Your Car and Your Boat Can Now Skip Probate in Maryland, Too

Relative Ease News · October 20, 2026

Maryland spent October 1 expanding one of the simplest ideas in estate planning: name a beneficiary in advance, and that asset passes directly to that person when you die, outside estate administration. The transfer-on-death deed for houses got most of the attention that day. A second law that took effect the same day covers what is in the driveway and at the dock, and for boats it creates an option that did not exist before.

The law is Senate Bill 145, with House Bill 174 as its companion. It was approved by the Governor on April 14, 2026, as Chapters 73 and 72 of 2026, and took effect October 1. It does two separate things, for motor vehicles and for marine vessels, and the two changes are not the same size.

For cars: co-owners can finally join in

A Marylander who owned a vehicle alone could already name a transfer-on-death beneficiary for it. That was the gap in the old law: if two people owned the vehicle together, there was no mechanism for them to name who should get it after both of them were gone.

That is now fixed, for a specific kind of co-ownership. Multiple people who co-own a motor vehicle as joint tenants with right of survivorship, or as tenants by the entirety, may now apply to the Motor Vehicle Administration to designate a beneficiary. Ownership passes to that beneficiary on the death of the last surviving co-owner, outside estate administration. The Maryland Department of Transportation told the legislature that in fiscal 2025 there were approximately 500,000 vehicles with co-owners on file with the MVA, so this is not a narrow corner case.

The designation appears as the words “transfer-on-death” after the name of the registered owner or owners on the certificate of title. According to MVA guidance summarized this month, only one beneficiary can be named, an individual or a business entity, and the vehicle must currently be titled in Maryland. Once a beneficiary is designated, a corrected title is issued and all previously issued titles are voided, which makes keeping track of which title is current part of the job.

For boats: a first, not an expansion

Vessels had no transfer-on-death mechanism at all under prior Maryland law. Senate Bill 145 creates one. A sole owner of a vessel, or co-owners holding it as joint tenants with right of survivorship or as tenants by the entirety, may now apply to the Department of Natural Resources to designate a beneficiary. As with vehicles, ownership passes on the death of the sole owner or the last surviving co-owner, outside estate administration. Department of Natural Resources figures cited in the legislature’s fiscal analysis put the scale at approximately 132,770 vessels with sole ownership, and at least 2,000 more with co-owners.

What naming a beneficiary does not do

A designation changes nothing while you are alive. It does not affect your ownership until the sole owner or last surviving co-owner dies. You can revoke or change it at any time before then, without the beneficiary’s consent, by applying to the MVA for a vehicle or to the Department of Natural Resources for a vessel. No consideration is required, and the title does not have to be handed to the beneficiary for the designation to be effective.

It also does not erase other claims. The law expressly does not limit creditors’ rights against beneficiaries under other Maryland laws. And it only works if the person you named is still living: if a designated beneficiary does not survive the sole owner or the last surviving co-owner, the vehicle or vessel becomes part of that owner’s estate instead.

What the beneficiary will actually need

The surviving beneficiary applies for a new certificate of title, to the MVA for a vehicle or to the Department of Natural Resources for a vessel. The application must include the original certificate of title designating the beneficiary, a death certificate for the deceased sole owner or for each deceased co-owner, proof of the beneficiary’s identity, and any applicable taxes or fees.

That list is why the paperwork step matters now, while everyone is alive. Consider a generic example: a couple co-owns a car, names their adult child as beneficiary, and files the corrected title away without telling the child where it is. The designation is valid, but the child still has to produce that original title to use it.

A short checklist for Maryland owners

First, look at how your vehicle or vessel is actually titled, because the co-owner option only applies to joint tenants with right of survivorship and tenants by the entirety. Second, record who you named, which agency holds the designation, and where the corrected title is kept. Third, check it against your will and other beneficiary forms, so your documents are not pointing in different directions. Fourth, tell the person you named.

That record is the kind of inventory Relative Ease’s free locker is built to hold, the titles, policies, accounts, and contacts in a plan, in one encrypted place, alongside a directory of licensed estate planning attorneys for the legal decisions themselves.

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