Skip to main content
Massachusetts Intestate Succession
Pillar GuideMassachusetts14 min read

Massachusetts Intestate Succession

Who inherits without a will in Massachusetts: the spouse's share under M.G.L. c. 190B § 2-102, the order of heirs, and why the dollar figures never adjust.

By Settled Editorial

When a Massachusetts resident dies without a will, M.G.L. c. 190B decides who inherits. The surviving spouse comes first and often takes the whole estate. Children and other descendants come next, then parents, then siblings and their descendants, then the nearest blood relatives. If nobody qualifies, the estate passes to the commonwealth.

This guide answers one question: who gets what when there is no will in Massachusetts. It follows §§ 2-101 through 2-114 of the Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code and flags three places where Massachusetts breaks from the plain uniform act. An intestate estate still needs a court appointment, so read the Massachusetts probate process once you know who the heirs are. To see how these rules divide a specific estate, use the Massachusetts inheritance calculator.

What Dying Without a Will Means in Massachusetts

Dying without a valid will is called dying intestate. Under M.G.L. c. 190B, § 2-101, any part of a decedent's estate not effectively disposed of by will passes by intestate succession to the decedent's heirs. A will can cover part of an estate and leave the rest to these rules, so a single estate can be part testate and part intestate.

Section 2-101(b) adds a wrinkle worth knowing. A will can expressly exclude or limit an individual or a class from taking by intestate succession. If that person survives the decedent, the share they would have taken passes as if they had disclaimed it.

What Passes Outside Intestate Succession

These rules reach the probate estate only. Assets with their own transfer path skip the whole scheme:

  • Life insurance, IRAs, 401(k) plans, and pensions with a living named beneficiary
  • Payable-on-death bank accounts and other contractual death benefits under § 6-101
  • Securities and brokerage accounts registered in transfer-on-death beneficiary form
  • Real estate or accounts held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship
  • A home held by spouses as tenants by the entirety
  • Property titled in a revocable or irrevocable trust

Massachusetts offers no transfer-on-death deed for real estate. Transfer-on-death registration here covers securities, not land. Real property the decedent owned alone, or as a tenant in common, runs through probate unless a trust, a joint tenancy, or a tenancy by the entirety carries it.

Deed wording matters more in Massachusetts than most people expect. Under M.G.L. c. 184, § 7, a conveyance of land to two or more people creates an estate in common and not a joint tenancy unless the deed says the grantees take jointly, as joint tenants, in joint tenancy, or to them and the survivor of them. Pull the recorded deed and read that clause before you assume a house passed automatically. If you want to keep the next generation out of court, avoiding probate in Massachusetts starts with the same title questions.

Need help with your probate case?

Answer a few questions to see whether Massachusetts probate is required and which process applies.

Take the 2-minute assessment

The Surviving Spouse's Share (M.G.L. c. 190B § 2-102)

Section 2-102 sets four outcomes. Which one applies turns on two facts: whether a descendant or parent survives, and whether the family is blended.

The spouse takes the entire estate

The surviving spouse takes the whole intestate estate in two situations. The first is when no descendant and no parent of the decedent survives. The second is when all of the decedent's surviving descendants are also descendants of the spouse and no other descendant of the spouse survives the decedent. A couple whose only children are shared children lands in that second group, and the children inherit nothing under intestacy while the spouse lives.

No children, but a parent survives

When no descendant of the decedent survives but a parent does, the spouse takes the first $200,000 plus three-fourths of any balance. The surviving parent, or both parents together, take the rest. A childless married person with a living mother or father sits here, and the parent's slice grows real once the estate clears $200,000.

Blended families split at $100,000

Two mixed-family situations cut the estate the same way. Under § 2-102(3), the spouse takes the first $100,000 plus one-half of any balance when all of the decedent's surviving descendants are also the spouse's, but the spouse has one or more surviving descendants who are not the decedent's. Under § 2-102(4), the spouse takes the same first $100,000 plus one-half of any balance when one or more of the decedent's surviving descendants are not descendants of the spouse. The decedent's descendants take what is left.

