A Maryland revocable living trust form is the document you use to create a trust under the Maryland Trust Act, name yourself as trustee, list the people who will inherit, and describe the property the trust will hold. To fill it out properly you need identifying details for everyone involved, a complete inventory of the assets you intend to put in, clear distribution instructions, and signatures that will hold up when a bank or the Land Records office later asks to see the document. The form itself is only half the job: a trust controls property only after you retitle that property into the trust’s name.
Information the Form Asks You to Provide
Start by gathering full legal names and current addresses for every person named in the document. That means you as settlor, the primary trustee (usually you), at least one successor trustee who takes over on your incapacity or death, and each beneficiary. Avoid group descriptions like “my children.” Name each beneficiary individually and state their relationship to you so there is no argument later about who was meant.
Maryland law sets three baseline requirements for a valid trust: a definite beneficiary, the settlor’s intent to create the trust, and duties for the trustee to perform. One rule trips people up on the form: the same person cannot be both the sole trustee and the sole beneficiary.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 14.5-402 – Requirements for Creation of Trust If you plan to be your own sole trustee and your own sole lifetime beneficiary, name at least one remainder beneficiary to inherit after your death, or appoint a co-trustee.
Next, inventory the property you intend to place into the trust. Most forms handle this through an attached schedule or exhibit. For real estate, list the street address and the parcel identification number from your county tax assessment. For bank and brokerage accounts, list the institution and account number. For valuable personal property such as vehicles, jewelry, or artwork, describe each item specifically enough that no one could confuse it with anything else. Anything you leave off the schedule, and later fail to retitle, is not controlled by the trust.
Finally, spell out distributions. You can give specific assets to named beneficiaries, assign percentage shares of the whole, or combine the two. Include contingency instructions for what happens if a beneficiary dies before you do. The more precisely you write this part, the less room there is for disagreement among heirs.
Signing the Trust Document
A Maryland revocable trust can be created either by transferring property to another person as trustee or by declaring that you hold your own property as trustee.2Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 14.5-401 – Creation of Trust The capacity required is the same as what Maryland requires to make a will: you must understand the nature and extent of your property and the effect of signing the document.3New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 14.5-601 – Capacity Required to Create or Amend Revocable Trust
You sign as settlor. If someone other than you serves as trustee, that person signs an acceptance of the trusteeship. When you act as your own trustee, you sign in both capacities on the signature page.
Maryland does not require notarization for a revocable trust to be valid, but have the signatures notarized anyway. A notarized trust is easier to use at the Land Records office when you record a deed into the trust, and financial institutions routinely insist on a notarized trust document or certification before retitling accounts. The notary’s acknowledgment also helps defend the trust against later claims of fraud or undue influence.
Funding the Trust
A signed but unfunded trust is an empty container. The trust only controls property that has been formally retitled in the trust’s name, so funding is where the real work begins.
Real Estate
To transfer real property, prepare and record a new deed with the Division of Land Records in the circuit court for the county where the property sits.4Maryland People’s Law Library. Steps for Recording a Maryland Real Estate Deed The deed changes title from your individual name to your name as trustee. A typical formulation reads “Jane Smith, Trustee of the Jane Smith Revocable Living Trust dated March 1, 2026.” Small mistakes in the legal description or the trustee designation can be expensive to fix.5Maryland Courts. Land Records
Recording fees depend on the document’s length. For a deed of nine pages or fewer involving a principal residence, expect a base fee of $20 plus a $40 surcharge, totaling $60. A deed of ten pages or more for non-residential property carries a $75 base fee plus the $40 surcharge, coming to $115.6Maryland Courts. Recording Fees On the tax side, Maryland exempts transfers of real property to a trust without consideration from recordation tax, transfer tax, and any other state or local excise tax.7Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 14.5-1001 – Transfer of Property to or From Trust Because you are not selling the property to the trust, this exemption applies to the typical living trust funding transfer.
