Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and those who come after him will face stricter scrutiny of their investments and business dealings under a new state ethics law.

The law, which Moore signed into law on Tuesday, will require all governors to divest from their businesses, put their assets in a blind trust or sign an agreement not to participate in decisions affecting their businesses.

The law was largely inspired by former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who was dogged by questions about his eponymous real-estate company in office, and to a lesser degree by Moore, a Democrat who voluntarily put his array of business interests and investments into a blind trust.

“It’s incumbent upon us to make sure that governors are working for us, and there’s not even a question about that,” said Del. Marc Korman, a Montgomery County Democrat and lead sponsor of the bill. The bill passed both chambers of the General Assembly on bipartisan, unanimous votes.

For both Hogan and Moore, becoming governor was their first entry into elected office. Both had significant careers outside government: Hogan built his real-estate company, while Moore was an investment banker, soldier, entrepreneur, author and nonprofit executive.

When Hogan entered office, he put his business dealings into a trust managed by his brother, and was allowed to receive updates, an arrangement approved by the Maryland State Ethics Commission that long frustrated Democratic politicians. Hogan faced questions and ethics complaints about whether he supported transportation projects near where his company held land; he has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has never been found in violation of ethics laws.

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Questions were raised again last fall following a Time Magazine report that Hogan voted to approve subsidies for affordable-housing developers that his real-estate company may have worked with in the past. Hogan, who was running for the U.S. Senate at the time, dismissed the report as “an October surprise” with “no truth to it at all.”

“As has been well-documented, Governor Hogan operated under a comprehensive trust agreement with Maryland’s independent, nonpartisan State Ethics Commission,” Michael Ricci, a spokesman for the former governor, said in a statement. “Over two terms, the commission never flagged a single issue or infraction of any kind. We’re proud to have consistently upheld these high ethical standards.”

Former Gov. Larry Hogan founded a real-estate company headquartered in Annapolis. He's faced questions about whether he had conflicts of interest while serving as governor.

Moore took a swipe at his predecessor — without mentioning him by name — just before putting his signature on the legislation: “Gone are the days when a Maryland governor can make millions of dollars in office because they didn’t view their time in public service as a reason to stop their private profits.”

Korman said the questions about Hogan’s affordable-housing votes renewed discussions about how a governor’s business dealings should be handled. But the matter is important no matter who sits in the governor’s office at the State House, he said.

Part of the issue, Korman said, is that individuals amass and manage wealth differently than in generations past, and ethics laws haven’t kept up. Where a past governors might have had just pensions and some stock ownership, now they’re likely to have more complicated investment portfolios.

“The profile of it has been raised by having two private-sector successful governors in a row,” he said.

Before becoming governor, Moore held an extensive portfolio of stocks and investments and sat on corporate boards, including Baltimore-based shoe and apparel company Under Armour and cannabis company Green Thumb Industries. A total of $2.54 million worth of assets was put into a blind trust managed by Brown Advisory.

Not all of Moore’s assets went into the blind trust, which cannot accept assets that cannot be easily sold or transferred. He continues to hold ownership of his companies that handled his publishing and public-speaking efforts, as well as an interest in 20 limited-liability companies whose purpose is unclear.

The law, which was also championed by Sen. Brian Feldman, a Montgomery County Democrat, will go into effect Oct. 1, meaning it will apply to Moore and those who follow him. Moore has said he is running for re-election in 2026, and some speculate that Hogan might make a run as well.

Hogan has not made any announcements about his future, political or otherwise.

Hogan already served two terms as governor, but the state constitution‘s provision limiting governors to two terms only mentions consecutive terms — leading many to believe he would be eligible to run again.

The new law requires a governor to put all of their financial interests in a blind trust within six months of taking office and to divest from anything that the Maryland State Ethics Commission determines might represent a conflict of interest.

The governor can also seek approval from ethics officials to maintain ownership of certain interests. In those cases, the governor must sign a “nonparticipation agreement” vowing not to make any decisions affecting that business, an agreement that will be posted online and forwarded to top lawmakers and state procurement officials.

Korman said that provision was included to allow for cases such as a governor maintaining ownership in a family business, rather than selling it. The public nonparticipation agreement is intended to offer an assurance that all government decisions are on the up-and-up.

Policing gubernatorial behavior is tricky — “we’re not going to have a camera and a written decision by the governor any time he does anything” — but having information about the governor’s businesses and a pledge not to interfere at least creates opportunities to identify any transgressions, Korman said.

Joanne Antoine of the watchdog organization Common Cause Maryland, said during a bill hearing that the legislation “would help to prevent ethical lapses and more importantly create more confidence amongst the public.”

The ethics measure is among nearly 200 bills that Moore will sign into law during a State House ceremony on Tuesday. Lawmakers sent him hundreds more for consideration; he has until May 27 to sign the bills, veto them or allow them to become law without his signature.