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Massachusetts Executor Duties
Pillar GuideMassachusetts21 min read

Massachusetts Executor Duties

Massachusetts personal representative duties in order: qualify and post bond, publish, file the 3-month inventory, pay claims, and close after 6 months.

By Settled Editorial

A Massachusetts personal representative works a fixed sequence: qualify and post bond, publish notice within 30 days after appointment, take control of the property, file the inventory within 3 months, track the 1-year creditor bar, pay allowed claims in the statutory order, settle the family's rights and the taxes, then close by verified statement no earlier than 6 months after appointment.

Start with the vocabulary, because it changes what you search for. Massachusetts stopped issuing the titles executor and administrator when the Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code took effect in 2012. The words themselves survive in the code: § 1-201 defines personal representative to include an executor and an administrator, among others. One title now covers the job: personal representative. You are a fiduciary who must observe the standards of care that apply to trustees under chapter 203C, and you must settle and distribute the estate as expeditiously and efficiently as the estate's best interests allow (M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-703).

Read this alongside the Massachusetts probate guide for the informal-versus-formal choice, the Massachusetts probate timeline for the dates on one page, and the Massachusetts probate court directory for the Probate and Family Court division that serves your county.

Your Authority Starts at Appointment, Not at Death

Being named in the will gives you almost nothing. Your duties and powers commence upon appointment (§ 3-701). Before the court appoints you, a person named executor in a will may carry out the decedent's written instructions about the body, the funeral, and the burial. That is the whole of it. Once you are appointed, your powers relate back, so earlier acts that benefited the estate get the same effect as acts taken after appointment, and you may ratify what others did on the estate's behalf.

Three things happen before your letters of authority issue, and each one sends filings back when it is skipped:

  • Deliver the will. Whoever holds the original must deliver it within 30 days after notice of the death, to a person able to secure its probate or to an appropriate court (§ 2-516).
  • Give the 7-day notices. Written notice goes out by delivery or ordinary mail 7 days before you petition for informal probate or appointment, to all heirs and devisees, to anyone with a prior or equal right to appointment, and to any personal representative whose appointment has not ended (§ 3-306(a)). A copy of the petition and the death certificate goes to the division of medical assistance, MassHealth, by certified mail on the same 7-day clock (§ 3-306(g)).
  • Post the bond. Massachusetts flips the assumption other states make. Sureties are required on your bond unless the will directs no bond or waives surety, all the heirs or all the devisees file a written waiver, you are a qualified bank or trust company, or the court concludes sureties are not in the estate's best interests (§ 3-603). The Massachusetts personal representative bond rules set out when sureties are waived and how the penal sum is figured.

Priority to serve runs in a fixed order: the person with priority under a probated will, then a surviving spouse who is a devisee, then other devisees, then the surviving spouse, then other heirs, and, if there is no known spouse or next of kin, a public administrator (§ 3-203). Anyone under 18 is disqualified, as is anyone the court finds in formal proceedings to be contrary to the estate's best interests.

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The Duty Sequence, In Order

Work the list top to bottom. Each step assumes the one above it is done.

  1. Qualify: accept the appointment, post the bond, and collect your letters of authority.
  2. Publish the notice of the proceeding within 30 days after appointment.
  3. Take possession or control of the estate property and open an estate account.
  4. Prepare the inventory and file or mail it within 3 months after appointment.
  5. Track claims against the 1-year bar that runs from the date of death.
  6. Pay allowed claims in the seven-class statutory order.
  7. Settle the surviving family's rights and clear the taxes, including the estate tax lien on real estate.
  8. Distribute what remains and file the verified closing statement.

One duty that other Uniform Probate Code states put on the personal representative does not exist here. Section 3-705, the written information to heirs and devisees within 30 days after appointment, is reserved in the Massachusetts code and carries no text. Massachusetts front-loads that job instead. Your notice to the heirs and devisees goes out 7 days before you file, and the published notice goes out within 30 days after appointment. If a checklist tells you to mail a § 3-705 notice in Massachusetts, it was written for another state.

