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The original, and who holds it

Unless it is admitted to probate, a will does not transfer property or nominate a personal representative (Est. & Trusts § 5-102(a)), so the signed original matters. You, or your agent, may deposit it for safekeeping with the register of wills of the county where you live, in a sealed wrapper endorsed with your name and address, for a receipt on payment of the fee (Est. & Trusts § 4-202).

Anyone else holding your will keeps it, and without your authorization may not destroy it, disclose its contents or deliver it to anyone but you (Est. & Trusts § 4-201). After your death the custodian delivers it to the register for the county where administration should be had; a custodian who willfully fails to deliver it is liable to a person aggrieved (§ 4-203(b), (c)). Wherever the original is kept, tell your personal representative where it is.

How it was signed

Any person 18 or older and legally competent may make a will (Est. & Trusts § 4-102(a)). Every will is in writing, signed by the testator or by another for the testator in the testator's physical presence and at the testator's express direction, and attested and signed by two or more credible witnesses in the testator's physical presence or — for an electronic or remotely witnessed will — electronic presence (§ 4-102(b)). An electronic or remotely witnessed will is signed with a supervising attorney present, physically or electronically, while the testator is a Maryland resident or in Maryland, and the attorney makes a certified paper will with an acknowledgment and the witnesses' affidavits (§ 4-102(c)).

A will signed while you are outside Maryland is properly executed if it meets § 4-102, the law of your domicile, or the law of the place where you signed it (Est. & Trusts § 4-104).

Your personal representative

Maryland calls the executor a personal representative, appointed by the register or the court in administrative or judicial probate — first in priority, the personal representatives your will names (Est. & Trusts § 5-104). Letters are not granted to a person under 18, a person mentally incompetent, or a person convicted of a serious crime such as fraud, embezzlement or theft unless good cause is shown, among the statute's other bars (Est. & Trusts § 5-105). Within 20 days after appointment, the personal representative delivers to the register the first published notice of the appointment and the names and addresses of the heirs and legatees (Est. & Trusts § 7-104).

What changes a will

A will is revoked only as the statute allows: by a later will that revokes it expressly or by necessary implication; by burning, cancelling, tearing or obliterating it, by you or by another in your presence at your express direction; by a later marriage followed by the birth, adoption or legitimation of a child who survives you; and, as to provisions for the spouse only, by an absolute divorce or annulment after the will was signed, unless the will or decree provides otherwise (Est. & Trusts § 4-105).

A will speaks at death, so what it gives depends on what you own then and how it is titled. A gift to a person named in the will who dies before you passes, unless the will expressly says otherwise, to those who would have taken from that person (Est. & Trusts § 4-403); and a legatee other than your spouse who does not survive you by 30 full days is treated as having died before you, unless the will provides otherwise (Est. & Trusts § 4-401). Review the will beside your trust and your beneficiary designations whenever your family or your property changes.

A will and a trust together

Your will may leave property to the trustee of a written trust signed before or together with the will and identified in it, even if the trust may later be amended or revoked (Est. & Trusts § 4-411). Property already titled to a living trust passes under the trust's terms without probate; property the will leaves to the trust passes through the estate first.

A later will or codicil that expressly refers to your revocable trust, or specifically devises property that would otherwise pass under it, can revoke or amend the trust where the trust does not make its own method exclusive (Est. & Trusts § 14.5-602(c)(2)(i)).

What happens at your death

The will is offered for probate — administratively before the register of wills, or judicially before the court — in the county where you were domiciled at death (Est. & Trusts §§ 5-103, 5-301, 5-401). A claim against the estate is barred unless presented within the earlier of six months after the death or two months after the personal representative's written notice to the creditor (Est. & Trusts § 8-103(a)). Where the Maryland property subject to administration is worth $50,000 or less — $100,000 where the surviving spouse is the sole legatee or heir — the estate may be administered as a small estate (Est. & Trusts § 5-601).

A surviving spouse may elect one-third of the estate subject to election where issue survive, or one-half where none do, each reduced by the spousal benefits (Est. & Trusts § 3-403), within the later of nine months after the death or six months after the first appointment of a personal representative (§ 3-407). A share passing to a recipient outside the inheritance tax's exempt family classes is taxed at 10 percent of its clear value (Tax-Gen. §§ 7-203, 7-204).

When a licensed Maryland attorney is the right next call

Whether a will was validly signed, whether an event revoked any of it, how it fits with your trust and your designations, who should serve as personal representative and what the elective share or the inheritance tax means for your family are questions a licensed Maryland attorney of your choosing answers. TrusteeClear explains the statutes and organizes the record; it drafts and reviews no will.