Massachusetts Probate Accounting

Massachusetts probate accounting runs on two filings and one delivery. You file an inventory within 3 months of appointment, you give the distributees whose interests are affected a full written account of the money, and you close by filing a verified closing statement no earlier than 6 months after appointment. No annual account goes to a judge.

That surprises people who expect probate to mean constant court supervision. Under the Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code, an unsupervised estate answers to its beneficiaries and creditors first, and to the Probate and Family Court only when someone asks the court to step in. This guide walks the paperwork in order, names the Massachusetts forms by number, gives the filing fees the court actually charges, and marks the two tracks where a judge does review your numbers line by line.

What Accounting Means in a Massachusetts Estate

Your accounting duty splits into four pieces, and only two of them normally reach the courthouse.

• The inventory you file or mail within 3 months, on form MPC 854 (M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-706)
• The records you keep of every dollar that enters and leaves the estate
• The written account you furnish to the distributees whose interests are affected (§ 3-1003(a)(3))
• The verified closing statement, form MPC 850, that ends the administration (§ 3-1003)

The standard behind all four sits in § 3-703(a): a personal representative is a fiduciary who has to observe the standards of care that apply to trustees under c. 203C, and has to settle and distribute the estate as expeditiously as the estate's best interests allow. Sloppy bookkeeping is not a filing problem. It is a breach of that standard.

Think of the whole job as one reconciling statement. Show what the estate held at death, what it collected, what it paid, what went to each beneficiary, and what is left. When those five numbers tie out and the beneficiaries have seen them, a Massachusetts estate closes without a hearing. Start with the Massachusetts executor duties guide if you have not yet mapped the surrounding jobs.

The Inventory: Your First Accounting Duty

The inventory carries the only hard deadline in this whole area, and every later figure depends on it.

Under M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-706(a), within 3 months after appointment a personal representative who is not a successor prepares an inventory of the property the decedent owned at the time of death. The statute sets three requirements you cannot skip:

• List the property in reasonable detail
• Show fair market value of each listed item as of the date of death, not the value on the day you write it up
• Show the type and amount of any encumbrance that exists against any item, such as a mortgage or a lien

Massachusetts adds a wrinkle most states do not. Under § 3-706(b), a successor personal representative also has 3 months, but values the estate property as of the date of the successor's own appointment, not the date of death. If you took over from someone else, do not carry the original date-of-death figures forward without checking that rule.

Section 3-706(c) gives you the delivery choice. You either file a copy of the inventory with the court, or mail a copy to all interested persons whose addresses are reasonably available. You may also file the original with the court. Either way, keep a dated copy for your file.

The Probate and Family Court publishes two versions: Inventory (MPC 854) and Inventory Without Schedules (MPC 854a).

Appraisals and Corrections

Section 3-707 lets you employ one or more qualified and disinterested appraisers to help fix the fair market value at the date of death of any asset whose value is open to reasonable doubt. You may hire different appraisers for different kinds of assets, so a real estate appraiser and a jewelry appraiser can both work the same estate.

Here is a gap worth knowing about. Many Uniform Probate Code states put a supplementary inventory rule at § 3-708, and guides written from a national template will tell you Massachusetts has one. It does not. M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-708 is Reserved, so the MUPC gives no statutory procedure for a supplementary inventory. When a forgotten account surfaces or an appraisal corrects an early guess, ask your Register of Probate how that division wants an amended inventory filed, and carry the corrected figure into your account.

Records to Keep While the Estate Is Open

Between the inventory and the close, your records are the account. Build them around three running columns from day one.

Receipts. Every dollar the estate takes in: inventoried assets you convert to cash, interest and dividends, rent, sale proceeds, refunds, and debts collected on the decedent's behalf. Note the source, date, and amount.

Payments. Every dollar the estate pays out: funeral costs, allowed creditor claims, taxes, court fees, attorney and appraiser fees, upkeep on estate real estate, and your own compensation. Note the payee, date, purpose, and amount.

Assets on hand. What the estate still holds at the end of the period: bank balances, property not yet transferred, and anything else under your control.

Keep estate money in a dedicated estate account and never mix it with your own. Commingling breaks the arithmetic and breaches the trustee standard § 3-703 imposes on you. Save the bank statements, canceled checks, invoices, and closing statements behind every entry so any single line survives a question years later.

Massachusetts publishes a formal accounting form even when no one is making you file it: Account (MPC 853), with a schedule-based layout, and Account Without Schedules (MPC 853a). Building your running records in the shape of MPC 853 costs nothing extra and pays off if the estate later needs court allowance of an account.