That fourth outcome is the one most often misstated. § 2-102(4) gives the spouse the first $100,000 plus one-half of the balance, which is what the uniform act provides as well, so this is not a Massachusetts departure. The error to watch for is a page that drops the $100,000 and quotes a bare one-half spousal share. Any page quoting a bare one-half spousal share for Massachusetts is importing another state's rule.

The dollar figures never adjust

Chapter 190B carries no cost-of-living provision. Section 1-108 is titled "Act by holder of general power" and § 1-109 is "Standard of proof," so nothing indexes the $200,000 and $100,000 amounts. They read the same for a 2013 death and a 2026 death. Skip the year-of-death banding you may have seen in other states.

A spouse who inherits under these rules may also hold separate protections. Those overrides matter most when there IS a will, and the surviving spouse protections guide covers the waiver route, the allowances, and exempt property.

Who Inherits After the Spouse (M.G.L. c. 190B § 2-103)

Whatever does not pass to the spouse, or the entire estate when no spouse survives, moves down the order in § 2-103:

  1. Descendants. Children, grandchildren, and further descendants take first, per capita at each generation.
  2. Parents. With no surviving descendant, the estate goes to the decedent's parents equally, or all to the surviving parent.
  3. Descendants of parents. With no descendant and no parent, the estate passes to the decedent's siblings and their descendants, meaning nieces and nephews, per capita at each generation.
  4. Next of kin in equal degree. With no descendant, parent, or descendant of a parent, the estate passes equally to the decedent's next of kin in equal degree.

That fourth class is the second Massachusetts departure. Many Uniform Probate Code states split the estate into maternal and paternal halves among grandparent lines. Massachusetts does not. Degrees of kindred are computed by the rules of the civil law, and when two or more descendants of deceased ancestors stand in equal degree through different ancestors, those claiming through the nearest ancestor are preferred.

How Descendants Divide a Share (M.G.L. c. 190B § 2-106)

Massachusetts uses per capita at each generation, not classic per stirpes. Under § 2-106, the estate splits at the generation nearest the decedent that holds at least one living descendant. Each living person there takes one share, and one share is set aside for each deceased member of that same generation who left surviving descendants. The set-aside shares are then combined and divided the same way one generation down.

Picture a decedent with three children who all died first. One child left a single child, the second left two, and the third left three. Because no member of the child generation survives, the estate drops to the grandchildren, who all stand in the same generation. The six grandchildren split it equally at one-sixth apiece. A strict per-stirpes system would hand the lone grandchild a full one-third instead. Massachusetts treats members of the same generation alike.

Two Traps in the Massachusetts Rules

There is no 120-hour survival rule for heirs

M.G.L. c. 190B, § 2-104 is Reserved. Massachusetts never enacted the uniform 120-hour heir-survival requirement, so no Massachusetts heir has to outlive the decedent by five days to inherit. Competitor pages that quote a 120-hour waiting period for Massachusetts heirs are wrong.

Section 2-702 handles the harder question of who survived whom. An individual not established to have survived an event, including another person's death, is deemed to have predeceased that event. When two co-owners with a right of survivorship die and neither is established to have survived the other, half the property passes as if one survived and half as if the other did. A governing instrument with its own simultaneous-death clause or its own survival period controls instead.

The only 120-hour period in these rules sits in § 2-108, and it measures from BIRTH. A child in gestation when the decedent died is treated as living at that moment if the child lives 120 hours or more after being born.

Half-blood relatives take a full share

Half-siblings and other half-blood relatives inherit the same share they would inherit if they were of the whole blood, under § 2-107. Massachusetts applies no half-blood reduction and no ancestral-property carve-out. A half-brother counts the same as a full brother.

Children's Inheritance Rights

Children of unmarried parents

Under § 2-114(a), a person is the child of their natural parents regardless of the parents' marital status. The parent and child relationship may be established under applicable state law. Marriage does not gate the inheritance.

