Massachusetts living trusts & estate documents

Living trust law in Massachusetts

A revocable living trust holds your home, accounts, and other property during your life, you stay in full control as trustee and can change or revoke it any time, then passes it to your beneficiaries without probate when you're gone. In Massachusetts, trusts are governed by the Massachusetts Uniform Trust Code, M.G.L. c. 203E.

Avoiding probate in Massachusetts

Probate in Massachusetts is governed by the M.G.L. c. 190B (MUPC) and handled by the Probate and Family Court. See state probate code for administration options.

Massachusetts offers voluntary administration, a simplified court filing, for estates of personal property worth $25,000 or less plus one vehicle (M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-1201). Assets held in a funded living trust pass to your beneficiaries without probate, whatever the size of the estate. Many Massachusetts homeowners set one up for that reason.

Estate and inheritance tax in Massachusetts

Massachusetts levies its own estate tax on top of the federal one, and at a much lower exemption: Massachusetts has an estate tax ($2 million exclusion since 2023). The separate federal estate tax reaches only estates above $15 million per person (2026, adjusted yearly), so most families never owe it.

Protecting a surviving spouse in Massachusetts

A surviving spouse in Massachusetts who is left out of the will can instead claim an elective share of one-third of the real and personal property where the decedent left issue under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 191, § 15, a protection the will itself cannot override.

Massachusetts also sets aside exempt property of up to $10,000 (above any security interests) in household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances and personal effects for the surviving spouse, or if there is none the decedent's children jointly, with priority over all unsecured claims against the estate (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 190B, § 2-403). The surviving spouse, the minor children the decedent was obligated to support and the children the decedent was in fact supporting are also entitled to a reasonable discretionary family allowance in money for their maintenance during administration, exempt from and with priority over all unsecured claims (§ 2-404).

Signing your Massachusetts documents

1. Sign the living trust. Executed and acknowledged before a notary.
2. Sign the will. Two witnesses; notarized self-proving affidavit included (standalone and pour-over wills).
3. Sign the power of attorney. Sign your Durable Power of Attorney before a Notary Public.
4. Sign the health care documents. Sign your Health Care Proxy in the presence of two adult witnesses, as the form’s execution block provides.
5. Follow your package instructions. Your package includes page-by-page signing instructions written for Massachusetts. Follow those as the authoritative guide.

Serving all of Massachusetts

Answer the questionnaire from anywhere in Massachusetts and download your completed documents in minutes: Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Cambridge, Lowell, Brockton, Quincy, Lynn, New Bedford, Fall River, Newton, Lawrence, and every community in between.