The Written Account to the Distributees

This is the step people skip because no clerk chases them for it.

Section 3-1003(a)(3) lets you file a closing statement only after you have sent a copy of that statement to all distributees and to every creditor or claimant you know of whose claim is neither paid nor barred, and have furnished a full account in writing of your administration to the distributees whose interests are affected. The written account is a precondition of closing, not an optional courtesy.

A workable account pulls your three columns into one document:

• Receipts during the administration, itemized
• Payments, grouped by purpose and in the order § 3-805 sets for paying debts
• Distributions made or proposed to each beneficiary
• Anything still on hand and what happens to it

Send it to the people who take under the will or, where there is none, under the Massachusetts intestate succession rules. A beneficiary who reads the account and raises nothing has seen the numbers, and you have a record of that. A beneficiary who wants a judge to bless the numbers pushes the estate onto the formal track described below.

Closing by Verified Statement

The closing statement is the finish line, and it is sworn.

Under M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-1003(a), unless the court has prohibited it and except for estates in supervised administration, you may close by filing a verified statement with the court no earlier than 6 months after the date of original appointment of a general personal representative. The statement says that you have:

1. Determined that the time limited for presentation of creditors' claims has expired
2. Fully administered the estate by paying, settling, or otherwise disposing of every claim presented, the expenses of administration, and estate, inheritance, and other death taxes, and distributed the assets to the persons entitled
3. Sent a copy of the statement to all distributees and to unpaid, unbarred creditors, and furnished a full written account to the distributees whose interests are affected

If a claim is still undischarged, the statement has to say whether you distributed subject to possible liability with the distributees' agreement, or spell out the other arrangements you made to cover the outstanding liability.

The form is Closing Statement (MPC 850), and the Probate and Family Court fee schedule lists a $75 filing fee for it with no Register surcharge.

The One-Year Rule Massachusetts Writes Differently

Read § 3-1003(b) carefully, because most cross-state guides get this wrong. Massachusetts says that if no proceedings involving the personal representative are pending in the court 1 year after the closing statement is filed, the closing statement may not be challenged, except for fraud or manifest error.

That is not the same as ending your appointment. Other Uniform Probate Code states use this section to terminate the personal representative's appointment after a year. Massachusetts moved that termination language to § 3-1204(b), which reaches only a small estate closed by summary procedure. So do not tell a beneficiary your authority evaporated on the anniversary of your closing statement. Line the dates up against the Massachusetts probate timeline before you file anything.

The Small Estate Summary Close

Section 3-1203 gives a shortcut when 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 the reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness. In that case you may disburse and distribute immediately, without giving notice to creditors, then close under § 3-1204.

Section 3-1204 asks for three sworn certifications on form Small Estate Closing Statement (MPC 851), also $75. Do not assume they are the § 3-1003 certifications. The first one is different: rather than certifying that the creditor claim period expired, you certify that to your best knowledge the value of the entire estate, less liens and encumbrances, did not exceed those same allowances and expenses. The other two track § 3-1003: you fully administered the estate by disbursing and distributing it to the persons entitled, and you sent the closing statement to all distributees and to unpaid, unbarred creditors while furnishing a full written account to the distributees whose interests are affected.

Two more differences matter. You may file it at any time after distribution rather than waiting 6 months, and under § 3-1204(b) the appointment terminates if no actions or proceedings involving you are pending 1 year later. Section 3-1204(c) gives that statement the same effect as one filed under § 3-1003.

Voluntary administration under § 3-1201 is a separate track for a personal-property estate of $25,000 or less plus one vehicle. A voluntary personal representative pays funeral and last-illness expenses and the necessary expenses of administration without a fee for services, then pays remaining debts in the § 3-805 order and distributes the balance. Check the Massachusetts probate guide to confirm which track your estate belongs on.

The Six-Month Shield the Account Buys You

The written account is not busywork. It starts a short clock in your favor.

Under M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-1005, the rights of successors and of creditors whose claims are not otherwise barred, asserted against the personal representative for breach of fiduciary duty, are barred unless a proceeding starts within 6 months after the filing of the closing statement. One carve-out survives that bar: rights to recover from you for fraud, misrepresentation, or inadequate disclosure related to settlement of the estate. Full disclosure in the account is what makes the short bar work.

