Make your own Maryland will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Legally valid in Maryland. Free to create, or add secure online document storage with the $29/year subscription.
Is a self-written will legal in Maryland?
Yes. Maryland recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is Md. Est. & Trusts §4-101 et seq.
Your will needs to be in writing, signed by you, and witnessed by 2 adults. You don't need a notary for the will itself to be valid, but adding a notarized "self-proving" affidavit makes the probate process faster later (this tool generates that for you automatically).
You must be at least 18 years old and of sound mind. Choose witnesses who don't inherit under your will: some states void or reduce a gift to a witness, and the exact Maryland rule is covered below. This tool walks you through the rules so you don't trip over them.
A will you write yourself has the same legal force as one drafted by an attorney, provided you follow the signing rules. Courts admit self-written wills to probate every day. An attorney's value is in advising on complex estates, not in drafting the document itself.
What it costs to make a will in Maryland
A Maryland estate-planning attorney typically charges $300 to $600 for a simple will, and $1,000 to $1,500 for a will-plus-revocable-trust package. Rates run higher in dense metros and lower in rural areas. Most attorneys bill at $250 to $400 per hour and need one or two meetings to draft a basic will.
You can also write a will entirely from scratch with a sheet of paper and a pen, with no software at all. Maryland requires the same 2-witness signing process regardless of who drafts the document. The risk with a from-scratch will is technical: a missing self-proving affidavit, a witness who's also a beneficiary, or wording that creates ambiguity for the probate court. That's what this tool prevents.
Will.com is free at the document level. The $29/year subscription adds cloud-stored, zero-knowledge-encrypted access so you can edit and update your plan as life changes.
Maryland will requirements at a glance
How it works
- 1
Answer a few questions
About you, your family, and what you own.
- 2
Download your will
A complete, personalized document, formatted for Maryland courts.
- 3
Sign with witnesses
Print and sign in front of 2 adult witnesses. Keep the signed copy somewhere safe.
When you might want an attorney instead
An online will works for most people. It's the right tool when your situation is straightforward: you want to leave your assets to family or friends, you don't have complex tax issues, and you're not anticipating a fight over your estate.
Consider hiring an attorney if any of these apply:
- Your estate is large enough to trigger federal estate tax (over $15 million in 2026) or Maryland estate or inheritance tax.
- You own a business, complex investments, or assets in multiple states or countries.
- You're in a blended family, especially if you want to leave assets to a current spouse while protecting children from a prior relationship.
- You have a child or beneficiary with special needs and want a supplemental-needs trust that won't disqualify them from public benefits.
- You expect someone to contest the will, or you're disinheriting a close family member.
- You have substantial retirement accounts and want sophisticated beneficiary planning.
If none of these apply, an online will is genuinely fine. The legal validity of your will doesn't depend on who drafted it, only on whether Maryland's signing rules were followed.
Self-proving affidavit in Maryland
Maryland recognizes self-proving affidavits. Will.com attaches one to your will: a short statement your witnesses sign in front of a notary, swearing to what they saw when you signed.
A self-proven will skips the requirement to track down witnesses years later for the probate court. It's optional, but adding the affidavit at signing time saves your executor work. Will.com generates the affidavit alongside the will.
Who can witness your will in Maryland
Maryland has no purging statute; Md. Est. & Trusts §4-102(b)(3) requires only 'credible' witnesses, so an interested witness (including a beneficiary) may attest without forfeiture or invalidation. Best practice is still to use two disinterested witnesses. The narrow exception is the remotely-witnessed-will pathway: per Md. Est. & Trusts §4-102(d)(3)(ii), the notary public certifying a remotely-witnessed will may not also be one of the two attesting witnesses. This contrasts with the §17-110(b) POA rule, where the notary CAN double-count as one of the two POA witnesses.
Family changes after you sign
A child born or adopted after the will. A child who arrives after you sign, and who isn't named or accounted for in the will, is covered by Maryland law rather than by your wishes. The safest practice is to update your will when your family changes.
Md. Est. & Trusts §3-301: a will is not revoked by the subsequent birth, adoption or legitimation of a child, except in the circumstances referred to in Md. Est. & Trusts §4-105(3) (§3-301(a)), and that exception is a large one: a subsequent marriage of the testator followed by the birth, adoption or legitimation of a child, where that child or the child's descendant survives the testator, revokes every will executed before the marriage. Such a child, or the issue of such a child who did not survive the testator, is entitled to a share determined and paid under §§3-302 and 3-303 only if all four conditions in §3-301(b) are met: the will contains a legacy for a child of the testator but makes no provision for a person who becomes a child of the testator after the will was executed; the child was born, adopted or legitimated after execution; the child or the child's issue survives the testator; and the will does not expressly state that the child, or the child's issue, should be omitted. The first condition does real work: a will that gives nothing to any child does not trigger §3-301 at all. Providing for the child outside the will does not defeat the share, because the four conditions do not mention outside transfers; only an express statement in the will does. Where the rule applies, §3-302(a) fixes the share at the lesser of the distribution the child would have taken in intestacy or the value of all legacies to children of the testator and issue of deceased children divided by the total number of surviving children and deceased children leaving issue who take, including the pretermitted child; issue of a pretermitted child who did not survive take by representation (§3-302(b)). The share is paid out of the legacies of children and of issue of deceased children taking by representation, each contributing in proportion to what that legacy bears to all such legacies, and a legatee may pay cash or other acceptable property equal to the fair market value of the interest at the testator's death rather than give up an interest in specific property (§3-303).
Two tiers, both private
Free: nothing leaves your browser. No account, no storage. Clear your answers whenever.
Subscription ($29/year): zero-knowledge encrypted storage. We store the ciphertext; only you hold the key. Edit and update as life changes.
Ready to write your will?
Whatever you decide today, your family won’t have to guess. Start free, or save it to your account for $29 a year.