Annapolis · Anne Arundel County · Maryland Counsel
Flat-fee wills, trusts, and estate plans drafted for Maryland law and your actual family — by Jason C. Johnson, LL.M. in Taxation, in Annapolis or by video, anywhere in Maryland.
Step 1 of 5
Pick the one closest to your situation — you can change it at any point. Your details come next.
Contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship. Prefer to talk now? Call (410) 570-1671.
Jason C. Johnson
Principal Attorney · J.D. (Honors) · LL.M. Taxation
The plans themselves
Young families with children
Guardians named for your children, a trust that holds their inheritance until they're ready for it, and powers of attorney so your spouse can act the day something happens.
Pre-retirees and Maryland homeowners
Keep the house and the retirement accounts out of the Orphans' Court, keep the terms private, and make the transfer to your people clean. If you own real estate — here or in another state — this is usually the conversation.
Families facing long-term care decisions
Protect a lifetime of savings and the family home from nursing-home costs, and still leave something meaningful for the next generation. Options are widest well before care is needed; when it's already urgent, that's crisis planning and we handle it as a paid consultation.
Every plan here is quoted flat, in writing, before a page is drafted.
Two minutes on the form is all it takes to find out which one your family is in.
How planning works here
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A short, low-pressure first conversation for people who want some interaction before deciding to engage. No legal advice is given on the introductory call. Clients ready to move forward go straight into the Legacy Planning Session.
Then we stay available. Families, assets, and Maryland law all change — a plan reviewed every few years keeps doing its job.
Maryland specifics
Maryland taxes estates above $5 million. That figure has been fixed since 2019 and does not rise with inflation. The graduated rate runs from roughly 0.8% at the bottom up to 16%. Portability between spouses exists, but it has to be elected on a timely-filed Maryland return.
Charged on what certain beneficiaries receive rather than on the estate. Spouses, children, parents, grandchildren, and siblings are generally exempt; nieces, nephews, friends, and unmarried partners generally are not. Who you name changes the tax.
The federal exemption is $15 million per person for 2026, indexed for inflation beginning in 2027. A Maryland family can owe nothing federally and still owe Maryland tax on everything above $5 million.
And then there's probate. Maryland estates that pass by will go through the Orphans' Court and the Register of Wills — a public process with statutory notice periods, filings, and fees, and one that gets slower when property sits in more than one state. A funded revocable trust is the usual way to keep an estate out of it entirely.
Maryland taxes estates twice. It's worth having the conversation early.
Jason holds an LL.M. in Taxation and reviews every plan against both Maryland layers and the federal one.
Education
Memberships & recognition
The attorney on your matter
Before the law, Jason spent his career in law enforcement — years of walking into families' worst days and being the person expected to stay calm and tell them the truth. That work shapes how this practice runs: direct answers, no theater, and a plan you can explain back in your own words.
He went on to earn his J.D. with honors from the University of Maryland School of Law and an LL.M. in Taxation from Villanova, and he's been recognized as a What's Up Annapolis Leading Lawyer. He holds membership in the Maryland State Bar Association's Estates & Trusts, Taxation, and Elder Law sections, the Anne Arundel County Bar Association, ElderCounsel, and WealthCounsel.
Jason is the firm's only attorney, and he oversees every client matter from the first conversation through signing. There's no hand-off to a junior associate. Our paralegals are closely involved throughout — they'll often be the ones you speak with on calls, and they sit in on meetings — but the legal work and the decisions behind your plan are Jason's.
Fees are flat and agreed before the work starts, so a question never costs you anything.
Two minutes
Do you own real estate — a Maryland home, a rental, or property in another state?
Do you have children under 18, or a beneficiary who needs protection?
Is yours a blended family — children from a prior relationship?
Do you own a business or a share of one?
Is long-term care for you or a parent a real possibility in the next few years?
Is it more than three years since your documents were drafted — or do you have none?
Get the checklist
A 12-point readiness checklist for Maryland families — what documents you need, who to name, and what to gather before our first call.
What clients say
Straight answers
Most clients go from the Legacy Planning Session to signed documents in four to six weeks. Elder law and crisis Medicaid matters move on their own timeline, and probate follows a different intake entirely.
It's a short, low-pressure first conversation for people who want some interaction before deciding to engage. No legal advice is given on the introductory call. Clients ready to move forward go straight into the Legacy Planning Session, which is where real advice and recommendations happen.
A will directs who receives what and works through Maryland's probate process after death. A trust holds title to your assets during life, so they pass privately, without the court, and on the terms you set. Most complete plans use both — a funded trust for the assets and a pour-over will as the backstop.
Maryland is one of very few states with both. The estate tax applies to estates above $5 million, a figure fixed since 2019. The inheritance tax is charged on what certain beneficiaries receive — close family is generally exempt, nieces, nephews, friends, and unmarried partners generally are not. Who you name changes the tax.
Flat fees, agreed upfront. You know the number before the work starts, and it doesn't move because a matter took another phone call.
No. Clients meet in person at the Annapolis office or by phone and video, whichever suits them — and many do some of both. We serve Anne Arundel, Prince George's, Queen Anne's, Calvert, St. Mary's, and Kent Counties — and clients throughout Maryland. Out-of-state adult children are welcome to join the call.
Jason is the firm's only attorney and oversees every matter from the first conversation through signing. Our paralegals are closely involved too — they'll often be the ones you speak with on calls, and they sit in on meetings.
It's the right firm. That's probate and administration rather than planning — choose Probate in the form and describe what happened, and we'll tell you what Maryland asks of the personal representative and what happens first.
Still have a question that isn't here? That's what the first conversation is for.
Ask it on the form and we'll come back to you with an answer.