Duty 1: Publish Within 30 Days After Appointment

Publish the notice once in the newspaper the Register of Probate designates, in the county where the proceeding is pending, no more than 30 days after the informal probate or appointment (§ 3-306(b)). Subsection (c) is the one that sets the contents: the notice names you, states that the estate is being administered under informal procedure without court supervision, states that inventory and accounts are not filed with the court, and tells interested parties they may ask you for information and may petition the court.

Read that purpose line twice. The publication announces the proceeding. It starts no creditor clock at all. Save the affidavit of publication anyway, because the court and any later buyer of estate real estate will ask for it.

Duty 2: Take Control of the Property and Separate the Money

Unless the will says otherwise, you have a right to take possession or control of the decedent's property, and you must pay the taxes on it and take the steps reasonably necessary to manage, protect, and preserve what is in your hands (§ 3-709). Real property and tangible personal property may be left with the person presumptively entitled to it until you judge that possession is needed for administration.

Open a dedicated estate account on day one and keep estate money out of your own. Then work from your statutory toolkit (§ 3-715), which lets you retain assets, deposit or invest idle cash, insure the property, employ an attorney or accountant, compromise a debt owed to the estate, borrow against estate assets, and pay administration expenses, acting reasonably for the interested persons. You proceed without asking the court first, except in supervised administration, though you may petition the court to settle a question you cannot resolve (§ 3-704).

Two warnings sit in the same statute. Anyone who intermeddles with a dead person's personal property without legal authority is liable as a personal representative in his own wrong, and a personal representative in his own wrong owes the rightful personal representative the full value of what was taken plus damages.

Duty 3: File the Inventory Within 3 Months

Within 3 months after appointment, prepare an inventory of the property the decedent owned at death, listed in reasonable detail, with the fair market value of each item as of the date of death and the type and amount of any encumbrance (§ 3-706). File it with the court, or mail a copy to the interested persons whose addresses are reasonably available. A successor personal representative values the property as of the date of the successor's own appointment, not the date of death.

Build the worksheet as you collect. For each asset, capture the title or account number, the date-of-death value, the source document behind that value, and any lien. Real estate and closely held business interests usually need an appraisal, and the appraisal date has to be the date of death.

Duty 4: Track the One-Year Creditor Bar

Massachusetts writes this rule differently from almost every other state, and getting it wrong is the fastest way to a personal-liability problem. There is no published notice-to-creditors window here. Section 3-801 of the uniform act is reserved in the Massachusetts code.

What exists instead is a single outer bar. You cannot be held to answer a creditor's action unless that action is commenced within 1 year after the date of death, and unless, before the year runs, process was served on you in hand or accepted, or a notice naming the estate, the creditor, the amount of the claim, and the court was filed with the register (§ 3-803). The clock runs from the death, so a late appointment shortens your runway rather than extending it.

Work the claims that arrive inside that year against the Massachusetts creditor claim rules, which cover how to allow, dispute, or pay a demand without losing your own protection.

A few matters sit outside that bar: a proceeding to enforce a mortgage, pledge, or other lien; a personal-injury or wrongful-death action satisfied only from liability insurance or bond proceeds, which § 3-803(d)(2) still requires to be commenced not later than 3 years after the cause of action accrues; and compensation for you or for the estate's attorney or accountant. The Supreme Judicial Court can also allow a late claim in equity when the creditor was not chargeable with culpable neglect. If the decedent received MassHealth benefits at 55 or older, or while an inpatient in a nursing facility, chapter 118E governs the notice and the division's recovery claim.

Duty 5: Pay Allowed Claims in the Statutory Order

When the assets will not cover everything, pay in the order Massachusetts sets, not in the order the bills arrive (§ 3-805):

ClassClaim
1Costs and expenses of administration
2Reasonable funeral expenses
3Debts and taxes with preference under federal law
4Reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness
5Debts and taxes with preference under other Massachusetts laws
6Debts due to the division of medical assistance
7All other claims

No claim gets preference over another in the same class, and a debt that is already due does not outrank one that is not. Read the order of paying Massachusetts estate debts before you write a single check, because an insolvent estate pays class by class and stops.

