Maine

Maine is one of the few states that still has a Probate Court in every county — sixteen of
them, with elected, part-time judges who also practise law privately. It is a genuinely
local system, and it has repeatedly been proposed for reform without changing.

Maine's substantive law is the Probate Code, recodified as Title 18-C and built on the Uniform
Probate Code. So the routes are the familiar ones: informal probate on the paperwork through
the register, formal probate before the judge where something is disputed, and unsupervised
administration by default.

Because the judge is part-time and sits in the county Registry of Probate, timetables vary
considerably between counties. Ask the register what the local practice is rather than assuming a
statewide answer.

The Maine estate tax

Maine levies its own estate tax, with an exclusion of $7.16 million for 2026, up from $7
million for 2025 — the figure is indexed and moves each year. That is well below the federal
exemption but high enough that most Maine estates never encounter it. Confirm the current figure
with Maine Revenue Services.

Maine's exclusion is not portable between spouses in the federal sense, so couples close to
the threshold should take advice rather than assume the survivor inherits the unused amount.

Smaller estates

Maine offers a small estate procedure where the estate falls under the statutory ceiling. Ask the
register before opening a full administration.

Before distributing

Let the creditor period run, file the Maine and federal returns where required, and close with a
statement or an accounting.

A Maine will must be in writing, signed by the testator (or by another in the testator's
conscious presence and at their direction), and signed by at least two witnesses. The testator
must be 18 or older and of sound mind.

Holographic wills are valid

Under 18-C M.R.S. § 2-502, a will that does not meet the witnessing requirements is nonetheless
valid as a holographic will, whether or not witnessed, if the signature and material portions
of the document are in the testator's handwriting. The rest may be printed, so a pre-printed
form with the gifts written in by hand can qualify.

Maine does not require the holographic will to be dated. Date it anyway — an undated handwritten
will is exactly the document that produces an argument about which version came last.

Valid still is not advisable. A handwritten will does not name an alternate representative and
rarely disposes of the residue cleanly.

Make an attested will self-proving

Attach a self-proving affidavit before a notary, so no witness need be located afterwards.

Think about the camp

A very large share of Maine estates include a camp or coastal property that has been in the
family for generations, is worth far more than it once was, and that several children want but
none can afford to buy out. Leaving it to them jointly and hoping is how families fall out.

Address it deliberately: an LLC with a written use and cost-sharing agreement, a right of first
refusal, or cash from elsewhere in the estate to equalise. Do it in your lifetime, not in the
executor's.

Also

• Name an alternate personal representative and waive bond.
• A surviving spouse has an elective share whatever the will says.
• Review after a marriage, divorce, birth or a move to Maine.

Yes. A Maine personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services
performed. Maine prescribes no percentage.

What "reasonable" turns on

The size and nature of the estate, the time actually required, the complexity and difficulty of
the work, the skill and any special expertise it demanded, the responsibility assumed, and the
results achieved.

Local practice varies

Because Maine's probate judges are part-time and county-based, what is customary can differ
noticeably from one county to the next. Ask the register or a local practitioner what is usual in
that Probate Court before proposing a figure. A percentage that passes without comment in
Cumberland County may attract a question in Aroostook.

Records decide it

With no schedule to point at, contemporaneous time records are the argument. Dated entries
from the first week.

Unsupervised means unreviewed, not approved

Under Maine's default unsupervised administration nobody examines the fee as it is taken. Any
interested person may petition afterwards, and the burden of justifying the amount sits with the
representative. Agree it in writing with the beneficiaries before taking it.

If the will fixes the figure

A will provision governs. Under the UPC framework the representative may also renounce the will's
provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead.

Tax

Compensation is taxable income to the representative but a deductible administration expense
against the Maine estate tax. Since the Maine exclusion stands at over $7 million, very few
estates get any state tax benefit from it. For a family representative who is also a beneficiary,
taking a fee usually converts an untaxed inheritance into taxable income for nothing. Ask an
accountant.

A Maine personal representative is reimbursed from the estate for the reasonable expenses of
administration, separately from compensation for their time.

Normally claimable

• Funeral, burial or cremation, the headstone, and a reasonable reception.
• Probate Court filing fees, certified letters, certified death certificates, and publication of
  the notice to creditors.
• Attorney's fees, and accountant's fees for the final Form 1040, any Form 1041, and the Maine
  estate tax return where one is due.
• Appraisals of real property, coastal and shorefront land, woodlots and timber, boats and
  moorings, vehicles and collections. Shorefront valuation in Maine is its own art and the
  numbers can be startling.
• Carrying costs on estate property until sale: insurance, property tax, utilities, security,
  maintenance, landscaping and snow removal and roof raking.
• Winterising a camp or house — draining lines, keeping heat on, closing up for the season.
  An empty Maine property through February is a burst-pipe claim, and prevention costs a
  fraction of the repair.
• Mooring fees, boat storage and haul-out, which continue regardless.
• Cleaning, clearing, storing, moving and shipping contents.
• Travel on estate business at a reasonable rate — Maine is large and the coast is slow to drive.
• Bond premiums where bond was not waived.

Normally not claimable

• The representative's lost wages, meals near home, or personal spending.
• Costs run up for one beneficiary's convenience rather than the estate's.
• Improvements beyond preparing a property for sale as it stands.
• Anything without a receipt.

The rule that decides it

Open an estate bank account and run everything through it. Under unsupervised administration
your own ledger is the only account anyone will ever see.

Maine's informal probate makes most estates manageable for a family member with a lawyer's help.
A bank trust department or an attorney serving as personal representative earns its cost in
particular cases.

Consider a professional when

• There is a camp or shorefront property that several children want. This is the Maine case.
  The property is usually worth many times what was paid for it, the tax and carrying costs are
  substantial, and the family executor is one of the siblings competing for it. An independent
  fiduciary removes the conflict that a family member cannot.
• The estate holds timberland, a working farm, or a fishing enterprise with licences and
  traps. Licences in particular do not transfer like ordinary property.
• The estate is near or above the roughly $7 million Maine exclusion, so the state return and
  the valuation choices matter.
• The named representative lives out of state. Very common in Maine, where property is often
  held by families who summer here and live elsewhere — and a part-time county Probate Court is
  hard to deal with remotely.
• There is conflict among the beneficiaries, or a will contest looks likely.
• A beneficiary is a minor or incapacitated, so a trust runs for years.

What it costs

Corporate fiduciaries charge a negotiated percentage with a minimum annual fee that makes small
estates uneconomic. Attorneys generally bill hourly. Because Maine prescribes no percentage, ask
precisely what the basis will be, in writing.

Middle ground

Appoint a family member, waive bond, and let them retain a Maine probate attorney at the estate's
expense. Where a camp is involved, the better answer is usually to solve it in the will — see the
will topic — rather than to hire someone to referee it afterwards.

A named representative who does not want the job can decline before appointment.