Financial Accounts and Other Assets
Retitle bank accounts, brokerage accounts, and certificates of deposit by contacting each financial institution directly. Rather than handing over the entire trust document, you can provide a certification of trust, a shorter document that confirms the trust exists, identifies the settlor and trustee, states the trustee’s powers, and gives the taxpayer identification number and the name in which title should be held.8Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 14.5-910 – Certification of Trust Most banks accept a certification of trust, though some will ask for excerpts of the trust instrument showing the trustee’s authority for the specific transaction. Plan on one to two weeks per institution.
While you are alive and serving as trustee of your own revocable trust, the trust generally uses your Social Security number for tax reporting rather than a separate Employer Identification Number. After your death, the successor trustee will need to obtain an EIN because the trust becomes a separate taxpaying entity at that point.
After each transfer, review the updated account statements and recorded deeds to confirm the trust’s name appears correctly. Any asset left in your individual name when you die passes through probate rather than through the trust, which defeats the purpose of setting it up.
Pair the Trust With a Pour-Over Will
Even a well-funded trust usually needs a companion pour-over will. The pour-over will acts as a safety net, directing that any assets still in your individual name at death be transferred into the trust and distributed under its terms.9Maryland Register of Wills. Administering Estates in Maryland Without one, forgotten or newly acquired property that was never retitled passes under Maryland’s intestacy laws, which may not match your wishes.
Assets flowing through a pour-over will still pass through probate before reaching the trust. If the total value of probate assets is $50,000 or less, the estate qualifies for Maryland’s simplified small estate process. That threshold rises to $100,000 when a surviving spouse is the sole heir or legatee.10Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 5-601 – Small Estates Keeping the bulk of your property inside the trust keeps probate minimal if the pour-over will only has to sweep up a few overlooked items.
Changing or Canceling the Trust Later
Under Maryland law, a trust is presumed revocable unless its terms expressly state otherwise. That presumption applies to trusts created on or after January 1, 2015.11Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 14.5-602 – Revocation or Amendment of Revocable Trust You can amend or revoke the trust in any of three ways:
- Follow whatever amendment procedure the trust document itself describes, which is usually a written amendment signed by the settlor and delivered to the trustee. You satisfy the requirement by substantially complying with that method.
- If the trust does not make its own method exclusive, amend or revoke it through a later will or codicil that expressly refers to the trust by name.
- Any other method, if you demonstrate your intent by clear and convincing evidence.
If multiple settlors funded the trust, each settlor can revoke or amend only the portion traceable to their own contribution, and the trustee must promptly notify the other settlors when one of them makes a change.11Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 14.5-602 – Revocation or Amendment of Revocable Trust An agent under a power of attorney can revoke or amend the trust only if both the trust document and the power of attorney expressly authorize that action. A court-appointed guardian can do so only with court approval and only if the trust does not prohibit it. Incapacity alone does not convert your revocable trust into an irrevocable one; it simply means someone else may need court authorization to make changes on your behalf.3New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 14.5-601 – Capacity Required to Create or Amend Revocable Trust When you fully revoke the trust, the trustee must return all trust property to you as directed.
What the Form Does Not Do
A revocable living trust does not shield assets from your own creditors while you are alive. Because you retain the power to revoke the trust and take the property back, courts and creditors treat the assets as yours. Lawsuits, tax liens, and debt judgments can reach trust property just as easily as property held in your individual name. If creditor protection is the goal, a revocable trust is the wrong tool; that requires an irrevocable structure with different trade-offs, including giving up control over the transferred property.
A revocable trust also does not reduce your taxable estate. Because you retain the power to revoke and reclaim the property, the IRS and Maryland both treat the trust assets as part of your estate for estate tax calculations. The federal basic exclusion amount for 2026 is $15,000,000 per individual.12Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax Maryland imposes its own estate tax with a $5 million exemption and rates up to 16 percent, and a separate inheritance tax of 10 percent on property passing to beneficiaries who are not lineal descendants, spouses, or other close relatives. The state and federal taxes operate independently, so a Maryland estate can owe state estate tax even when the federal exemption shelters it from federal tax. The trust’s benefit is administrative: it moves assets to your beneficiaries outside the public probate process. It does not change the tax owed.