Maryland’s Elective Share

Angela M. Vallario (Associate Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law) has published an article entitled What’s In? What’s Out? What’s All the Fuss About? Maryland’s Elective Share in Light of Schoukroun v. Karsenty, 177 Md. App. 615 (2007), (Cert. Granted April 9, 2008), MSBA Estates and Trusts Newsletter (May 2008).

Here is the abstract of the article as posted on SSRN:

When a Maryland decedent dies with a surviving spouse, the surviving spouse is entitled by law to a minimum amount of the decedent’s estate. This amount is the surviving spouse’s statutory elective share (herein statutory share) and is defined by the Maryland statute as one-third share of the net estate if there is also a surviving issue or one-half of the net estate if there is no surviving issue. The net estate is specifically defined to mean property of the decedent passing by testate succession * * *. Maryland is one of 19 states adhering to a statutory share method that calculates spousal protection as a percentage of probate assets. The obvious problem with this method is that asset ownership just isn’t that simple. Individuals engage in non-probate arrangements such as trusts, joint ownership, life insurance, and retirement, oftentimes making up the bulk of one’s estate, Non-probate assets are not addressed by Maryland’s statute.