Tom Clancy signed a codicil 68 days before he died, and the top court of Maryland ruled 4 to 3 that it freed his widow's family trust from estate tax

Tom Clancy, the thriller writer, was the biggest minority investor in the group that bought the Baltimore Orioles in 1993, and split his stake with his first wife, Wanda, in their 1999 divorce. He died at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on 1 October 2013, aged 66. He left his second wife, Alexandra, their minor daughter, and four adult children from his first marriage. His will of 11 June 2007 gave his personal and real property to Alexandra and divided the residue into a marital trust for her, a family trust for her and their daughter, and trusts for the four older children. On 25 July 2013 he signed a second codicil that amended the family trust, added it to a savings clause protecting the marital deduction from federal estate tax, and reinstated J.W. Thompson Webb as his personal representative. In September 2014 Alexandra asked the Orphans' Court for Baltimore City to declare that the family trust owed no estate tax, and to remove Webb. After a hearing in December 2014, Chief Judge Lewyn Scott Garrett ruled the family trust free of estate tax. The older children (the case is Bandy v. Clancy) and Webb petitioned the Court of Appeals of Maryland, which took the case. On 24 August 2016 it affirmed by 4 votes to 3. The family trust "cannot be burdened by the payment of federal estate taxes," Judge Lynne Battaglia wrote. Judge McDonald, dissenting with Chief Judge Barbera and Judge Greene, said Webb's reading of the codicil cut the tax from $26 million to $15.7 million and kept the residue split 50% to 50%, while Alexandra's reading cut it to $11.8 million and shifted the residue 63% to 37% in her favour. The court ordered the older children to pay the costs of the appeal. The ruling of Maryland's highest court settled the tax question.