Maryland probate deadlines: two widely repeated errors

Two Maryland probate deadlines are published in a form that does not match the statute, and both trace to the same place: the Register of Wills’ own plain-language guide. Neither is a case of careless writing — the guide sends readers to the wrong figure by cross-reference, and summaries inherit it. Here is what the statute says, exactly where the other number comes from, which sources get it right, and the date that is safe either way.

Error 1: the creditor claim bar is not 30 days after notice

You will read in a number of places that a creditor’s claim against a Maryland estate is barred at the earlier of six months after death or 30 days after the personal representative delivers notice.

The Register of Wills’ deadline chart says the second limb is two months, not 30 days. The chart lists claims as due on or before the earlier of six months from the date of death, or “2 months after the personal representative mails or otherwise delivers to a creditor a copy of the published notice or other written notice.” Est. & Trusts § 8-103(a) reads the same way.

Where the 30-day figure actually comes from

This is the part worth knowing, because the answer is not “somebody made it up.” Thirty days is a real Maryland deadline, correctly stated, in the place almost everyone is reading it from.

The Register of Wills publishes a long plain-language guide, Administration of Estates. That guide sets out the claims rule in exactly one place — Section 5, Small Estates — where it says a claim must be presented within the earlier of six months after death or “30 days after the personal representative mails or otherwise delivers to the creditor” the notice. For a small estate that is right, and it matches § 5-603(b).

Section 6, Regular Estates, does not restate the rule. Under its list of filings it says simply: Claims — See “Small Estates”. Section 7, Modified Administration, says the same thing.

So a personal representative administering an ordinary estate, following the state’s own cross-reference from the section that governs their estate, arrives at the small-estate number. They have done everything right and still ended up with 30 days, when § 8-103(a) gives them two months. Any summary written the same way inherits it, which is how a cross-reference in one document travels outward.

Plenty of sources do get this right

We should say clearly that this is not universal, because we checked rather than assumed. The Maryland People’s Law Library — run by the Thurgood Marshall State Law Library, a court-related agency of the Maryland Judiciary — states the claims rule correctly as two months and cites § 8-103. So do a number of Maryland probate firms, some of which spell out the distinction explicitly as “two months (30 days for small estates).” If you want one secondary source for Maryland deadlines, the People’s Law Library timeline is the one we would send you to, and it is free.

What believing the wrong figure could cost you

Thirty days is shorter than two months, so the error makes the claims window look like it closes sooner than it does. A personal representative who believes the bar has fallen and distributes the estate on that basis may find a valid claim arriving afterwards, against an estate that no longer holds the assets to pay it. That is the scenario the deadline exists to prevent, and it is the one the wrong number walks you into.

Error 2: the “9 months after filed” limb for subsequent accounts

The second figure you will see repeated is that accounts after the first are due at the earlier of six months after the prior account was approved, or nine months after the prior account was filed.

Here the state’s own materials say three different things, which is worth seeing side by side:

• Est. & Trusts § 7-305(a) — the statute — requires the first account within nine months of appointment, and then an account “within 6 months after” the preceding one, and within six months after each account thereafter until the final account is filed. There is no nine-month limb for accounts after the first.
• The Register’s deadline chart says: “Within 6 Months from the order file date of the preceding account.”
• The Register’s guide, Section 6, says subsequent accounts are due “at the first to occur of either six (6) months from the date the prior Account was approved or nine (9) months after the prior Account was filed.”

So the nine-month limb is not unsourced — it comes from the Register’s guide, and anyone repeating it is repeating the state. But it is not in the statute, and the statute is the law; a plain-language guide is a summary of it. The three formulations also key off different events: the day you file an account, the day the court approves it, and the day the approval order is docketed are three different dates, and they can be months apart.

The date that is safe under all three

You do not have to resolve the conflict to stay clear of it, because one date satisfies every version. Approval always comes on or after filing, so six months from filing is on or before six months from approval, and it is well before nine months from filing.

Count six months from the date you filed the prior account. An account filed by that date is timely under the statute, under the chart and under the guide, whichever one your county applies. If you want the later date instead, that is exactly the question to put to your Register’s office or your attorney before relying on it — and the Orphans’ Court can extend the time for good cause, which is a request made before the deadline, not after.

The practical risk here runs the other way from Error 1: the longer reading invites a late filing, and late accounts are what draw the Register’s attention.

How to check any Maryland deadline yourself in about a minute

You do not need us for this, and that is rather the point.

Start with the Register of Wills’ deadline chart. It is a single page listing every filing deadline in the administration, published by the office you will actually be filing with, and it is the fastest check available.

Then read the section itself. The Estates & Trusts article is published in full and is searchable. Reading one section is less daunting than it sounds, and where a summary and the statute disagree, the statute is the law and the summary is a description of it. Both errors on this page are visible the moment you do this.

