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Maryland Reforms Intestacy Laws – What Does This Mean for You? Recently, lawmakers in Maryland reformed the intestate succession laws to give more preference to spouses and create inheritance rights for registered domestic partners. Additional reforms adjust inheritance preferences in other ways. What does this mean for you and your family? As with most legal changes, the answer depends on your circumstances. Intestacy Laws Determine Who Inherits Property When There’s No Will The laws of intestate succession in Maryland determine who will receive a deceased person’s property when they haven’t created a will or the will they left is determined to be invalid by the court. Dying without a will leaves you “intestate.” If you and your loved ones worked with an estate planning attorney to create a will or other estate planning documents and the documents have been reviewed in recent years to determine that they are still valid, then the changes in intestacy laws should not affect your family at all. In situations where someone created a revocable living trust to avoid probate and some of their property did not get transferred into the trust, that property could pass according to intestate succession laws unless there is a pour-over will to funnel that property into the trust or a traditional will covering remaining property.