Estate planning rules in Massachusetts

Wills

Massachusetts law allows a will to exclude or limit an individual or class from inheriting property that would otherwise pass by intestacy. That share passes as if the person had disclaimed it.

Intent that a document constitute a will may be established by proof beyond the text of the document.

A will generally must be admitted to probate to prove a property transfer or nominate an executor, subject to a statutory exception for certain unprobated wills.

Intestate shares for a surviving spouse

The surviving spouse takes the entire intestate estate when no descendant or parent survives, or when all descendants are shared and the spouse has no other surviving descendant.

When no descendant but a parent survives, the spouse takes the first $200,000 plus three-quarters of the balance.

The spouse takes the first $100,000 plus half the balance if the decedent's descendants include a person who is not the spouse's descendant.

Durable powers of attorney

A durable power of attorney requires written language showing the principal intended authority to continue despite later disability or incapacity. Absent a termination time, it also continues despite elapsed time.

Acts under a durable power of attorney during the principal's incapacity bind and benefit the principal and successors as if the principal were competent. The instrument may also provide a termination time.

Accountings and no-contest clauses

A court in a Massachusetts trust dispute cited authority stating that a trust provision waiving the trustees' duty to account was against public policy. It reasoned that a beneficiary who simply sought an accounting would not trigger the no-contest clause.

Thresholds and rates change. Check the state's own current figures.