Maryland has finally created a statutory path for treating a Domestic Partner as a spouse for the purposes of Probate of Estates. This Rule change is effective as of October 1, 2023. Domestic Partners may now file certain paperwork, in advance, with the Register of Wills, which guarantees them certain protections and benefits during Estate administration. Each Domestic Partner must submit a Declaration of Domestic Partnership to the Register of Wills. The Register of Wills maintains a Registry of the Registered Partnerships. If you have not Registered in advance, then you may not be treated as a Domestic Partner in the Probate process of an Estate.
Domestic Partners must be at least 18 years old, the sole Domestic Partner of the other, not married, and in a committed relationship with the other partner. Each must complete the Declaration of Domestic Partnership and sign it before a Notary Public. It must be submitted to the Register of Wills in the county of your domicile. There is a fee to file the Declaration. The Registry of Domestic Partners is a non-public Registry. The Register of Wills will, in turn, issue each partner a Certificate of Domestic Partnership with a raised seal.
If a Registered Domestic Partner dies Intestate (without a Will), the other Registered Domestic Partner will be treated the same as a surviving spouse in an Intestacy. They will have the same priority to serve as Personal Representative of the Estate. They will be entitled to the $10,000 Spousal Allowance. They will inherit the same share, under the Maryland Rules of Intestacy, that a surviving spouse would inherit.
Importantly, if one of the partners dies with or without a Will, the surviving Domestic Partner will be exempt from Maryland Inheritance Tax.
There are some benefits to surviving spouses that are not extended to Domestic Partners under the new Rules. Most importantly, a surviving Registered Partner will not have the right by statute to file an Election for an Elective Share of the Augmented Estate of the decedent. The Elective Share Rules in Maryland were generally designed to prevent spouses from disinheriting each other and provide for a disinherited spouse to file a claim for a share of the Augmented Estate. Augmented Estate is complex and includes much more than just the Probate Estate assets; it is beyond the scope of our Guide.
A Domestic Partnership may be terminated generally by mutual consent, by one of the parties, due to abandonment, due to marriage, or due to death.