Probate

What assets are subject to probate?

Very simply – assets that are owned individually by the decedent at the time of his death and assets that have no specifically named beneficiary. Most commonly this includes personal property (i.e. jewelry, automobiles, and furniture), stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other investments, money, etc…

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What assets are not part of the probate estate?

These are assets that are held in a manner that specifically delineates who the property goes to upon death. Most commonly this includes jointly held real estate, jointly owned bank accounts, life insurance policies with beneficiaries, property held in trust, etc…

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What happens if there is no will?

The estate still must be probated, but the process can be more difficult, and more time consuming. In this case an interested person must seek administration of the estate through the filing of a Petition for Administration. Once this is done, the estate will then be disbursed according to the estate intestacy statutes of the state in which it is filed. The laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts set out a specific order in which a decedent’s beneficiaries will take, and their can be no deviation from the order set forth in the statute

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