Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Massachusetts

Re: Probate requirements in Massachusetts

I'm sorry for your loss.

Whom do you contact? ME! I have all the forms

and the know-how and I'm good and ... cheap!

The co-executors must open a probate file; I can

do that for them if you like. They will need to have

some representative for them within Massachusetts and

I think that the person has to be a lawyer, though I'm

not certain on that point.

It's wierd but the will is supposed to be filed within

30 days (with no penalty if it isn't!) and then the probate

has to be filed after 30 days. There's an affidavit that

I fill in for you. If done right, we can avoid some

of the usual requirements: 'publication' (printing a

notice in a newspaper to invite creditors to file

claims), and we should also be able to skip the

routine of posting bond (buying a bond of surety

from an insurance agent) for the executors'

performance of their duties.

Are you one of the two co-executors named in the

will? (I hope!)

Off the top of my head, what I would need: the original

will, the name(s) of insurance company(ies) and the

policy number(s), the hospital or street address where

she died, her home address (her residence)

at the time she died, the names AND addresses of every

living child and grandchild, her social security number, her date and

place of birth, her middle name, her parent's full names, and

her husband's name, and last address.

I assume she had no real estate anywhere in the world, no art or expensive

jewelry collections or the like, and no automobiles.

Was she getting Medicare lately? I assume she was not a

beneficiary of any trust just before dying.

I assume she hadn't moved from another

state recently, too. I assume she was a U.S. citizen and

your father was also.