Timing protects you. After the § 3-803 period expires you pay the allowed claims in priority order, after providing for the family allowance, for presented claims not yet allowed, and for unbarred claims that may still come in (§ 3-807). Massachusetts also gives you a narrower early-payment route: if 6 months have passed since the death and you have not had notice of demands sufficient to warrant representing the estate insolvent, you may pay the debts and you are not personally liable to a creditor for payments made before notice of that creditor's demand. Pay a just claim earlier than that and you are personally liable to any other allowed claimant who is injured, unless you took adequate security for a refund. Where the estate looks short, § 3-807(b) sends the question to the court by representing the estate insolvent rather than leaving it to guesswork.

Duty 6: Settle the Family's Rights Before You Distribute

Property devolves at death subject to allowances and exempt property, the rights of creditors, the surviving spouse's elective share, and administration (§ 3-101). Three Massachusetts entitlements come off the top:

  • Exempt property. The surviving spouse takes up to $10,000 in date-of-death value, above any security interests, in household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances, and personal effects. With no surviving spouse, the decedent's children take it jointly. That right outranks every unsecured claim, and the spouse may also remain in the decedent's house for up to 6 months after the death without owing rent (§ 2-403).
  • Discretionary family allowance. The surviving spouse, minor children the decedent had to support, and children the decedent was actually supporting may receive a reasonable money allowance for maintenance during administration, paid as a lump sum or in installments, capped at 1 year if the estate cannot cover allowed claims (§ 2-404).
  • The spouse's waiver of the will. A surviving spouse may file a signed writing in the registry of probate within 6 months after the probate of the will, waiving what the will left and claiming a statutory share instead (M.G.L. c. 191, § 15). The share depends on whether the decedent left issue or other kindred, and above $25,000 part of it comes as a life interest rather than outright.

Massachusetts has no homestead allowance inside the probate code, because § 2-402 is reserved. Homestead protection lives in a separate chapter and works on the house during life, so do not carry a homestead-allowance line over from another state. Where there is no will, the Massachusetts intestate succession rules decide the shares, and where there is one, it has to meet the Massachusetts will requirements before a magistrate or judge allows it.

Duty 7: Clear the Taxes and the Estate Tax Lien

Massachusetts is one of the minority of states with its own estate tax, so this step is real work rather than a formality. For a decedent dying on or after January 1, 2023, no Massachusetts estate tax is owed if the value of the federal taxable estate is not more than $2,000,000, and above that line a credit capped at $99,600 reduces the tax. The credit in § 2A(f) applies to every estate of a decedent dying on or after January 1, 2023; below the § 2A(g) line there is simply no tax for it to offset (M.G.L. c. 65C, § 2A). The tax, when there is one, is paid by the executor (§ 6), and you can apply in writing to the Commissioner of Revenue, with a copy of the final federal determination, to be discharged from personal liability for a later deficiency (§ 7). Confirm the current return and its due date with the Massachusetts Department of Revenue before you calendar anything.

The lien is the part that stops closings. Unpaid Massachusetts estate tax is a lien on the Massachusetts gross estate for 10 years from the date of death. For deaths on or after January 1, 1997, an executor's affidavit, sworn under the pains and penalties of perjury and recorded in the appropriate registry of deeds, stating that the gross estate does not necessitate a federal estate tax filing, releases the lien (§ 14). Any title company handling a sale of estate real estate will ask for that affidavit or a release, so raise it early. You also file the decedent's final income tax returns and any fiduciary returns for income the estate earns during administration.

Real Estate Passes to the Heirs, Then Waits for You

Massachusetts real property devolves at death to the devisees under the will or to the heirs, subject to administration (§ 3-101). Probate confirms the chain of title; it does not move the land. You may leave the house with the person presumptively entitled to it until you judge that possession is needed for the estate, and your written request for delivery is conclusive evidence in a later action that possession was necessary (§ 3-709).

Selling is the usual reason to bring the house into administration. Section 3-715(23 1/2) lets a personal representative sell, lease, or encumber estate real estate to an arm's length third party for cash, credit, or a mix, whether the appointment was formal or informal, but the subsection carries a proviso that decides most Massachusetts sales. Where the decedent died without a will, a license under M.G.L. c. 202 is required. Where there is a will, the sale rests either on a will that empowers the personal representative to sell that real estate or on the same c. 202 license. Formal versus informal appointment is not what settles it: the power in the will, or the license, is. Expect the buyer's title counsel to want your letters, the affidavit of publication, and the estate tax lien release. Deeds record with the county registry of deeds, a separate office from the Register of Probate. Massachusetts has no transfer-on-death deed for real estate, so a house that was not in a trust or held with survivorship rights comes through you.

