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Start the free role checkWhy people avoid probate
Probate in Maryland is a court process: it can take months, the filings become a public record, and it adds administrative cost. Passing assets outside probate can be faster, more private, and simpler for your family — though it takes planning while you're alive.
Common ways Marylanders avoid probate
A funded revocable living Trust
Assets retitled into a revocable living Trust pass to your beneficiaries outside probate, while you keep full control during life. “Funding” — actually transferring assets in — is what makes it work.
Beneficiary, POD & TOD designations
Retirement accounts, life insurance, and many bank and brokerage accounts let you name a beneficiary (or “payable-on-death” / “transfer-on-death”), so they pass directly to that person without probate.
Joint ownership with survivorship
Property owned with a right of survivorship passes to the survivor at death, outside probate. How the deed or the account is titled decides it.
A deed to the trustee, or property held by the entirety
Real property passes outside probate when it is deeded to the trustee before death, the trust's terms governing at death, with no recordation or transfer tax on the deed into the trust (Est. & Trusts § 14.5-1001); a married couple's entireties property conveyed to their trust keeps its immunity from their separate creditors on the statute's conditions (Est. & Trusts § 14.5-511). Whether either fits depends on your facts and is a question for a licensed Maryland attorney.
Small-estate options
When the decedent's 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), simpler than a full administration.
The catch: it all depends on titling
A plan only avoids probate for the assets actually titled or designated correctly — a Trust that isn't funded, or an account with no beneficiary, can still end up in probate. Coordinating titling across everything you own is where mistakes happen. This page is general information, not legal advice; a free role check can show you where you stand, and a Maryland attorney can review your titling.
General information about Maryland law, not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
- How does probate start in Maryland?
- By a petition for administrative probate before the register of wills or judicial probate before the court (Est. & Trusts §§ 5-301, 5-401), in the county where the decedent was domiciled (Est. & Trusts § 5-103). The custodian of a will delivers it to that county's register after the death (Est. & Trusts § 4-203(b)).
- Is there a small-estate shortcut in Maryland?
- 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).
- What passes outside probate in Maryland?
- Property titled to a trust (Est. & Trusts § 14.5-401), joint property with survivorship, accounts and policies with a beneficiary designation, and — from October 1, 2026 — real property by a transfer-on-death deed (Real Prop. § 14-1003).
- Does avoiding probate avoid Maryland's inheritance tax?
- No. Property passing to a recipient outside the exempt classes is taxed whether or not it passes through probate, and a trustee who distributes it pays the tax before distributing (Tax-Gen. §§ 7-203, 7-216).
General information about Maryland law, not legal advice.