How to Complete Massachusetts Form MPC 455: Assent and Waiver of Notice

Massachusetts Form MPC 455 is the Probate and Family Court’s Assent and Waiver of Notice, Renunciation, Nomination, and Waiver of Sureties form. An interested person in a probate case uses it to consent to a petition, give up the right to formal court notice, decline to serve as personal representative, nominate someone else, or waive the bond that a representative would otherwise have to post. There is no filing fee, and the form is submitted together with the petition it supports rather than on its own.¹²

When You Would Use Form MPC 455

MPC 455 is a supporting document, not a petition. You file it to help someone else’s petition move forward. It applies in nearly every probate matter except guardianship of a minor, and each person who signs files a separate copy.² You are an interested person if you are an heir, devisee, surviving spouse, creditor, beneficiary, or anyone else with a property right or claim in the estate.³

Common reasons to sign one:

You agree with the petition and do not want to wait for the court to issue and serve a citation on you.
You have a legal right to be appointed personal representative and want to decline it.
You want to decline that right and name a specific replacement.
You share appointment priority with another person who is being nominated, and the court needs your consent before proceeding.²
You want to allow the personal representative to serve without posting a surety bond.

Where to Get the Form

The blank form is on the Massachusetts Trial Court website as a fillable PDF. The court also publishes a line-by-line instructions page that is worth opening alongside the form before you start.¹

Filling Out the Caption

The top of the form asks for three identifiers that tie your waiver to the right case:

Case Name. Enter the estate as it appears, or will appear, on the petition — for example, “Estate of Donna Deceased.”
Docket Number. Fill it in if the case already has one. Leave it blank if the petition has not been filed yet.
Division. Write the name and address of the county Probate and Family Court where the related petition is being filed, such as “Suffolk Division, 24 New Chardon Street, Boston, MA 02114.”²

The form must be filed in the same county court as the petition. Filing it anywhere else accomplishes nothing.

Section I: Assent and Waiver of Notice

Check the Section I box if you agree with the petition and are willing to give up your right to receive the court’s citation for that specific proceeding. In the blank space, write the exact title of the pleading, for example “Petition for Informal Probate of Will” or “Petition for Formal Adjudication of Intestacy.”² Ask the petitioner or their attorney for the precise title if you are not sure.

Your waiver covers only the pleading you name. A later petition in the same case needs its own waiver or standard citation service.

Section II: Renunciation and Nomination

Use Section II only if you have a legal right to be appointed personal representative and want to step aside, or if you share priority with someone else being nominated. Choose one box:

Box A. Renounce your right without nominating a replacement.
Box B. Renounce your right and name the person you want appointed instead. Write that person’s name in the space provided. The nominee still has to be qualified under the statute.
Box C. Consent to another person’s nomination when you and that person share equal statutory priority — two adult children of a parent who died without a will, for instance — and you are not giving up your own right to serve.²

If you have no right to appointment and are not in a shared-priority situation, skip Section II.

Section III: Waiver of Sureties

Massachusetts generally requires a personal representative to post a surety bond, which functions as insurance protecting the estate if the representative mishandles funds. The bond is not required if the will directs no bond, if the representative is a qualified bank or trust company, or if all heirs (in intestacy) or all devisees (where there is a will) file a written waiver.⁴

Check the Section III box to provide that written waiver. When every heir or devisee signs one, the representative avoids the cost of a bond, which can matter for a smaller estate. The tradeoff is real: waiving sureties removes the financial safety net. If the representative later mismanages assets, no bonding company stands behind the loss.

Signing and Filing

Sign at the bottom under the penalties of perjury. Print your full name, add the date, your current mailing address with zip code, and a phone number.² One MPC 455 per person — if three heirs are waiving, that is three signed forms.

There is no filing fee. The petitioner or their attorney usually gathers the signed forms from everyone who is cooperating and files them together with the petition in the proper county Probate and Family Court.

What Filing the Form Actually Does

Two things change once your signed form is in the file.

On notice: Massachusetts law requires interested persons to receive a citation at least fourteen days before the return date, by mail, in-hand delivery, or newspaper publication.⁵ That requirement reaches only interested persons who have not assented in writing. Your signed Section I is that written assent, so the petitioner does not have to serve you. If every interested person signs, the court can dispense with formal notice altogether.⁶

On bond: if every heir or devisee checks Section III, the personal representative can be appointed without buying a bond.

Together, these waivers can shrink a multi-week citation period down to a straightforward appointment, which is why probate attorneys routinely collect MPC 455 forms from cooperating family members before filing the petition.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

The most frequent error is naming the wrong pleading in Section I. If your form does not match the petition’s exact title, the court may not accept your waiver for that proceeding. Get the title from the person filing the petition before you fill in the blank.

The second is checking Box C in Section II when you actually mean to step aside. Box C is for shared priority situations where you are not renouncing. If you want out entirely, use Box A or B. Checking Box C by mistake can create confusion about whether you intended to serve as a co-representative.

The third is treating the form as a blanket waiver for the whole case. It is not. Your Section I assent attaches to the one pleading you name. A later filing in the same case — a petition for license to sell real estate, say — needs either a new MPC 455 or ordinary citation service.

1
Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court Assent and Waiver of Notice of Sureties MPC 455
2
Mass.gov. Instructions for Completing Assent and Waiver of Notice/Renunciation/Nomination/Waiver of Sureties Form MPC 455
3
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c190B Section 1-201
4
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 190B Section 3-603
5
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c190B Section 1-401
6
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 215 Section 47