Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Maine is a genuine marriage-length sliding-scale state: the share rises with years married rather than sitting at one flat number. 50% of the ‘marital-property portion’ of the augmented estate; that portion = augmented estate x a marriage-length percentage: under 1 yr 3%, 1-2 yrs 6%, 2-3 yrs 12%, 3-4 yrs 18%, 4-5 yrs 24%, 5-6 yrs 30%, 6-7 yrs 36%, 7-8 yrs 42%, 8-9 yrs 48%, 9-10 yrs 54%, 10-11 yrs 60%, 11-12 yrs 68%, 12-13 yrs 76%, 13-14 yrs 84%, 14-15 yrs 92%, 15+ yrs 100%
What Maine actually sets out
| What the statute sets out | What it says |
|---|---|
| 18-C M.R.S. Sec. 2-202 (elective share) | “an elective-share amount equal to 50% of the value of the marital-property portion of the augmented estate.” |
| The share and what it is measured against | 50% of the ‘marital-property portion’ of the augmented estate; that portion = augmented estate x a marriage-length percentage: under 1 yr 3%, 1-2 yrs 6%, 2-3 yrs 12%, 3-4 yrs 18%, 4-5 yrs 24%, 5-6 yrs 30%, 6-7 yrs 36%, 7-8 yrs 42%, 8-9 yrs 48%, 9-10 yrs 54%, 10-11 yrs 60%, 11-12 yrs 68%, 12-13 yrs 76%, 13-14 yrs 84%, 14-15 yrs 92%, 15+ yrs 100%; measured against augmented estate. |
| Regime type | marriage-length sliding-scale percentage |
| Can it be waived | waivable wholly or partially, before or after marriage, by a written contract signed by the surviving spouse |
| Time limit to file | within 9 months after the date of death, or 6 months after probate of the will, whichever expires later |
How it works in practice
- The share is measured against augmented estate.
- No. This state’s formula is deliberately built to reach revocable trusts, payable-on-death accounts and other lifetime transfers, precisely so the elective share cannot be defeated by moving assets out of probate before death.
- Waiver: Waivable wholly or partially, before or after marriage, by a written contract signed by the surviving spouse.
- The election has to be affirmatively filed on a deadline: within 9 months after the date of death, or 6 months after probate of the will, whichever expires later.
The national picture, including the Uniform Probate Code sliding-scale schedule that a minority of states actually use, is on the elective share calculator page; this page is the record for Maine specifically, and its own numbers above should be used instead of the calculator’s national default for a Maine estate. The one thing that reliably defeats an elective share in every state that has one is explained on whether a prenup can waive the elective share. A newly widowed reader working through the fuller list of irreversible decisions, of which this is one, can start from the surviving spouse checklist.
What this page does not settle
- This session confirmed the core figure above against a primary or verbatim-mirror source, with one open point: Waiver and time-limit sourced via search summary, not a direct fetch.
- A state can amend or repeal this section without the page around it changing, and a detail specific to a reader’s own situation, such as a pending divorce, a premarital agreement, or property held jointly with right of survivorship, can change which part of the statute actually applies.
- Whether a revocable trust changes the outcome in Maine is explained above; that answer is specific to this state and does not generalize to any other one.
- Every quotation here was read against the source on September 5, 2026. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and the exact dollar or percentage amount a court awards depends on facts this page cannot know.
Whether this statute reaches a given family’s actual facts is decided by a court, not by this page. Nothing here is legal advice, and no one should sign a waiver or forgo an election on the strength of a web page.
Sources
The sources above were retrieved and read against the state text on September 5, 2026. Every quotation on this page was checked against those bytes.