Watch for the track. Before you accept any Maryland number, establish whether it applies to a regular estate, a small estate, or modified administration. Most of the contradictions you will encounter are not really contradictions — they are correct answers to a question about a different track, and Error 1 above is exactly that.

Follow the cross-reference all the way. When a guide sends you to another section for a rule, check whether the rule you land on was written for the track you are actually on. That single habit would catch the most widely repeated deadline error in Maryland probate.

What we are not saying

We are not accusing anyone of carelessness. We have named the Register’s guide and its section numbers because that is the checkable origin and it is the useful part of this page — but naming it is not a complaint about the Register of Wills, whose offices are the most helpful part of Maryland probate. The guide is a plain-language summary of a long statute, its small-estate figure is correct where it sits, and the cross-reference that carries it into the wrong section is the kind of thing that survives in any long document. We have not named any private site that repeated it, because they were following the state.

We also have to include ourselves, three times now. We published the 30-day creditor figure on our own Maryland pages before checking it against the statute. The first version of this page, on 8 August 2026, said we could not find any primary source for the nine-month limb and implied there was none — it was in the Register’s guide the whole time, and we had checked two state publications rather than searching properly. And the rewrite we published earlier on 12 August 2026 claimed AI search assistants were returning the 30-day figure as the general rule for Maryland. We withdrew that the same day: the search we based it on had the phrase “30 days after the personal representative” in the query itself, so it retrieved and echoed exactly what we had fed it. Asked neutrally, the assistants we tested returned the correct two-month rule. A test you have contaminated is not evidence, and we should have caught that before publishing it.

The point is narrower and duller than an accusation: on the specific numbers that determine whether you are on time, no summary is a substitute for the statute — not the guides, not the law firms, and not us. Read the section.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Maryland creditor claim deadline 30 days or 2 months after notice?

For a regular estate it is two months. The Register of Wills' deadline chart lists claims as due on or before the earlier of six months from the date of death, or two months after the personal representative mails or otherwise delivers notice to a creditor, and Est. & Trusts § 8-103(a) reads the same way. The 30-day figure that circulates widely is the small estate rule under § 5-603(b), applied to the wrong track.

Where does the 30-day figure come from, if it is wrong?

From the Register of Wills' own guide, where it is correctly stated for a different kind of estate. The guide sets out the claims rule only in Section 5, Small Estates, using the 30-day figure that § 5-603(b) gives small estates. Section 6, Regular Estates, does not restate the rule — it says ‘Claims — See “Small Estates”’, and Section 7 does the same. A personal representative on a regular estate who follows that cross-reference lands on the small-estate number instead of the two months § 8-103(a) gives them, and every summary written the same way inherits it.

When are subsequent administration accounts actually due in Maryland?

Maryland's own materials give three formulations. § 7-305(a) requires an account within six months after the preceding one, with no nine-month limb. The Register's deadline chart says within six months from the order file date of the preceding account. The Register's guide, Section 6, says the first to occur of six months from approval or nine months from filing. Six months from the date you filed the prior account is on or before all three, so an account filed by then is timely under every version.

Is the nine-month figure for subsequent accounts simply made up?

No. It is published by the Register of Wills in Section 6 of its Administration of Estates guide, so anyone repeating it is repeating the state. It is not in § 7-305(a), though, and where a plain-language guide and the statute differ the statute is the law. This page said the opposite when it was first published on 8 August 2026 — we had not found the source and wrongly implied there was none. Corrected 12 August 2026.

What happens if I rely on the wrong creditor deadline?

The 30-day figure is shorter than the true two months, so it makes the claims window appear to close earlier than it does. A personal representative who distributes on that basis can face a valid claim arriving against an estate that no longer holds assets to satisfy it. Whether that creates personal exposure depends on the facts, and it is a question for an attorney rather than for a website.

How can I verify a Maryland deadline myself?

Use the Register of Wills' deadline chart first — it is one page, published by the office you file with, and it covers every filing in the administration. Then read the relevant section of the Estates & Trusts article, which is published in full. Before accepting any figure, establish which track it applies to: regular estate, small estate, or modified administration. Most apparent contradictions are correct answers about a different track.

Has ExecutorPilot published these errors too?

Yes, twice. We published the 30-day creditor figure on our own Maryland pages before checking it against the statute, and corrected it across the site. Then the first version of this page, on 8 August 2026, claimed the nine-month account limb had no primary source — when it was in the Register's own guide all along, and we had simply checked two state publications rather than searching properly. We rewrote this page on 12 August 2026 rather than quietly editing the line. The reliable move is not picking a trusted website, it is reading the statute, including against us.