Beneficiaries and creditors keep a longer runway against the people who received the money. Section 3-1004 lets an undischarged, unbarred claim be prosecuted against distributees as an improper distribution, and § 3-1006 bars that recovery at the later of 3 years after death or 1 year after distribution, while barring all claims of the decedent's creditors 1 year after the date of death. Section 3-1006 keeps its own fraud exception open: it does not bar an action to recover property or value obtained by fraud. That one-year creditor rule is the same one covered in the Massachusetts creditor claims guide.

When a Judge Does Review Your Account

Two tracks replace the sworn statement with court review, and both look like traditional accounting.

Formal Order of Complete Settlement

Under § 3-1001(a), you or any interested person may petition for an order of complete settlement of the estate. You may petition at any time. Any other interested person has to wait 1 year from the appointment of the original personal representative, and no petition can be entertained until the time for presenting pre-death claims has expired. The petition may ask the court to determine testacy, consider the final account, compel or approve an accounting or a distribution, construe the will, determine heirs, or adjudicate final settlement and distribution.

Unless every interested party assents, you give notice in the manner § 1-401 prescribes. After notice and any hearing, § 3-1001(b) lets the court approve the settlement, direct or approve distribution, and discharge you from further claim or demand. That discharge forever exonerates you and your sureties from liability under the decree unless the account is impeached for fraud or manifest error, which is why some families pay for this step even when nobody is fighting.

The forms are Petition for Order of Complete Settlement (MPC 855) and, where the account itself needs allowance, Petition for Allowance of Account (MPC 857) with Decree and Order of Allowance of Account (MPC 791). A beneficiary who cannot get an inventory or an account out of you has a form of their own: Petition to Render Inventory, Account, Distribution (MPC 856), answered by an Order to Render (MPC 754). Producing the account voluntarily is cheaper than being ordered to produce it.

Supervised Administration

Section 3-501 makes supervised administration a single in rem proceeding under the continuing authority of the court, running until an order approves distribution and discharges the personal representative. A supervised personal representative answers to the court as well as to the parties.

The consequence that changes daily life is in § 3-504: a supervised personal representative may not exercise the power to make any distribution of the estate without a prior court order. Section 3-505 lets the court issue interim orders approving partial distributions at any time, and terminates the supervision by order under the § 3-1001 rules. Section 3-502 tells you when supervision gets ordered: when the will directs it and circumstances have not changed, when the will directs unsupervised administration but the court finds supervision necessary to protect interested persons, or when the court otherwise finds it necessary.

What It Costs to Put an Account Before the Court

Massachusetts sets these fees statewide, not by county.

Allowance of an account carries a second, graduated fee tied to the gross value accounted for in Schedule A of the Account. Nothing is charged where that value is $1,000 or less. Above $1,000 and up to $10,000 the fee is $75, and the court caps it at $170 no matter how long a period the account covers. From $10,000 up the fee is charged per year or fraction of a year the account covers: $100 up to $100,000, $150 up to $500,000, $200 up to $1,000,000, $400 up to $2,000,000, $750 up to $5,000,000, $1,500 up to $7,500,000, $2,500 up to $10,000,000, and $3,500 above that. On top of any filing fee, each citation costs $15 and each summons $5, and the petitioner pays publication costs.

Deadlines at a Glance

Local practice varies among the 14 Probate and Family Court divisions. Confirm filing preferences with your Register of Probate before you send anything.

Accounting Mistakes That Cost Massachusetts Personal Representatives

• Missing the 3-month inventory. Calendar it the day the letters issue. Every later figure in the account starts there.
• Using date-of-death values as a successor. Section 3-706(b) wants values as of your own appointment date.
• Commingling estate money with your own. It breaks the reconciliation and breaches the trustee standard in § 3-703.
• Distributing before the one-year creditor bar runs. Paying beneficiaries early can leave you answering for a claim that lands afterward.
• Filing the closing statement without the written account. The statement swears you furnished one. If you did not, the sworn statement is false.
• Assuming § 3-708 gives you a supplementary inventory. That section is Reserved in Massachusetts.

Getting Paid, and Getting Help

Section 3-719 entitles you to reasonable compensation for services. Massachusetts sets no percentage and no fee table. If the will fixes your compensation and you had no contract with the decedent about it, you may renounce that provision before you qualify and take reasonable compensation instead, and you may renounce all or part of any fee by filing a written renunciation with the court. List whatever you take as a payment in the account so beneficiaries see it on the page rather than discovering it later.

