Massachusetts Small Estate Affidavit

Voluntary administration (G.L. c. 190B, section 3-1201)

Section 3-1201 provides that if a person domiciled in the Commonwealth dies leaving an estate consisting entirely of personal property, the total value of which may include a motor vehicle of which the decedent was the owner, and other personal property not exceeding $25,000 in value, any interested person may, after the expiration of 30 days from the death of the decedent, provided no petition for appointment of a personal representative has been filed with the court of the county in which the decedent resided, file with that court, on a form prescribed by the court, a statement verified by oath or affirmation.

The estate must consist entirely of personal property. That is a structural test, not a cannot transfer real estate gloss. A build states the test and does not import a sibling real estate procedure. One motor vehicle is excluded at any value. A $29,000 car is excluded in the court guidance example. Property held jointly or as tenants by the entirety passes by law and sits outside the test. Counting the car or joint property into the $25,000 figure wrongly disqualifies estates. The $25,000 test is applied as of the date of filing, not the date of death, per court guidance, regardless of date of death. Later discovered assets are handled by amendment practice if the total stays within $25,000, on motion. The $15,000 figure under the pre-Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code voluntary informal administration law is stale. It was repealed effective 2012. Any $15,000 figure or chapter 195 cite is dead law. The $25,000 and $10,000 figures in this guide are fixed. No inflation adjustment was read for them. Never inflation adjust them.

The statement must contain eight items: the name and residential address of the petitioner; the name, residence, and date of death of the deceased; the relationship of the petitioner to the deceased; a schedule showing every asset of the estate known to the petitioner and the estimated value of each asset; a statement that the petitioner has undertaken to act as voluntary personal representative and will administer the estate according to law and apply the proceeds in conformity with the section; the names and addresses of surviving joint owners of property with the deceased, known to the petitioner; the names and addresses known to the petitioner of the persons who would take under Part 1 of Article II in the case of intestacy; and the names and addresses known to the petitioner of the persons who would take under the provisions of the will, if any. The original of any will shall be filed with the statement. The procedure is available with or without a will. No will or testate bar is stated.

On presentation of the statement, accompanied by a certificate of the death of the deceased by a public officer and payment of a fee as specified in chapter 262, section 40, the register shall docket the documents as part of the permanent records of the court. On payment of a fee as prescribed in section 40, the register shall, if no other probate proceeding for administration of the estate is pending in that court, issue an attested copy of a statement duly filed under the section. A certificate of appointment is available on request and fee under the last paragraph of the section. No fee figure is stated in this guide. The fee lane is unresolved, because the surcharge authority and the additional attested copy pricing conflict were not resolved. See the Source section.

The filer is a voluntary personal representative. The filer is not appointed by a magistrate or the court and receives no Letters of Authority. The attested copy is the authority token presented to holders. A creditor is not an interested person for voluntary administration, per court guidance. Listing creditors as eligible filers is wrong. A minor sibling existing does not block another sibling filing, but parents may not file on a minor interested person behalf without prior court authority. Co-voluntary personal representatives are permitted. More than one interested person may file. The petitioner need not be a Massachusetts resident and need not have priority. Venue is the county of the decedent residence at death. Domicile is taken from the death certificate, and form MPC 485 cures an incorrect domicile address. A nonresident decedent estate must be opened in the home state.

Medical assistance notice

A voluntary personal representative shall certify on the statement that copies of the statement and death certificate have been sent to the Division of Medical Assistance by certified mail. If the decedent received medical assistance under chapter 118E when age 65 or older, or at any time on or after March 22, 1991, regardless of age, while an inpatient in a nursing facility or other medical institution, section 32 of chapter 118E applies, except the period for the department to present a claim is within four months of the date the register dockets the statement, and interest on allowed claims commences four months plus 60 days after that date. Certified mail notice to the Division is a statutory command with claim consequences, not a courtesy copy. Court instructions warn that the Division of Medical Assistance is not the court, and the notice must not be misaddressed to the court. Chapter 118E, section 32 was not opened for this guide, so no recovery sentence beyond the notice duty and the cross referenced windows is stated here.

What the voluntary personal representative must do

A voluntary personal representative shall, as far as possible out of the assets that come into the filer hands, first discharge the necessary expenses of the funeral and last sickness of the deceased and the necessary expenses of administration without fee for the filer services, and then pay the debts of the deceased in the order specified in section 3-805 and any other debts of the estate, and then distribute the balance, if any, in accordance with Part 1 of Article II. The filer may sell chattel and negotiate a chose in action, subject to the statute wording. The filer is liable as a personal representative in the filer own wrong, per the statute. The filer is deemed a personal representative for chapter 175, section 113A(6) and chapter 90, section 2 purposes, per the statute.

The application order in section 3-1201 and the claim order in section 3-805 are two wordings. Section 3-805 orders claims as: administration costs; reasonable funeral expenses; debts and taxes with federal preference; last illness medical and hospital expenses; debts and taxes with Commonwealth preference; Division of Medical Assistance debts; and all other claims, with no preference within a class. The two wordings are stated in their own places here and never merged into a single numbered list. Sections 3-1204 and 3-805 were read on stale February 2026 crawls and were not re-read for this guide, so no amendment since those crawls is confirmed or ruled out.

