Maryland Intestate Succession: Who Inherits When There Is No Will

When someone dies in Maryland without a valid will, state law takes over and dictates who receives the estate. This is called intestate succession, and the rules are more specific — and more recently updated — than most families realize.

Maryland made sweeping changes to its intestacy code effective October 1, 2023. Those changes significantly increased what a surviving spouse receives, extended equal rights to registered domestic partners, and eliminated several situations where a spouse used to share the estate with the decedent's parents. If you are settling an estate where someone died without a will, the 2023 rules apply to any death occurring on or after that date.

The Core Principle: Probate Assets Only

Intestate succession applies only to probate assets — property held solely in the decedent's name at the time of death, or property held as tenants in common. It does not affect:

• Bank accounts with a named payable-on-death beneficiary
• Retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s) with named beneficiaries
• Life insurance proceeds with named beneficiaries
• Property held as joint tenants with right of survivorship (passes automatically to the surviving owner)
• Property held in a revocable living trust

Those assets pass according to their beneficiary designations or title arrangements regardless of whether a will exists. Intestacy governs only the assets that have no other legal mechanism to transfer them.

Who Inherits Under Maryland's Intestacy Rules

The 2023 changes fundamentally restructured how Maryland distributes estates when no will exists. Here is what the law says now for common family scenarios:

Surviving Spouse (or Registered Domestic Partner) with Minor Children

The spouse or registered domestic partner receives one-half of the net estate. The minor children share the remaining one-half equally. If a child predeceased the decedent but had children of their own (the decedent's grandchildren), those grandchildren step into their parent's share.

This scenario has not changed dramatically from prior law — it has always been a split between the spouse and minor children.

Surviving Spouse with Adult Children Who Are Also the Spouse's Children

This is where the 2023 law made its most dramatic change. Under the old rules, if a couple had adult children together, those adult children received a share of the intestate estate alongside the surviving parent. Under the 2023 revision, if all of the decedent's surviving adult children are also the biological or legally adopted children of the surviving spouse, the spouse inherits 100% of the estate. The adult children receive nothing from the intestate estate.

This change aligns with how most families actually intend their estates to work — leaving everything to the surviving spouse — and eliminates the friction that used to arise when adult children had unexpected legal claims against a parent's estate.

Surviving Spouse with Adult Children from a Prior Relationship

If the decedent had adult children who are not the children of the surviving spouse (from a prior relationship, for example), the distribution is:

• The surviving spouse receives the first $100,000 plus one-half of the remaining net estate.
• The non-shared adult children divide the balance.

Before the 2023 revisions, the spouse's initial carve-out was only $40,000. The increase to $100,000 provides substantially more protection for surviving spouses in blended family situations.

Surviving Spouse with No Children, but Surviving Parents

Under the old law, if a couple had been married fewer than five years and the decedent had surviving parents, the parents received a share of the estate. The 2023 law eliminated this entirely. Now, regardless of how long the marriage lasted, a surviving spouse inherits 100% when there are no surviving children. The decedent's parents receive nothing.

Children Only (No Surviving Spouse)

If there is no surviving spouse or registered domestic partner, the estate passes entirely to the children in equal shares. If a child predeceased the decedent, that child's share passes to their own children (the decedent's grandchildren), and so on down the line. This is called per stirpes distribution.

Other Family Members (When No Spouse or Children Survive)

If neither a spouse nor children survive, the estate passes in this order:

1. Parents
2. Siblings (and their descendants if a sibling predeceased the decedent)
3. Grandparents
4. Aunts and uncles (and their descendants)
5. The State of Maryland (escheat) if no relatives can be identified

Registered Domestic Partners

As of 2023, registered domestic partners have equal intestacy rights as surviving spouses. A domestic partner who is formally registered with the state under Maryland's domestic partnership law receives exactly the same share a spouse would receive under the intestacy rules. They are also entitled to the $10,000 family allowance during probate administration and are fully exempt from the Maryland inheritance tax.

The critical qualifier is registered. A long-term partner who never completed the state registration process has no intestate rights, regardless of the length or depth of the relationship. Unregistered partners inherit nothing under Maryland's intestacy laws and are treated as collateral heirs (subject to the 10% inheritance tax) if they receive anything under a will.

The Family Allowance: A Priority Distribution

Independent of the intestacy distribution, Maryland law guarantees an immediate cash allowance to the immediate family that is paid out before most creditors are satisfied during probate:

• Surviving spouse or registered domestic partner: $10,000, for personal use
• Each unmarried minor child under 18: $5,000 per child

These allowances are not taken from the intestate share — they are separate priority disbursements. A surviving spouse who receives the family allowance and then inherits 100% of the estate gets both. The allowances are paid by the personal representative early in the administration process, not at the conclusion of the estate.

Dying Without a Will in Maryland: What the Administration Looks Like

When no will exists, the court cannot appoint the executor you might have chosen. Instead, the Register of Wills applies a statutory priority list to determine who has the right to serve as personal representative (the term Maryland uses for executor):

1. Surviving spouse or registered domestic partner
2. Children (in order of age, or by consensus among children)
3. Parents
4. Siblings
5. Other heirs

If the person highest on the list declines or is unavailable, the right passes to the next in line. If family members at the same priority level cannot agree, the Register of Wills may appoint one of them or, in some cases, a neutral third party.

The administration process for an intestate estate is otherwise the same as a testate estate. The personal representative must still open the estate with the Register, file the inventory and information report, publish notice to creditors, and distribute assets in accordance with the intestacy schedule rather than a will.

The Maryland Augmented Estate and Intestate Estates

Maryland's 2020 augmented estate law was designed specifically for situations where a will exists but the surviving spouse was disinherited through non-probate transfers. It is less directly applicable to purely intestate estates — if there is no will, the surviving spouse already receives their statutory intestate share.

However, the augmented estate framework can still come into play if a spouse believes the intestate distribution significantly undervalues what they are owed. The interaction between the augmented estate calculation and an intestate distribution is a complex legal question best addressed with a Maryland estate attorney in situations involving large non-probate transfers and a surviving spouse who may be disadvantaged by the default rules.

What to Do If There Is No Will

If you are in the position of settling a Maryland estate without a will:

1. File the estate with the Register of Wills in the county where the decedent lived. The filing process is the same whether or not a will exists.
2. Determine whether it qualifies as a small estate. If the total gross probate assets are $50,000 or less (or $100,000 if the surviving spouse is the sole heir), the simplified small estate process applies.
3. Identify all interested persons — everyone who would inherit under the 2023 intestacy rules. They must all be notified as part of the administration process.
4. Apply the current distribution formula — not the rules you might have heard about from a previous generation's experience. The 2023 changes are substantial enough that outdated information can create real problems.

The Maryland Estate Settlement Guide covers the full intestate administration process, including the paperwork sequence, the family allowance mechanics, and how to handle the distribution calculation when the estate involves a mix of probate and non-probate assets. It also addresses the practical questions that come up in real administration — what happens to jointly held property, how creditors are paid before distribution, and what the timeline looks like from filing to final distribution.

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