What a Massachusetts Personal Representative Is Paid

Massachusetts pays reasonable compensation for services and publishes no statutory percentage and no fee table (§ 3-719). If the will fixes your compensation and you made no contract with the decedent about it, you may renounce that provision before you qualify and take reasonable compensation instead. You may also renounce the right to all or part of the fee, and a written renunciation can be filed with the court.

Keep contemporaneous time records from the first week. There is no formula to fall back on, so a beneficiary who objects to your fee, or a judge reviewing it, will ask what you actually did and how long it took. Before you decide whether to take or waive the fee, work through the Massachusetts executor compensation page, which sets out the reasonableness standard and the renunciation rules. Your compensation is an expense incident to administration under § 3-715, which puts it in class 1 of the § 3-805 payment order, and it is income you report on your own return.

Close the Estate After Six Months

Distribution comes last. Outside supervised administration, you may close by filing a verified statement no earlier than 6 months after the date of your original appointment, stating that the time limited for presenting creditors' claims has expired, that you have fully administered the estate and distributed the assets to the persons entitled, and that you sent a copy of the statement to the distributees and to any creditor whose claim is neither paid nor barred, along with a full written account to the distributees affected (§ 3-1003). If nothing involving you is pending 1 year later, that statement can no longer be challenged except for fraud or manifest error. The full written account you send the distributees follows the Massachusetts probate accounting rules, which show what each schedule has to hold.

Check these before you file it:

  1. Did the publication go out within 30 days after appointment?
  2. Is the inventory filed with the court or mailed to the interested persons?
  3. Has the 1-year creditor bar run from the date of death?
  4. Are allowed claims paid in the § 3-805 order, with receipts?
  5. Are the exempt property, the family allowance, and any spousal waiver settled?
  6. Is the Massachusetts estate tax question answered and any lien released?
  7. Do you hold signed receipts from everyone who took a distribution?

An estate that needs a court order instead of a sworn statement uses a formal complete settlement. You may petition at any time, another interested person may petition 1 year after the original appointment, and the court cannot entertain the petition until the time for presenting pre-death claims has expired (§ 3-1001). A discharge under that order exonerates you and your sureties unless the account is impeached for fraud or manifest error.

This guide is general information about Massachusetts estates. It is not legal advice. Confirm anything that affects your situation with the Register of Probate in your county, the Probate and Family Court, or a licensed Massachusetts attorney.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the duties of a personal representative in Massachusetts?

Take control of the decedent's property, publish notice of the proceeding within 30 days after appointment, prepare and file or mail the inventory within 3 months, pay allowed claims in the order set by M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-805, settle the taxes, and close the estate by verified statement no earlier than 6 months after appointment.

When is the Massachusetts estate inventory due?

Within 3 months after appointment. M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-706 requires a list of the property the decedent owned at death in reasonable detail, with the fair market value of each item as of the date of death and the type and amount of any encumbrance. File it with the court or mail a copy to the interested persons whose addresses are reasonably available.

How long must a Massachusetts personal representative wait to close the estate?

At least 6 months from the date of the original appointment. M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-1003 sets that floor for a verified closing statement, and the statement can no longer be challenged 1 year after it is filed unless there is fraud or manifest error. Most personal representatives also wait out the 1-year creditor bar.

Does a Massachusetts personal representative publish a notice to creditors?

No. Section 3-801 of the uniform act is reserved in Massachusetts, so no publication starts a claim window. The § 3-306(b) notice published within 30 days after appointment announces the proceeding. Creditors are cut off instead by M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-803, which requires an action within 1 year after the date of death.

How much does a Massachusetts personal representative get paid?

Massachusetts pays reasonable compensation for services under M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-719 and sets no statutory percentage or fee table. If the will fixes the compensation and there was no contract with the decedent about it, you may renounce that provision before you qualify and take reasonable compensation instead.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

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Information current as of July 29, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Massachusetts can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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