Adopted children

An adopted individual is the child of the adopting parents and not of the natural parents. Section 2-114 keeps two openings in that wall. Adoption by the spouse of either natural parent has no effect on the right of the child or the child's descendants to inherit from or through either natural parent, which covers the ordinary stepparent adoption. And no adopted individual loses the right to inherit from their natural parents or kindred by being adopted by a person related to them by consanguinity. The court may also decree that rights of succession vest as of the date the adoption petition was filed.

Someone related through two lines

A person related to the decedent through two lines of relationship takes a single share only, based on the relationship that would give the larger share, under § 2-113. Nobody double-dips.

Who Loses a Share

An individual divorced from the decedent is not a surviving spouse under § 2-802 unless a later marriage put them back together at the time of death. A judgment of separation that does not end the marriage is not a divorce for this purpose.

Section 2-803 is the slayer rule. A person who feloniously and intentionally kills the decedent forfeits all benefits under Article II, including an intestate share, exempt property, and a family allowance. The intestate estate then passes as if the killer had disclaimed it, and any joint tenancy with right of survivorship between the two is severed into a tenancy in common. A final conviction settles the question. Absent a conviction, the probate court may find the killing by a preponderance of the evidence.

When the Estate Passes to the Commonwealth

If no taker qualifies under Article II, the intestate estate passes to the commonwealth under § 2-105. One narrow exception applies: when the intestate was a veteran who died while a member of a state-operated veterans' home, the estate inures to the benefit of that home's legacy fund or legacy account.

How to Map a Massachusetts Intestate Estate

Work the estate in this order:

  1. Sort probate property from assets that pass by beneficiary designation, survivorship, or a trust. Only probate property follows these rules.
  2. Confirm who survived the decedent, and whether every surviving descendant is also the surviving spouse's descendant. That single fact moves the spouse between 100 percent and $100,000 plus half.
  3. Set the spouse's share under § 2-102, using the fixed dollar figures with no year-of-death adjustment.
  4. Send the remainder down the § 2-103 class order, and divide any deceased heir's branch under § 2-106.
  5. Check whether an adoption, a divorce, or a two-line relationship changes the count before you distribute anything.

A valid will replaces every default above with the decedent's own instructions and can name a personal representative and a guardian for minor children. The Massachusetts will requirements guide covers what makes one hold up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who inherits if there is no will in Massachusetts?

The surviving spouse inherits first under M.G.L. c. 190B, § 2-102, taking the entire estate in many families. After the spouse's share, the decedent's descendants inherit, then parents, then siblings and their descendants, then the decedent's next of kin in equal degree.

Does a Massachusetts spouse always inherit everything?

No. The spouse takes it all only when no descendant and no parent survives, or when all surviving descendants are shared and the spouse has no other descendants. Where no descendant survives but a parent does, the spouse takes $200,000 plus three-fourths of the balance. A blended family drops the spouse to $100,000 plus one-half.

Do the $200,000 and $100,000 figures change with inflation?

No. Chapter 190B has no cost-of-living section, so those amounts are fixed statutory numbers that apply no matter what year the death occurred.

Does a Massachusetts heir have to survive by 120 hours?

No. M.G.L. c. 190B, § 2-104 is Reserved, so the uniform 120-hour heir-survival rule is not Massachusetts law. Section 2-702 instead deems a person who is not established to have survived an event to have predeceased it. The only 120-hour period runs from a child's birth under § 2-108.

Do stepchildren inherit under Massachusetts intestacy?

A stepchild the decedent never adopted does not inherit as a child. Massachusetts also has no last-resort class for a deceased spouse's descendants, so an unadopted stepchild takes nothing under § 2-103.

What happens if no relatives can be found?

The estate passes to the commonwealth under § 2-105. A veteran who died while a member of a state-operated veterans' home is the one exception, and that estate goes to the home's legacy fund instead.

This guide is general information about Massachusetts estates, not advice for your situation.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

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.

All Massachusetts guides← Back to all articles