Section 3-1202 provides the holder effect. The payer or deliverer is discharged as if dealing with a personal representative, has no duty to see to the application of the property or to inquire into the truth of any statement, and on refusal may be compelled on proof of right. The recipient is answerable to any personal representative or superior right person. That discharge runs to a holder who deals with the voluntary personal representative on the attested copy. It does not create a holder presented affidavit channel. Telling a reader to present an affidavit to a bank skips the court entirely and invents a channel the statute does not contain.

Summary administration (sections 3-1203 and 3-1204), separate mode

Section 3-1203 is one sentence. If it appears that the value of the entire estate, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed family allowances, exempt property, costs and expenses of administration, reasonable funeral expenses, and reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness of the decedent, the personal representative, without giving notice to creditors, may immediately disburse and distribute the estate to the persons entitled to it and file a closing statement as provided in section 3-1204. This is a disbursement and closing mode for an appointed personal representative, not a second filing track. Presenting it as a second way to file a small estate fabricates a track. Section 3-1204 provides closing by verified statement, with a one year termination rule. No dollar cap, wait period, filing, or fee is stated in section 3-1203 text, and no inventory and appraisal trigger is imported from a sibling state. The one sentence text does not state one.

The Massachusetts components of the section 3-1203 test are the section 2-404 discretionary family allowance, a reasonable allowance in money for maintenance during administration, up to one year if the estate is inadequate to discharge allowed claims, payable in a lump sum or installments, exempt from and priority over unsecured claims, terminating on the entitled person death, with no dollar figure anywhere in the section, and the section 2-403 exempt property value of $10,000 at date of death in excess of security interests in household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances, and personal effects, for the spouse or children jointly, with deficiency make up, priority over unsecured claims, abatement for the family allowance, and a six month rent free residence for the surviving spouse. Section 2-402 is reserved. There is no Massachusetts homestead allowance figure to import into this guide. Any homestead dollar figure in a Massachusetts page is imported error.

Forms

The instrument is a statement on a court prescribed form, verified by oath or affirmation and signed under penalties of perjury on the vendor copy. The section title says by affidavit and section 3-1202 says Effect of Affidavit, but the operative instrument the reader files is the MPC 170 Statement. A build that calls the filed document an affidavit without naming the Statement and MPC 170 misleads on the form to file. Form MPC 170 was read only as a vendor copy, revision March 19, 2012. The official PDF was not opened, and current revision and language versions were not confirmed. No vendor copy field wording is presented here as the current court form.

The filing packet per court guidance and instructions is MPC 170 plus the original will if any, a certified death certificate, form MPC 475 only if the cause of death is homicide or pending, and form MPC 485 only if the decedent address on the death certificate is incorrect, plus the fee. The Division of Medical Assistance Estate Recovery Unit address in the instructions is a court instruction text, and its currency was not re-verified. No death certificate fee or wait is stated, because that source was not opened. No notarization sentence is stated. Oath or affirmation plus perjury certification on the form is not a statutory notarization requirement. No bond, publication, creditor notice, debt payment condition precedent, successor definition, or vehicle specific procedure beyond the one car exclusion is stated in section 3-1201 text. The vehicle lane under chapter 90D, section 15A, for a surviving spouse transfer without proceeding, was not opened, and no Registry of Motor Vehicles step, form, or fee is stated here.

For small estate procedures in other states, see the Small Estate Affidavits by State directory. For the questions each state procedure answers, see Small Estate Affidavit Questions.

Source

Sources: G.L. c. 190B, sections 3-1201, 3-1202, 3-1203, 2-403, and 2-404, and G.L. c. 262, section 40, official malegislature.gov texts, fresh crawls November 1, 2026, except as noted; G.L. c. 190B, sections 3-1204 and 3-805, official malegislature.gov texts, stale February 2026 crawls; Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code Estate Administration Procedural Guide section 2, Voluntary Administration, mass.gov, read in full; Instructions for Voluntary Administration With or Without a Will, MPC 961, mass.gov, read in full; Form MPC 170, vendor copy via cocodoc, revision March 19, 2012, vendor copy only. Facts verified 2026-11-01. Open flags: (1) sections 3-1204 and 3-805 were read on stale February 2026 crawls and were not re-read, so no amendment since is confirmed or ruled out; (2) the official MPC 170 PDF was not opened, so current revision and language versions are unconfirmed, and the MPC 961 revision date was not recorded; (3) the fee lane is unresolved, because the $15 surcharge authority was not opened and the additional attested copy pricing conflicts between court sources, so no fee figure is stated in this guide; (4) chapter 118E, section 32 was not opened, so no recovery sentence beyond the notice duty is stated, and the Division address currency was not re-verified; (5) chapter 90D, section 15A and all Registry of Motor Vehicles steps were not opened, so no vehicle step beyond the one car exclusion is stated; (6) Article IV foreign fiduciary provisions and MPC 485 practice beyond the incorrect address trigger were not opened; (7) case holdings summarized in the court guide were not read, so no case sentence is stated; (8) interested person and personal representative definitions and minor authority provisions were carried only via guide alerts, so no eligibility sentence beyond the guide criteria list is stated, and death certificate fee and wait were not opened; (9) on site coverage was not checked in the research run because the box tunnel was down, so the build must grep for a Massachusetts small estate slug before publishing.

This page explains how the process works and what the official rules say. It is general information, not legal advice. For a dispute about your specific situation, talk to the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court or a lawyer.