Massachusetts Probate Manual: Petitions, Bonds, and Closing

The Massachusetts probate process runs through the Probate and Family Court in the county where the deceased person lived, under Chapter 190B of the General Laws (the Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code, or MUPC). You file a petition with the will and death certificate, the court issues letters appointing a personal representative, and that representative inventories the assets, notifies heirs and creditors, pays debts and taxes, and closes the estate. How much court involvement you get depends on which of three tracks you choose, and the choice matters for both cost and speed.¹

Picking the Right Type of Probate

The MUPC offers three paths. Choosing the wrong one costs time and money, so start here.

Voluntary Administration (Small Estates)

If the estate is only personal property worth $25,000 or less, excluding one motor vehicle, and includes no real estate at all, you can use voluntary administration. It works whether or not there is a will. An interested person files a Voluntary Administration Statement (Form MPC 170) and receives limited authority to collect and distribute assets as a “voluntary personal representative” without a formal court appointment.² If the deceased owned any house or land, this option is off the table regardless of value.³

Informal Probate

Informal probate is the fastest and cheapest route for most estates. There is no court hearing. A magistrate reviews the paperwork and, if it is in order, approves the appointment. You submit the petition (Form MPC 150), the original will if there is one, a certified death certificate, and lists identifying the surviving spouse, children, heirs, and devisees.⁴ Informal only works when nobody is disputing the will’s validity or the choice of personal representative. If the case is uncontested and the paperwork is clean, this is where to start.

Formal Probate

Formal probate involves a hearing before a judge. It is the required path when there is a contested will, a dispute over who should serve as personal representative, ambiguous will language that needs judicial interpretation, or a missing original will where only a copy survives.⁵ The petitioner must publish notice in a newspaper designated by the register of probate at least seven days before the return date, and must send certified-mail notice to the Division of Medical Assistance.⁶

Within formal probate, the court can order supervised or unsupervised administration. Supervised administration requires court approval for major actions such as selling property, making distributions, or paying certain claims. It costs more and takes longer, but it provides a check that matters in contentious family situations. Unsupervised administration keeps the formal framework but gives the personal representative room to act without checking in on every step.

Filing the Petition

Whichever track you use, file in the Probate and Family Court for the county where the deceased lived at the time of death. The petition goes in with a certified copy of the death certificate and, if there is a will, the original will. You also submit the list of the surviving spouse, children, and heirs at law. Once the court accepts the petition, it issues letters of authority giving the personal representative legal power to act for the estate.⁴

The main court fees are $375 plus a $15 surcharge for an informal, formal, or supervised administration petition, $100 plus $15 for a voluntary administration statement, and $75 for the eventual closing statement.⁷ There is no separate charge for the initial bond or the initial letters of appointment. Attorney’s fees, appraisers, and any compensation for the personal representative come out of the estate on top of the court fees.

What the Personal Representative Has to Do

The personal representative, whether named in a will (executor) or appointed by the court (administrator), owes a fiduciary duty to the estate’s beneficiaries. That legal footing carries real financial exposure when the job is done carelessly.

Posting a Bond

Every personal representative in Massachusetts must post a bond. Sureties on that bond can be waived if the will directs no bond or waives sureties, if all heirs or devisees file a written waiver, or if the personal representative is a qualified bank or trust company. The court can also waive sureties on its own if they would not serve the estate’s interest.⁸ In most estates handled by a family member named in the will, the bond is filed without sureties.

The Three-Month Inventory

Within three months of appointment, you must prepare an inventory listing all personal property (wherever it sits) and all Massachusetts real property the deceased owned, with fair market values as of the date of death.⁹ Two details catch new representatives off guard. First, the three months run from your appointment, not from the date of death. Second, values must reflect what the assets were worth on the day the person died, not when you happen to compile the list.

You are not required to file the inventory with the court. You can either file it or mail copies to all interested persons whose addresses are reasonably available.¹⁰ Most representatives mail it, which keeps the estate’s financial details out of the public court file.

Notifying Heirs and Creditors

All heirs and beneficiaries must be informed about the proceeding; they are identified from the forms filed with the petition. For creditors, send direct notice to any known creditors, and in formal proceedings publish notice in a local newspaper.⁶

Compensation

Personal representatives are entitled to “reasonable compensation” for their services.¹¹ The MUPC sets no fixed percentage; reasonableness depends on the estate’s complexity, time spent, and the representative’s skill. If the will specifies compensation, you can accept it or renounce that provision and claim reasonable compensation instead. Family members often waive compensation, but that is a choice, not a rule.

Paying Debts and Handling Creditor Claims

No beneficiary sees a dollar until debts and taxes are addressed. Getting the order wrong is the fastest way for a personal representative to end up personally on the hook.

Creditors generally have one year from the date of death to bring a claim against the estate. To preserve a claim, a creditor must either serve process on the personal representative or file notice of the claim with the register within that year.¹² Once the claims period runs, allowed claims are paid in the priority order set by the MUPC.¹³ Distributing assets to beneficiaries before the one-year deadline passes is risky. If a valid claim shows up later and the estate no longer has the assets to pay it, the personal representative can be personally liable.

Federal law adds a separate priority rule for insolvent estates. Under 31 U.S.C. § 3713, when the estate cannot cover all debts, federal government claims are paid before other debts, and a representative who pays private creditors ahead of federal claims becomes personally liable for the unpaid federal debt.¹⁴ Estates with outstanding federal tax debt need particular care.

Massachusetts and Federal Estate Taxes

Massachusetts is one of the states that imposes its own estate tax, and it kicks in at a much lower level than the federal tax. An estate can owe Massachusetts tax while owing nothing to the IRS, so treating the two as one question is a mistake.

