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Короткий ответ · 8 мин чтения
A Massachusetts will is in writing, signed by the testator and by at least two witnesses to the signing or to the testator's acknowledgment (G.L. c. 190B, § 2-502), and may be made self-proved by the testator's acknowledgment and the witnesses' affidavits before an officer authorized to administer oaths (§ 2-504). After the death its custodian delivers it within thirty days after notice of the death (§ 2-516); the surviving spouse's waiver runs six months after probate (G.L. c. 191, § 15).
Последняя сверка с законами Массачусетса и обновление: 2026-10-24.
The original, and where it lives
Keep the signed original where your personal representative can find it, and tell that person where. A will may be deposited by the testator or the testator's agent with any court for safekeeping under the court's rules, sealed and kept confidential; during the testator's lifetime it is delivered only to the testator or to a person the testator authorizes in a signed writing, and on being informed of the death the court notifies any person designated to receive it (G.L. c. 190B, § 2-515). After the death, a person having custody of a will delivers it within thirty days after notice of the death to a person able to secure its probate or, if none is known, to an appropriate court; a person who willfully fails to deliver it is liable to any person aggrieved for the resulting damages (§ 2-516).
How it was signed, and proving it
A will is in writing; signed by the testator, or in the testator's name by another individual in the testator's conscious presence and by the testator's direction; and signed by at least two individuals, each of whom witnessed either the signing or the testator's acknowledgment of the signature or of the will (G.L. c. 190B, § 2-502(a)); intent that a document be the testator's will can be established by extrinsic evidence (§ 2-502(b)). A will may be made self-proved — when it is signed or at any time afterward — by the testator's acknowledgment and the witnesses' affidavits, each made before an officer authorized to administer oaths and evidenced by the officer's certificate under official seal, in substantially the form the statute prints; a signature on a self-proving affidavit attached to a will is considered a signature on the will if necessary to prove its due execution (§ 2-504).
Your personal representative
The personal representative you nominate prepares, within three months after appointment, an inventory of the property you owned at death, each item at its fair market value as of the date of death with any encumbrance, and files it with the court or mails it to the interested persons (G.L. c. 190B, § 3-706). The personal representative answers a creditor's action only if it is commenced within one year after the death, with service or a notice filed with the register within that year (§ 3-803(a)). A petition for probate includes a sworn statement that copies of the petition and the death certificate went to the division of medical assistance by certified mail, and the personal representative completes the division's form within 30 days of its request (G.L. c. 118E, § 32(a)). No informal probate or appointment proceeding, or formal testacy or appointment proceeding, may be commenced more than three years after the death, with the exceptions the statute lists (G.L. c. 190B, § 3-108).
What changes a will
A codicil or a later will takes the same formality — in writing, signed by the testator and by at least two witnesses (G.L. c. 190B, § 2-502). A will or any part of it is revoked by a later will that revokes it expressly or by inconsistency, or by burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating or destroying it with the intent and for the purpose of revoking it (§ 2-507(a)). A revocable trust is amended or revoked by the method its terms provide or, where they provide none, by any method manifesting clear and convincing evidence of the settlor's intent (G.L. c. 203E, § 602(c)). Review the will after a marriage, a divorce, a birth or a death; the surviving spouse's claim is the statute's regardless — within six months after the will's probate, a signed writing filed in the registry of probate waiving the will's provisions and claiming one third of the personal and of the real property where the deceased left issue, or $25,000 and one half of the rest where the deceased left kindred but no issue, with only the income for life of any excess above $25,000 (G.L. c. 191, § 15).
A will and a trust together
Many plans pair a will with a revocable trust. The trust governs what is titled to the trustee; the will governs what is not, and may give what is left to the trustee: unless the will provides otherwise, property devised to the trustee of a trust the will identifies, whose terms are set out in a written instrument, becomes part of that trust and is administered under its terms, including amendments made before or after the death, and a revocation or termination of the trust before the death causes the devise to lapse (G.L. c. 190B, § 2-511). A life insurance beneficiary other than the insured takes the proceeds against the creditors and representatives of the person who effected the policy (G.L. c. 175, § 125). An estate consisting entirely of personal property — a motor vehicle the decedent owned and other personal property not over $25,000 in value — may be collected on a voluntary personal representative's sworn statement filed after 30 days from the death, if no petition for a personal representative has been filed (G.L. c. 190B, § 3-1201). For a death on or after January 1, 2023, no Massachusetts estate tax is payable where the federal taxable estate is not more than $2,000,000 (G.L. c. 65C, § 2A(g)).
What happens at your death
Your will's custodian delivers it within thirty days after notice of the death (G.L. c. 190B, § 2-516), and the will is offered for probate in the Probate and Family Court; the personal representative's inventory follows within three months after appointment (§ 3-706), and creditors have one year after the death to commence an action (§ 3-803(a)). The surviving spouse may waive the will and claim a share within six months after its probate (G.L. c. 191, § 15). Property passes under the will, or to your heirs where the will does not reach it — the surviving spouse's share (G.L. c. 190B, § 2-102), and the rest to the descendants per capita at each generation or, where none survive, to the parents and then the more distant kin the statute lists (§ 2-103). Where the estate is liable for any Massachusetts estate tax, the executor files the return within nine months after the death (G.L. c. 62C, § 17).
When a licensed Massachusetts attorney is the right next call
Whether the will was properly executed, whether to make it self-proved, how the will and the trust fit, what the surviving spouse's claim means for the plan, and whether a codicil or a new will is the better change are questions a licensed Massachusetts attorney of your choosing answers from your documents. TrusteeClear explains the statute and organizes the record; it decides none of them.
Частые вопросы
Does Massachusetts have a self-proving affidavit for wills?
Yes. A will may be made self-proved, when it is signed or later, by the testator's acknowledgment and the witnesses' affidavits before an officer authorized to administer oaths, in substantially the form G.L. c. 190B, § 2-504 prints; a signature on the affidavit is considered a signature on the will if necessary to prove its due execution (§ 2-504(c)).
Where should a Massachusetts will be kept?
Where your personal representative can find it. It may be deposited with a court for safekeeping during your lifetime, sealed and kept confidential (G.L. c. 190B, § 2-515); after the death, whoever has custody of it delivers it within thirty days after notice of the death to a person able to secure its probate or, if none is known, to an appropriate court (§ 2-516).
Can my Massachusetts will change my trust?
A revocable trust is amended or revoked by the method its terms provide or, where they provide none, by any method manifesting clear and convincing evidence of the settlor's intent (G.L. c. 203E, § 602(c)); whether a particular will does that is a question for a licensed Massachusetts attorney of your choosing. A will's gift to the trustee of an identified trust becomes part of that trust and is administered under its terms, unless the will provides otherwise (G.L. c. 190B, § 2-511(b)).
What does a Massachusetts personal representative do first?
After appointment, prepares the inventory within three months, at date-of-death values, and files it with the court or mails it to the interested persons (G.L. c. 190B, § 3-706); completes the division of medical assistance's form within 30 days of its request (G.L. c. 118E, § 32(a)); and answers creditors' actions commenced within one year after the death (G.L. c. 190B, § 3-803(a)).
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