Attorney and accountant fees are administration expenses the estate can pay, and they belong in the account too. Bring in a licensed Massachusetts attorney when the estate runs a business, holds hard-to-value assets, faces an insolvency, draws a demand for supervised administration, or when a beneficiary disputes your numbers. If the estate has not opened yet, the guide to avoiding probate in Massachusetts covers the transfers that never reach an account at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a Massachusetts personal representative file accountings with the court?

Not on a routine schedule. An unsupervised Massachusetts estate files no annual accounts. You prepare an inventory within 3 months under M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-706, which then has to be filed with the court or mailed to the interested persons under § 3-706(c) though the statute sets no deadline on that step, you furnish a full written account to the distributees whose interests are affected, and you close by filing a verified closing statement under § 3-1003. A court reviews an account only when someone petitions for allowance of it, when the estate goes through a formal order of complete settlement under § 3-1001, or when the court orders supervised administration.

When is the Massachusetts estate inventory due?

Within 3 months after appointment. Under M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-706 you list the property the decedent owned at death in reasonable detail, show the fair market value of each item as of the date of death, and show the type and amount of any encumbrance. A successor personal representative also has 3 months, but values the property as of the successor's own appointment date. You either file the inventory with the court or mail a copy to all interested persons whose addresses are reasonably available.

What is a Massachusetts closing statement and what does it cost?

It is the sworn Closing Statement, form MPC 850, that ends an unsupervised estate under M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-1003. You may file it no earlier than 6 months after the date of original appointment. The Probate and Family Court fee schedule lists a $75 filing fee for a Closing Statement with no Register surcharge. A Small Estate Closing Statement under § 3-1204 also costs $75.

How long can someone challenge my accounting in Massachusetts?

Under M.G.L. c. 190B, § 3-1005, claims against you for breach of fiduciary duty are barred unless a proceeding starts within 6 months after the closing statement is filed. That bar does not cover fraud, misrepresentation, or inadequate disclosure. Separately, § 3-1003(b) says that if no proceedings involving you are pending 1 year after the closing statement is filed, the statement itself may not be challenged except for fraud or manifest error.

Do Massachusetts beneficiaries get to see the account?

Yes. Section 3-1003(a)(3) of M.G.L. c. 190B lets you file a closing statement only after you have sent a copy of it to every distributee and to unpaid, unbarred creditors, and have furnished a full account in writing of your administration to the distributees whose interests are affected. A beneficiary who wants a judge to review the numbers can ask for allowance of the account or petition for an order of complete settlement under § 3-1001.

Does the appointment end when a Massachusetts closing statement is filed?

Not under § 3-1003. Many states end the appointment 1 year after the closing statement, and Massachusetts does not copy that language. Section 3-1003(b) says only that the statement may not be challenged after 1 year absent fraud or manifest error. The termination language sits in § 3-1204(b), which applies to a small estate closed by summary procedure.

Related Guides

• Massachusetts Executor Duties
• Massachusetts Creditor Claims
• Massachusetts Probate Timeline
• Massachusetts Intestate Succession
• Massachusetts Probate Guide

Sources:

• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-703, General duties; relation and liability to persons interested in estate; standing to sue. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-703
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-706, Duty of personal representative; inventory and appraisement. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-706
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-707, Employment of appraisers. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-707
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-708, Reserved. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-708
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-719, Compensation of personal representative. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-719
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-805, Classification of claims. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-805
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-501, Supervised administration; nature of proceeding. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-501
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-502, Supervised administration; petition; order. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-502
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-504, Supervised administration; powers of personal representative. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-504
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-505, Supervised administration; interim orders; distribution and closing orders. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-505
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-1001, Formal proceedings terminating administration; testate or intestate; order of general protection. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-1001
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-1003, Closing estates; by sworn statement of personal representative. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-1003
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-1004, Liability of distributees to claimants. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-1004
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-1005, Limitations on proceedings against personal representative. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-1005
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-1006, Limitations on actions and proceedings against distributees. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-1006
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-1201, Collection of personal property by affidavit. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-1201
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-1203, Small estates; summary administration procedure. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-1203
• Title: M.G.L. c. 190B, Section 3-1204, Small estates; closing by sworn statement of personal representative. Publisher: Massachusetts General Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleII/Chapter190B/Section3-1204
• Title: Probate and Family Court forms for wills, estates, and trusts. Publisher: Massachusetts Trial Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.mass.gov/lists/probate-and-family-court-forms-for-wills-estates-and-trusts
• Title: Probate and Family Court filing fees. Publisher: Massachusetts Trial Court. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/probate-and-family-court-filing-fees

It is not legal advice.