If the gross estate exceeds $2,000,000, the estate must file a Massachusetts estate tax return (Form M-706).¹⁵ The $2 million figure counts everything the deceased owned or had an interest in: real estate, investments, retirement accounts, life insurance proceeds payable to the estate, and more. Home values in the Boston area and on Cape Cod alone can push many estates past that line.

A Massachusetts estate lien attaches to real property in the gross estate. To clear that lien from a particular parcel, the Department of Revenue issues a Certificate Releasing Massachusetts Estate Lien after the tax is paid. Every parcel must be listed on Part 7 of the M-706; a missing parcel delays the release.¹⁶ If the estate falls under the filing threshold, the personal representative can record an affidavit at the registry of deeds to help clear title when property is sold.

At the federal level, the basic exclusion amount for 2026 is $15,000,000 per person, following the One, Big, Beautiful Bill signed into law on July 4, 2025.¹⁷ Estates below that threshold owe no federal estate tax. If a Form 706 is required, it is due nine months after the date of death, with a six-month extension available if requested before the original due date and the estimated tax is paid on time.¹⁸ A Form 706 filing triggers a federal estate tax lien on the entire gross estate automatically; discharging it uses Form 4422.

When the deceased had outstanding federal tax debt separate from the estate tax, selling estate real property gets more complicated. If a Notice of Federal Tax Lien exists and the sale proceeds will fully cover the liability, contact the IRS Lien Unit for a payoff amount. If proceeds will not fully cover it, apply for a lien discharge on Form 14135.¹⁹

When There Is No Will

If the deceased died without a valid will, Massachusetts law decides who inherits. The share going to the surviving spouse depends on who else survived:

The spouse takes everything if the deceased left no surviving children or parents, or if all surviving children are also children of the surviving spouse and the spouse has no other children.
The spouse takes the first $200,000 plus 75% of the balance if the deceased left no surviving children but a parent survives.
The spouse takes the first $100,000 plus 50% of the balance if all of the deceased’s surviving children are also the spouse’s children but the spouse has other children from another relationship.
The spouse takes the first $100,000 plus 50% of the balance if any of the deceased’s surviving children are not children of the surviving spouse.

These dollar amounts are set by statute and are not adjusted for inflation.²⁰ Whatever the spouse does not receive passes to the deceased’s descendants, or if there are none, to parents, siblings, and more distant relatives in a set order. These same rules govern any portion of an estate the will does not cover.

Closing the Estate

You can close the estate by filing a verified closing statement no earlier than six months after the original appointment. The statement confirms that the creditor claims period has expired, that all claims and taxes have been paid or otherwise resolved, and that assets have been distributed to the people entitled to them. You must also send a copy of the statement, along with a full written accounting, to all distributees and to any creditors whose claims remain unpaid or unbarred.²¹

Not every estate has to file a formal account with the court. A personal representative appointed with a MUPC bond is not required to file an account with the court unless a statute or court order requires it.¹⁰ You can file one voluntarily, and in supervised administration the court may require it, but for most unsupervised estates the sworn closing statement is the finish line.

Where Massachusetts Probate Cases Get Stuck

Even under the MUPC’s streamlined framework, cases run into predictable trouble.

Will contests are the most visible. When someone questions whether the deceased had the mental capacity to sign the will, or claims someone pressured them into changing it, the case shifts into formal probate with the litigation costs that follow. These fights are hard to resolve quickly because they turn on subjective questions about a person’s state of mind years ago, and the evidence is often contradictory. A self-proving affidavit and documentation of the testator’s capacity at signing can reduce the risk, though not eliminate it.

Family disagreements short of a formal will contest can be just as disruptive. Siblings who disagree about whether to sell the family home, beneficiaries who suspect the personal representative is favoring certain heirs, or fights over the value of hard-to-price assets like a family business can stall an estate for months. The representative sits in the middle, owing fiduciary duties to everyone.

Tax slips are the third recurring problem. Missing the Massachusetts estate tax filing because the estate would owe nothing federally, undervaluing real property, or failing to clear the estate tax lien before transferring property can produce penalties and title problems that outlast the probate itself.¹⁵ For insolvent estates, paying private creditors before federal claims can leave the personal representative personally liable for the unpaid federal debt.¹⁴

The best defense against most of these problems is estate planning done while the person is alive and competent. A well-drafted will, current beneficiary designations, and honest conversations with family about intentions prevent more probate disputes than any legal strategy applied after the fact.

1
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 190B
2
Mass.gov. MUPC Estate Administration Procedural Guide – Voluntary Administration
3
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c190B Section 3-1201
4
Mass.gov. File an Informal Probate for an Estate
5
Mass.gov. File a Formal Probate for an Estate
6
Mass.gov. MUPC Estate Administration Procedural Guide – Formal Proceedings
7
Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court Filing Fees
8
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c190B Section 3-603
9
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c190B Section 3-706
10
Mass.gov. MUPC Estate Administration Procedural Guide – Inventorying, Accounting and Closing the Estate
11
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c190B Section 3-719
12
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c190B Section 3-803
13
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c190B Section 3-807
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 3713 – Priority of Government Claims
15
Mass.gov. Massachusetts Estate Tax Guide
16
Mass.gov. DOR Estate Tax Forms and Instructions
17
Internal Revenue Service. Whats New – Estate and Gift Tax
18
Internal Revenue Service. Filing Estate and Gift Tax Returns
19
Internal Revenue Service. Sell Real Property of a Deceased Persons Estate
20
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c190B Section 2-102
21
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c190B Section 3-1003