Even if the decedent did no advance estate planning, it may still be possible to avoid Probate. Massachusetts banking laws provide a way for small bank accounts and small accounts in credit unions to be distributed without any need for probate.

If probate is needed for a small estates consisting entirely of personal property, we can use the streamlined Voluntary Administration approach:

Real estate cannot be transferred through this procedure; an Informal or Formal Probate is required to transfer title to real estate. Also, the Voluntary Executor or Administrator does not have the ability to start litigation to recover for personal injury or damages; a formal probate is required to start litigation.

These small estates can go through Probate within a few weeks, at lower cost than full probate proceedings. We can accept paypal for the convenience of out of state clients who need to settle a Massachusetts estate.

The Massachusetts Department of Revenue and the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles use forms MVU 24 and MVU 27 to exempt transfers of cars and trucks from sales tax. Also, if a spouse dies leaving ownership of a car in his name, the surviving spouse can transfer title through the Registry of Motor Vehicles without any need for probate, as long as the vehicle was not given to some other person by will. Massachusetts motor vehicle law states that upon the death of the owner of a pleasure vehicle, the vehicle shall be deemed to have been jointly held, and ownership shall pass to the surviving spouse, who can obtain a Certificate of Title using a single Affidavit of Surviving Spouse form from the Registry of Motor Vehicles. These are some of the many simple methods we use to help people save time and money.