Insolvent Probate Estate Claim-Payment Priority in Massachusetts
At a glance
| Statutory payment order | Seven classes, paid in order when assets are insufficient (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 190B, § 3-805(a)). |
|---|---|
| Administration costs | Costs and expenses of administration first (§ 3-805(a)(1)). |
| Funeral and last illness | Reasonable funeral expenses second; reasonable and necessary last-illness expenses fourth (§ 3-805(a)(2), (4)). |
| Family and homestead allowances | Allowance and exempt property precede unsecured claims; deficiency assets yield to the allowance (§§ 2-403(a), 2-404(a)). |
| Taxes and public claims | Federal-law preferred debts and taxes third; state-law preferences fifth; medical-assistance division debts sixth (§ 3-805(a)(3), (5), (6)). |
| Secured claims | Surrender security for the allowed amount; otherwise subtract its value under § 3-809. |
| Support and special debts | Medical-assistance division debts sixth; no separate support or wage class in the seven-class list (§ 3-805(a)(6)–(7)). |
| General claims | All other claims seventh (§ 3-805(a)(7)). |
| Underfunded class | No preference within a class, including for a claim already due (§ 3-805(b)). |
Requirements one by one
Family allowance and exempt property
The seven claim classes in § 3-805(a) do not include the discretionary family allowance or exempt property. Under § 2-404(a), the allowance receives priority over unsecured claims. Section 2-403(a) gives exempt property and assets used to fill its deficiency priority over unsecured claims, but makes those deficiency assets yield to earlier payment of the allowance.
Secured claims
Under § 3-809, payment is based on the allowed claim if the creditor surrenders its security. Otherwise it reduces the payment basis by the value of the security under the section's stated methods; the seven-class list alone does not determine the value of a secured claim.
Same-class treatment
Section 3-805(b) bars preference among claims in one class. It also bars favoring a claim merely because it is already due. The section gives equal rank, rather than a separate numerical allocation formula.
What trips people up
Section 3-805(a) puts reasonable funeral expenses second and reasonable and necessary last-illness care fourth, with federal-law preferences between them. The division of medical assistance is separately named in the sixth class, after other Massachusetts-law preferred debts and taxes. The priority section gives no fixed dollar cap for funeral or last-illness expenses.
Common questions
Are state taxes and medical-assistance debts in the same class? No. Section 3-805(a)(5) ranks debts and taxes preferred under other Massachusetts laws fifth; debts due to the division of medical assistance follow in class six.
Can a payable claim jump ahead of another claim in its class? No. Section 3-805(b) gives no preference to a claim merely because it is due and payable.
Statutes and sources
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 190B, §§ 2-403(a), 2-404(a), 3-805(a)–(b), and 3-809. Verbatim current official text, section URLs, and access dates appear in the source fields above.
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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