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!"

University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

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

managing attorney

Arden Law Firm, LLC

Current

Adjunct Faculty

St. Joseph's University

Current

Maryland State Bar

Member

2003 - Current

Maryland

Since 2003

• 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.

• General Civil

Q. Need correct Maryland annotated code for $0 consideration Quitclaim deed transfer to LLC.

March 19, 2025

A: While deeds are not terribly complex, tax exempt deeds often have very exacting requirements. Our law firm regularly assists with exempt transfers to LLCs in MD so we're quite familiar with this.

Md. Ann Code, Tax Property Sect. 12-108 is the correct statute, but subsection (y) deals with predecessor entities. So if for example you & your husband had a LLP and were dissolving that and transferring the LLP's property to an LLC and the interests of both entities were identical, then (y) would be the section to use. It does not sound like you had any predecessor entity but instead that you & your husband simply held in your individual names. Thus it makes sense that the clerk is rejecting.

There are other code provisions in Tax Property 12-108 that may or may not apply, depending on the circumstances. You could either go through the 20+ different exemptions (only a few of these relate to entities), see if any others apply and if one does document each element of that exemption, or you might ask a real estate attorney to assist with the deed. An attorney cannot tell you what exemption might apply without knowing more about the specific circumstances.

While not legal advice I hope this helps answer your question. ... Read More

Q. Which power of attorney for uncle in nursing home in MD?

March 8, 2025

A: Generally there are two types of Powers of Attorney in Maryland: Health Care and Financial. They each appoint an agent, the health care agent to manage health care and the financial agent to manage financial and related affairs. Most people should have both. These are generally NOT combined in a "dual" document, instead they are two separate documents each giving a separate type of authority.

You may have been thinking of a "durable" Power of Attorney which can be a General Durable Power of Attorney - the "Durable" simply means that if the Planner ever becomes incapacitated, the Power of Attorney continues. Maryland law allows a limited Power of Attorney (for example, one can designate someone with authority only to handle real estate, or can give general authority but limit it to a 6 month time period, so forth and so on), however most of the time general authority is more appropriate.

Naturally the planner themselves (here, your uncle) is the one who needs to decide what he wants, ideally in consultation with his attorney. A word of caution -- someone "unable to make most decisions independently" may lack the requisite capacity to even create an Power of Attorney at all. There is a time for planning, and a time when it is too late and other options (such as guardianship) might need to be explored.

While not legal advice, I hope this general information helps. ... Read More

Q. Can I move inherited MD property to my trust with step-up basis?

March 7, 2025

A: Although an attorney cannot answer specific questions about a specific Trust without seeing the Trust terms, generally speaking there is a stepped-up basis for inherited property. There are different kinds of Trusts and the post doesn't say what kind is involved here but for a typical Revocable Trust there should be a full stepped up basis, (the answer is more complicated for any type of Irrevocable Trust).

So if property goes from Parent to Child after the Parent's death, the child receives a stepped-up basis.

What happens next depends on what the Trust says. Property must be distributed the way the Trust says. In some Trusts, there is room for keeping things going in the same trust for the benefit of the next generation. However, if the Trust says distribute to parent's 2 children free and clear of further Trust, then the 2 children would get this out of the trust in their names and it would need to pass through children's hands (even if immediately going somewhere else). If after receiving the property from a parent, a Child then sets up their own Revocable Trust that benefits themselves during their lifetime, then Child's own children after Child's death, the Child's descendants would themselves get a new stepped up basis (assuming that is still a part of tax law at the time of distribution).

Since your questions are tax-related it would be well advised to seek the advice of a qualified tax professional who can look at the specifics and assist with your tax return(s).

While not legal advice I hope the above information helps. ... Read More