How to Fill Out a Maryland Last Will and Testament Form

To fill out a Maryland Last Will and Testament form, download the interactive template from the Register of Wills, enter your identifying information, name a Personal Representative and your beneficiaries, describe any specific gifts, name a guardian if you have minor children, then print the document and sign it in front of two credible witnesses who sign in your presence. Maryland’s execution rules are strict, and a form that is filled out beautifully but signed incorrectly is not a valid will.¹

The Register of Wills publishes downloadable templates you can complete on your computer and print.² You do not have to hire an attorney, but you do have to follow the rules below exactly.

Who Can Sign a Will in Maryland

You must be at least 18 years old and legally competent.¹ Competent means you understand what property you own, who your natural beneficiaries are, and what signing a will actually does. If anyone later challenges the will on competency grounds, the circumstances of the signing will be examined closely, so pick a day when you are clear-headed and have witnesses who can confirm it.

Information to Gather Before You Start

Open the form once with everything in front of you rather than filling it in piece by piece. The template will ask for:

Your full legal name, current address, and county of residence. The county matters because it determines which Register of Wills office handles the will later.
A Personal Representative. This is Maryland’s term for the person who gathers your assets, pays debts, and distributes what remains. Name a successor as well, in case your first choice cannot serve.³
Beneficiaries, with full names and their relationship to you. Vague descriptions like “my cousin” invite disputes when more than one cousin exists.
A guardian for any children under 18. If you skip this, a court picks someone.
Specific bequests. Identify each item precisely enough that your Personal Representative can locate it. “My 2019 Honda Accord, VIN ending 4837” works; “my car” does not if you own two.
A residuary beneficiary. Whatever is left after specific bequests passes to this person or organization. Skipping this creates a partial intestacy for anything you did not list.

Without a will, Maryland’s intestacy laws distribute your property along bloodlines and degrees of kinship, which may not match what you want.⁴ The point of filling out the form carefully is to replace that default with your own instructions.

Assets the Form Will Not Control

Before you decide what to put in the will, know what the will cannot touch. Certain assets pass automatically to a named beneficiary or surviving co-owner no matter what the will says:

Retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs with a beneficiary designation on file
Life insurance policies with a named beneficiary
Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts at banks and brokerages
Jointly held property with right of survivorship, including tenancy by the entirety between spouses
Property held in a revocable living trust

If your will leaves your IRA to your daughter but the custodian’s records name your ex-spouse as beneficiary, the ex-spouse gets the IRA. The beneficiary designation wins every time. Review those designations alongside the will so they tell the same story.

Signing and Witnessing the Will

Maryland Estates and Trusts § 4-102 requires three things, and missing any of them can invalidate the entire document. The will must be:

In writing. Oral wills are not recognized.
Signed by you, or by someone else at your direction and in your physical presence.
Witnessed by at least two credible witnesses who sign the will in your presence.¹

A credible witness is someone who can observe the signing and later confirm it happened. As a practical matter, pick witnesses who are not named as beneficiaries in the will. Maryland does not have a clear statute stripping gifts from interested witnesses, but using disinterested witnesses removes any basis for a challenge.

Have each witness print their full name and address clearly below their signature. The Register of Wills will need that information when the will is offered for probate, and illegible writing causes delays.

The Witness Recital, Not a Notarized Affidavit

Many states let you attach a notarized self-proving affidavit so witnesses do not have to testify during probate. Maryland is one of the few states that does not recognize self-proving affidavits.⁵ Do not pay a notary for one; it has no legal effect here.

Instead, the Register of Wills will treat the will as properly executed if it appears to be signed and witnessed correctly and contains a recital by the attesting witnesses of the facts showing due execution.⁶ In plain terms, include a short statement near the witness signatures confirming that the witnesses watched you sign the will voluntarily while appearing to be of sound mind. Most Maryland will templates already include this language. If you are drafting your own, a sentence or two from each witness reciting that they saw you sign and that you appeared competent is enough to satisfy § 5-303.

Remote and Electronic Signing

Since 2020, Maryland has allowed electronic wills and remote witnessing, but the requirements are heavier than for an in-person signing. The session must take place over real-time audio-visual technology, and a supervising attorney admitted to practice in Maryland must be present throughout.⁷ Each remote witness must be a U.S. resident physically located in the United States at the time of signing, and the attorney is responsible for producing a certified paper version containing all the signatures. Most people doing a simple will still sign at a kitchen table with two neighbors.

Storing or Depositing the Signed Will

Once the will is signed and witnessed, you can deposit the original with the Register of Wills in the county where you live. The fee is $5.⁸ You can deliver it in person or mail it with payment. Enclose the will in a sealed wrapper endorsed with your name, address, and Social Security number if available. The Register notes the date received and the person who delivered it, then stores the document securely.⁹

While you are alive, the deposited will stays sealed and confidential; it can be returned only to you or to someone you authorize in writing. After your death, the Register opens it, notifies the Personal Representative, and holds it until the estate is opened.

Safekeeping is optional, but the $5 is cheap insurance. Home-stored originals get lost in moves, damaged in floods, or thrown out by relatives cleaning a house. A lost original creates a presumption that you revoked the will, which can push your estate into intestacy even though you signed a valid document.

Changing or Revoking the Will Later

Maryland recognizes only four ways to revoke a will. Crossing out a paragraph with a pen is not enough unless the marks actually touch the words of the will.

Execute a new will that expressly revokes the old one or contains inconsistent provisions. This is the cleanest method; most new wills open with “I hereby revoke all prior wills and codicils.”
Physically destroy the will by burning, tearing, canceling, or obliterating it, done by you personally or by someone else at your express direction and in your presence.¹⁰
Marry after signing and then have, adopt, or legitimize a child who survives you. Wills signed before that marriage are automatically revoked.
Divorce or annul the marriage after signing. Every provision benefiting your former spouse is automatically revoked; the rest of the will stands.¹⁰

For a small change, you can execute a codicil instead of rewriting the whole will. A codicil must meet the same signing and witnessing requirements as the will itself. For anything beyond a minor tweak, a new will with a revocation clause is simpler and less likely to create contradictions.

The divorce rule catches many people off guard. If you divorce and do nothing, the will is read as though your former spouse died before you, so property originally left to the ex may pass to an alternate beneficiary, fall into the residue, or drop into intestacy. Update the will after any major life change rather than relying on automatic revocation to produce the result you want.

1
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 4-102
2
The Office of the Register of Wills. Forms – Register of Wills
3
Maryland Courts. Glossary of Terms
4
Maryland Register of Wills. Intestate Succession – Register of Wills
5
Legal Information Institute. Self-Proving Will
6
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 5-303 – Proof of Execution of Will
7
Maryland General Assembly. House Bill 1261 Chapter 686 – Electronic Wills
8
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 2-206 – Charge and Collection of Fees
9
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 4-202 – Deposit of Will During Lifetime of Testator
10
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 4-105 – Revocation