---
type: "Bill"
title: "Estates and Trusts - Maryland Trust Act - Governing Law of Trust Provisions"
description: "Estates and Trusts - Maryland Trust Act - Governing Law of Trust Provisions"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2018"
identifier: "HB 491"
citation: "Maryland HB 491 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Estates and Trusts", "Estates and Trusts", "Jurisdiction", "Laws and Ordinances"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["West and Hettleman"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 13
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2018-01-25"
last_action: "2018-04-24"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/32f5383a-3350-4b14-8068-8547b380657e"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?id=HB491&stab=01&pid=billpage&tab=subject3&ys=2018rs"
source_hash: "f674b0caecb0db7121918b1f793d7e26647ae324b6b2dea6ee686de39c2dc050"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-md"]
---

# Maryland HB 491 (2018) — Estates and Trusts - Maryland Trust Act - Governing Law of Trust Provisions

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2018RS/bills/hb/hb0491f.pdf)

## Votes

- On Third Reading — **47–0** (pass) · upper
- On Third Reading — **138–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- West and Hettleman — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-01-25** First Reading Health and Government Operations `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-31** Hearing 2/14 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2018-02-27** Favorable Report by Health and Government Operations `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-02-28** Favorable Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-02-28** Second Reading Passed
- **2018-03-02** Third Reading Passed (138-0) `passage`
- **2018-03-05** First Reading Judicial Proceedings `referral-committee`
- **2018-03-26** Favorable Report by Judicial Proceedings `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-03-26** Favorable Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-03-26** Second Reading Passed
- **2018-03-27** Third Reading Passed (47-0) `passage`
- **2018-03-27** Returned Passed
- **2018-04-24** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 258 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/32f5383a-3350-4b14-8068-8547b380657e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).