commission total: $19,080

Add attorney fees, which run $2,000 to $8,000 in Maryland for a standard estate, according to a February 2026 analysis from Baker Flynn Law. Then probate filing fees, bond premiums if required, publication costs, and the inheritance tax (10% for non-lineal heirs like nieces, nephews, and friends).

A $750,000 estate left to a niece in Anne Arundel County could lose a substantial amount to a combination of commissions, attorney fees, and inheritance tax before she sees a dime. That's not a worst-case scenario. That's the standard math.

Timelines aren't gentle either. The Register of Wills requires creditors to be given six months to file claims, and most regular estates take 9 to 18 months to close. Heirs wait. Bills don't.

Why a Funded Revocable Trust Skips It

A revocable living trust works because the trust — not you personally — owns the assets. When you die, there's nothing in your name for probate to process. The successor trustee you named takes over, follows your written instructions, and distributes assets directly to your beneficiaries.

No Register of Wills filing. No six-month creditor window. No 3.6% commission on the bulk of the estate.

But — and this is the part that trips people up — the trust only works if it's funded. Funding means retitling assets into the trust's name. Your house deed has to be re-recorded. Your brokerage account has to be moved. Your bank accounts need new titling.

A trust document sitting in a drawer with the house still titled in your name does nothing. The house goes through probate anyway. This is the single most common Maryland trust failure.

If you're weighing this against a will, our guide on whether you need a revocable living trust in 2026 walks through the decision in more depth.

When a Will Is Actually Enough

Not everyone needs a trust. A will plus a few smart titling moves can keep a smaller Maryland estate out of probate entirely.

The workarounds:

• Joint tenancy with right of survivorship on your home and bank accounts. Property passes automatically to the co-owner.
• Payable-on-death (POD) designations on bank accounts.
• Transfer-on-death (TOD) designations on brokerage accounts.
• Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance.

If you're single, own a home worth $300,000, have a 401(k) with a named beneficiary, and a checking account under $50,000, a well-drafted will might be plenty. Add POD on the checking account and you may avoid probate altogether.

Where a trust starts to pull ahead: real estate, blended families, minor children, out-of-state property, privacy concerns, or estates approaching Maryland's $5 million state estate tax exemption — which, notably, still has no spousal portability in 2026. That last point matters for couples worth $6M to $10M, where one spouse dying without proper trust planning can waste an entire $5M exemption.

What Changed in Maryland in 2025 and 2026

A few legislative updates worth knowing:

• HB17 (2026) changes the venue rules for administrative and judicial probate and how Maryland inheritance tax applies. It's enrolled and on track to affect where and how estates are processed. Read the bill here.
• SB158 and HB88 (2025) updated the Maryland Trust Decanting Act, making it easier for trustees to move assets from an old trust into a new one with better terms — useful if you set up a trust years ago and the terms no longer fit.
• HB261 (2025) moved unpaid child support up the priority list for claims against an estate.
• HB27 and SB19 (2025) changed how guardians of property and trustees are compensated.

None of these changes eliminate probate. They just sharpen the case for planning ahead rather than leaving your family to navigate the system after the fact.

A Real Maryland Scenario

Say you're 58, married, living in Howard County. You own a home worth $625,000, have $340,000 in retirement accounts, $90,000 in a joint brokerage account with your spouse, and $40,000 in a checking account in your name alone.

If you die with just a will:

• The house (titled in your name alone) goes through regular probate. Estimated commission: ~$22,000. Attorney fees: ~$4,500.
• The retirement accounts pass to your named beneficiary outside probate. Good.
• The joint brokerage account passes to your spouse outside probate. Good.
• The checking account is over the small estate threshold for non-spouse heirs but under the $100,000 spousal threshold — so if your spouse is sole heir, it qualifies for small estate treatment.
• Total probate cost: ~$26,500. Timeline: 10-14 months.

If you set up and fund a revocable trust:

• The house is retitled into the trust. No probate.
• Retirement accounts and joint accounts work the same way.
• Trust setup cost: $1,500-$3,500 with an attorney, or a few hundred dollars on a guided online platform.
• Total probate cost: $0. Timeline: weeks, not months.

The gap is real. And it's only meaningful if you act before the diagnosis, before the accident, before the thing that prompted you to search this in the first place.

Common Questions

Q: Can I write my own trust in Maryland? A: Yes, Maryland recognizes trusts you draft yourself, but the document has to be signed correctly and — crucially — actually funded by retitling assets. A trust without funding is just paperwork.

Q: Does a trust avoid Maryland inheritance tax? A: No. Maryland's 10% inheritance tax on transfers to non-lineal heirs (siblings beyond a spouse, nieces, nephews, friends) applies whether assets pass through probate or a trust. A trust avoids probate, not taxes.

Q: Do I still need a will if I have a trust? A: Yes. You need what's called a pour-over will. It catches anything you forgot to put into the trust and sends it there at death. It's a safety net, not the main document.

Q: Can I notarize my Maryland trust online? A: Maryland allows remote online notarization for most estate planning documents. Here's how online notarization works in 2026.

Q: What if I move out of Maryland after setting up a trust? A: Most revocable trusts are portable across state lines, but tax provisions and some procedural rules may need updating. Have it reviewed if you move to a state with different estate tax rules.

The Decision in Front of You

A will tells the court what you want. A funded trust keeps the court out of it.

For estates under Maryland's $50,000 threshold — or $100,000 with a spouse as sole heir — a will plus smart beneficiary designations is often enough. For everyone else, especially homeowners, the math on a trust starts looking obvious fast.

Inhira is building a platform that lets you create a will, a revocable living trust, healthcare directive, power of attorney, and HIPAA authorization in one guided workflow — and notarize them online when you're done. It's available online at inhira.com.

The paperwork isn't the hard part. Deciding to do it is.