Cedulie Renee Laumann

Attorney Cedulie Laumann is the managing attorney and founding member of small law firm in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The firm handles real estate, small business, and estate/trust matters.

She enjoys helping clients reach positive solutions to their legal needs. Her firm employs innovative "flat fee" billing arrangements and fee options outside the traditional hourly based approach.

"Legal Answers & Representation Relevant to YOUR needs!"

• General Civil

• Free Consultation
  10 minute no-cost free phone consult. Call 410-216-7000. We can answer many quick questions for free, or browse our website for common answers to deed, trust and other questions. Or schedule a private, in-depth consultation (1hr - 1.5 hrs) with Managing Attorney (10-20 years experience) for a flat $300 consult fee for most matters. 100% of the paid consult fee is applied towards estate planning
• Credit Cards Accepted
  Mastercard, Visa, Discover, American Express Credit cards are only accepted for attorney fees, not for any government fees, third party fees or taxes.
• Rates, Retainers and Additional Information
  10 min no cost initial consult by phone or email. Flat fee consultations for up to 1.5 hour attorney meeting. Flat fee billing option for most matters we handle, including Estate Planning (Trusts, Wills, etc.), Business Formation (LLCs, etc.) and Real Estate (Deeds, contracts, etc.) See our pricing guide on our website for representative fees or call us. While all the firm's clients are given clear understanding of fees up-front, this list is not a promise to represent, some situations may require additional work and no attorney/client relationship is formed unless we meet and both agree.

Maryland

Since 2003

managing attorney

Arden Law Firm, LLC

Current

Adjunct Faculty

St. Joseph's University

Current

University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

Honors: Order of the Coif Top 10% of Graduating Class

Maryland State Bar

Member

2003 - Current

Q. Can my mom buy a house in MD, but put only my name on the title?

April 22, 2025

A: At least 2 other options would avoid probate without triggering the need for a gift tax return and without losing the stepped up basis as would happen with an outright gift purchase. One such option is to hold the property in a Revocable Living Trust, the other would be to hold through a life estate deed with full powers. A third option would be owning as joint tenants with right of survivorship, which would require a gift tax return for 1/2 of the value but which would at least provide a partial stepped up basis.

The original post mentions the existence of a living trust though it isn’t clear why the existing trust wouldn’t be utilized to acquire title to the new property.



If for whatever reason the intent was to deal with this specific home separately from the existing trust, a life estate deed may provide a very straight-forward transfer option that allows the property to stay your mother’s principal residence and transfer the property outside of probate by operation of law at her death.

Your mom is strongly encouraged to talk through the specifics with an attorney before making the purchase. While responses on this online platform are not legal advice, I hope this response helps. ... Read More

Q. Steps to transfer a home from a trust to a single beneficiary in Maryland.

April 12, 2025

A: The post mentions both an executor, an estate and a trust. While it might be tempting to think of all of these things as the same (they all help pass property from the person who died to the beneficiaries), from a legal standpoint they are quite different. If the property is in a Trust, it will not come into the Executor (Personal Representative)'s hands. Instead the Trustee of the Trust would control and distribute. On the other hand, if the home is handled by the Executor of the probate estate, it would need to be described on an accounting filed with the court and the Personal Representative could distribute to a single beneficiary upon filing an agreement of heirs with the accounting.

If the home is in the Trust and the Trustee is managing it, the Trustee will usually need to distribute as per the Trust instrument (many Trusts will restrict the right of beneficiaries to assign). This would be by means of a deed. It is not uncommon for family to agree on an alternate distribution. In that case, an attorney will often prepare and file back to back deeds to accomplish the agreed-upon result. Whether or not any taxes apply depends heavily on the circumstances.

Inheritance tax in MD only applies if the beneficiary is not an immediate family member or descendant. So if the intended beneficiary is a child or grandchild of the person who died, inheritance tax would not apply, while if they were a niece or nephew for example it would. Besides inheritance tax, Maryland also has a "death tax" that applies to large estates and the federal government has additional death taxes that apply to very large estates. Additionally, transfer and recordation taxes may or may not be assessed on a deed depending on the situation (usually transfers out of an estate or trust to an exempt person are exempt from transfer tax).

Our firm regularly handles estate and trust transfers, as do many other firms, and usually a 10-15 minute conversation can clarify the exact steps necessary. A deed would be required, but the other steps will vary. I note that while another post mentions "disclaimers" that is a very precise legal term and sometimes by disclaiming heirs accidentally and unintentionally complicate things (a disclaimer acts as though the person disclaiming died first, it is not the same as as assigning an interest from one heir to another). Bottom line, family agreeing that one person gets the house is a relatively common scenario but one that would be best navigated with legal counsel.

The above is intended as helpful general information and not a substitute for legal advice. ... Read More

Q. Citation for Maryland Code tax exemption in property transfers to revocable trust.

April 2, 2025

A: State transfer tax exemptions are contained in section 12-108 of the Tax Property article of the Maryland Annotated Code. State recordation tax exemptions are contained in section 13-207 of the same article. Local transfer tax codes will vary from county to county. Yes, some jurisdictions in MD require specific additional verbiage for such a deed to be exempt from transfer and recordation tax. The post mentions a warranty deed but it would be quite unusual in Maryland to use a warranty deed for a transfer to the Grantor's Revocable Living Trust.

While deeds are not terribly complex, it is generally prudent to have a real estate attorney prepare a deed (and while the law allows a party to prepare their own deed if they wish, it is illegal for anyone to prepare a deed in MD for another person if they are not an attorney) The cost to have an attorney prepared deed is usually minimal while errors can be very costly to fix.

While not legal advice I hope this helps. ... Read More