To create a living trust in Maryland, you draft a trust document that satisfies the Maryland Trust Act, sign it in front of a notary, and then transfer legal ownership of your assets into the trust. The drafting and signing can be done in a few weeks; the funding step is what actually makes the trust work, and it is the step most people underestimate.
A properly funded trust keeps the assets it holds out of Maryland’s probate system, lets a successor trustee take over if you become incapacitated without a court guardianship, and keeps the details of what you owned and who received it private.1Register of Wills. Revocable Living Trusts: Get the Facts2Register of Wills. Deadlines and Time Limitations3Register of Wills. Fees
Step One: Settle Three Decisions Before You Draft
Nothing in the trust document works until you have made three decisions: who will manage the trust, who will receive from it, and what property it will hold.
Trustees and Successor Trustees
Most people name themselves as the initial trustee so they keep full day-to-day control of their property. The decision that matters is the successor trustee, who takes over on your incapacity or death. Any adult with the legal capacity to enter a contract can serve, as can a corporate trustee like a bank trust department.4Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Estates and Trusts Code Section 14.5-402 – Requirements
Name at least one backup successor. If every named successor is unavailable, Maryland law requires the qualified beneficiaries to agree unanimously on a replacement, and if they cannot, a court appoints one.5Justia. Maryland Estates and Trusts Code Section 14.5-704 – Vacancies A court appointment is exactly the kind of proceeding the trust was supposed to avoid.
Beneficiaries
Beneficiaries are the people or organizations that receive trust property after your death. Collect full legal names and current addresses so the document identifies each one precisely. If any beneficiary is a minor, the trust should spell out how the trustee holds and distributes that share until the child reaches an age you specify.
Asset Inventory
Write down everything you intend to put into the trust. For real estate, pull the legal description straight from your current deed. For financial accounts, list the institution, account type, and account number. Add brokerage accounts, business interests, and valuable personal property. This inventory becomes the checklist for funding the trust after signing. Some assets should stay outside the trust; retirement accounts in particular are typically kept in your own name with the trust named only as a beneficiary.1Register of Wills. Revocable Living Trusts: Get the Facts
Step Two: Draft a Document That Meets the Maryland Trust Act
The Maryland Trust Act in Title 14.5 of the Estates and Trusts Article sets the baseline for a valid trust.6Justia. Maryland Estates and Trusts Code Title 14.5 – Maryland Trust Act The document must show that you intended to create a trust, that you had the mental capacity to do so, that there is at least one definite beneficiary, and that the trustee has duties to perform.4Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Estates and Trusts Code Section 14.5-402 – Requirements
A workable Maryland trust document goes well beyond those minimums. Expect to see provisions covering:
- The trustee’s powers to sell, lease, invest, open and close accounts, and make distributions without needing court approval.
- Distribution instructions describing how and when beneficiaries receive property, whether in a single payment at your death or staggered over time or by milestones.
- The identity of successor trustees in order of priority, with at least one backup.
- A clear statement that you retain the right to amend or revoke the trust during your lifetime. A Maryland trust is presumed revocable unless the document says otherwise, but explicit language forestalls disputes.
- A spendthrift clause, if you want trust assets protected from a beneficiary’s creditors. Maryland recognizes those protections when drafted correctly.7Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Estates and Trusts Code Section 14.5-502
Specificity is where trust administration lives or dies. “Distribute income as needed” sounds flexible but gives a successor trustee almost nothing to work with years later. Spell out the mechanics now so your family is not guessing.
Step Three: Sign in Front of a Notary
Maryland does not require witnesses for a revocable living trust the way it does for a will. Standard practice among Maryland estate planners is still to sign the document in front of a notary and have two disinterested adults witness the signing. The notarization documents that your signature is authentic and voluntary; witnesses make the document harder to challenge later.
Maryland caps notary fees at $8 per notarial act in person and $30 for remote notarizations.8Cornell Law Institute. COMAR 01.02.08.02 – Charges and Fees You must sign while of sound mind and free from pressure. Store the original in a fireproof safe or a bank safe deposit box, and tell your successor trustee where it is. The original is what carries legal weight; a photocopy alone is not a reliable substitute if validity is questioned.
Step Four: Fund the Trust by Retitling Your Assets
Signing creates the structure. Funding fills it. An unfunded trust will not keep anything out of probate, because nothing is actually in it. Each asset needs its legal title changed from you individually to you as trustee.
Real Estate
Transferring Maryland real estate into the trust means preparing a new deed from you as an individual to you as trustee, then recording it with the Land Records office at the Circuit Court in the county where the property sits.9Maryland Courts. Land Records
Maryland law exempts this type of transfer from recordation tax, state and local transfer tax, and other excise taxes when the property moves into the trust without consideration.10Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Estates and Trusts Code Section 14.5-100111Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Tax – Property Code 13-207 What remains are basic administrative recording fees, which typically run about $60 for a principal-residence deed under nine pages (a $20 base fee plus a $40 surcharge) and up to $115 for longer documents on non-principal residences.
Bank and Brokerage Accounts
Contact each institution and ask to retitle the account in the name of the trust. Most banks have an internal form. You will usually be asked for a certification of trust, not the full document. Maryland law specifically authorizes the certification, which confirms the trust exists, names the trustee, and describes the trustee’s powers without disclosing your private distribution terms.12Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Estates and Trusts Code Section 14.5-910 – Certification of Trust
Life Insurance and Retirement Accounts
Rather than retitling, name the trust as a beneficiary. Retirement accounts carry tax consequences if retitled into a trust during your lifetime, so the beneficiary-designation route is standard. Make sure the designations match your trust’s distribution plan.
Add a Pour-Over Will as a Safety Net
Some assets inevitably get missed. You open a new account and forget to title it in the trust, or you acquire property shortly before death. A pour-over will catches anything left outside the trust and directs it in. The pour-over will does go through probate, but its job is narrow: sweep stray assets into the trust so the overall plan still works. It is a backup, not a substitute for actually funding the trust while you are alive.
Keeping the Trust Current: Amendments and Revocation
A revocable living trust is not a permanent commitment. You can amend or revoke it at any time as long as you have mental capacity. Since January 1, 2015, a Maryland trust is presumed revocable unless the document says otherwise.
Follow whatever method the document describes. If the document does not specify an exclusive method, you can also revoke or amend by executing a later will or codicil that expressly refers to the trust.13New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Estates and Trusts Code 14.5-602 – Revocation or Amendments to Trust In practice, most amendments are done through a written amendment signed and notarized the same way as the original. For significant changes, a full restatement is often cleaner than layering amendments. If you revoke the trust entirely, retitle the assets back into your individual name so there is no ownership mess for your family to untangle later.
Plan on a review after any major life event: divorce, the birth of a child, the death of a named trustee or beneficiary, a significant change in assets.
What a Living Trust Will Not Do for You
A revocable living trust is a powerful probate-avoidance and incapacity-planning tool. It is not a tax shelter, an asset-protection vehicle for your own benefit, or a guardianship document. Understanding the boundaries up front prevents expensive misunderstandings.
It will not cut your Maryland estate tax. Maryland imposes its own estate tax on taxable estates above $5 million, with a top rate of 16% on estates above roughly $10 million.14Maryland General Assembly. Fiscal and Policy Note for Senate Bill 211 – 2026 Regular Session Trust assets are still counted in your taxable estate. The trust changes how property transfers, not the tax calculation.
It will not avoid Maryland inheritance tax. Maryland charges a 10% inheritance tax on property received by beneficiaries who are not close family.15Register of Wills. Inheritance Tax Close family includes a spouse, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, siblings, and their spouses, and transfers to them are exempt. If trust assets pass to someone outside that circle, the 10% tax still applies.
It will not protect assets from Medicaid. Maryland’s Medical Assistance program counts the entire value of a revocable trust as an available resource when determining long-term care eligibility, because you can take the assets back at any time.16Maryland Department of Health. State of Maryland Medical Assistance Manual – Section 800 Resources Distributions from the trust to someone other than you are treated as transfers by you and can trigger penalty periods. If long-term care planning is a goal, an elder law attorney and an irrevocable structure are the right conversation.
It does not replace a will. You still need at minimum a pour-over will to catch unfunded assets, and a will is the only document through which you can name a guardian for minor children. A trust handles property; a will handles guardianship and everything the trust misses.
Two mistakes undo more Maryland living trusts than any other: signing the document and never getting around to funding it, and letting the plan go stale after a divorce, a birth, or a death. Both are preventable. Work through the funding checklist as soon as the document is signed, and put a calendar reminder on your trust the way you would on any other important document.