Publication
Newspaper pricing is commercial rather than a statewide fee.
Massachusetts court costs
Massachusetts probate filing cost: $100–$375
The statutory filing fee is $100 for a statement of voluntary administration and $375 for formal or informal probate/appointment.
$100–$375 is the range of statutory totals at a $100,000 estate, because the proceedings below are priced differently. Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
What the statute charges
Every line below is computed from the statutory schedule quoted at the end of this page. These are court charges only. They are not an estimate of the total cost of settling an estate.
Statement of voluntary administration
| Charge | $25,000 estate | $100,000 estate | $400,000 estate | $1,000,000 estate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statutory filing fee | $100 | $100 | $100 | $100 |
| Total from this schedule | $100 | $100 | $100 | $100 |
Not included in this total
- Attested copies
- Publication
- Certified copies
This is the filing fee named in G.L. c. 262, § 40; requested copies and service are separate.
Source: G.L. c. 262, § 40, Massachusetts Legislature. Edition/currentness: Publisher edition or effective date not stated. Verified September 15, 2026.
Formal or informal probate and appointment
| Charge | $25,000 estate | $100,000 estate | $400,000 estate | $1,000,000 estate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statutory filing fee | $375 | $375 | $375 | $375 |
| Total from this schedule | $375 | $375 | $375 | $375 |
Not included in this total
- Citation/publication
- Certified copies
The same statutory amount covers the listed formal and informal probate/appointment filings.
Source: G.L. c. 262, § 40, Massachusetts Legislature. Edition/currentness: Publisher edition or effective date not stated. Verified September 15, 2026.
Costs no statute prices
These are the costs executors most often meet after the filing fee. None of them has a statewide statutory amount, so this site does not estimate them.
Bond
Premiums depend on the bond amount, the estate, and the applicant.
Copies and local charges
Certified copies, recording, inventory, accounting, and county surcharges are billed separately.
Professional fees
Attorney, accountant, and appraiser fees are negotiated or court-reviewed.
State-specific limits
- 2026 session-law supersession remains manual because the publisher exposes no section history.
- The $25,000 wording excludes or separately treats a motor vehicle; the current asset model has no motor-vehicle flag.
Use this as a starting point.
This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Probate law varies by state and county and changes over time. Verify the current rule with the court or a licensed attorney in the relevant state.
How to verify the amount for this case
Name the proceeding before asking for a total. A small-estate affidavit, an application for letters, formal administration, a later inventory or account, and a certified copy can each carry a different charge. Asking only “what does probate cost?” invites an answer for the wrong filing.
- Identify the county where the proceeding will be filed.
- Identify the exact route or petition you expect to use.
- State the value basis the schedule uses; it is not always the gross estate value.
- Ask the clerk to separate the opening fee, mandatory surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings.
- Record the schedule date or rule cited.
- Record whether payment is due at filing.
Keep that clerk quote with the estate record and compare it with the itemised statutory lines above. For the broader budget, use the probate cost-line guide; court filing is only one category.
Massachusetts charges the same $375 to open an estate, then prices the accounts by size and by year
G.L. c. 262, § 40 enumerates the fees of the registers of the probate and family court, and it flattens the opening step. A single $375 fee covers a petition for formal probate of a will, an adjudication of intestacy and appointment of a personal representative, a formal appointment of a successor personal representative, supervised administration, an informal probate of a will and/or appointment of a personal representative, and an informal appointment of a successor. Choosing the informal route does not save a filing fee in Massachusetts — it saves time and notice work.
What is not flat is the accounting. The fee for filing an account turns on the gross value shown in Schedule A and, above a point, is charged for each year or fraction of a year the account covers. There is no fee where the gross value accounted for is $1,000 or less. Between $1,000 and $10,000 the fee is $75, and the statute caps the total at $170 "regardless of the time covered by the account."
Above $10,000 the cap disappears and the per-year charge begins: $100 a year from $10,000 to $100,000; $150 a year above $100,000 to $500,000; $200 a year above $500,000 to $1,000,000; $400 a year above $1,000,000 to $2,000,000; $750 a year above $2,000,000 to $5,000,000; $1,500 a year above $5,000,000 to $7,500,000; $2,500 a year above $7,500,000 to $10,000,000; and $3,500 a year above $10,000,000. A slow estate is a more expensive estate here in a way the opening fee never signals — a five-year administration of a $600,000 estate carries five $200 charges, not one.
Selling property is priced on the same sliding logic: a petition or application for sale of real or personal estate by a fiduciary costs $100 where the gross value accounted for is $100,000 or less, $250 up to $250,000, $500 up to $500,000, $750 up to $1,000,000, and $1,000 above that. Petitions for leave to lease or to mortgage real estate are $75 each, removal of a fiduciary is $100, a subsequent bond or a petition for a new bond, discharge, modification or reduction of surety is $75, and a contempt summons is $5. The section also lists the filings that carry no fee at all, including the appointment of a guardian and the resignation of any fiduciary.
Source: G.L. c. 262, § 40, read from the enacting state’s own published code on 2026-09-17. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.
Massachusetts filing-cost map
Separate the Massachusetts filing charge from the estate budget
The Massachusetts filing record prices a proceeding, not every cost of settling an estate. This map connects the published amount or schedule to its value basis and identifies the local items that still need a clerk or court schedule.
| Question | Recorded Massachusetts answer | Carry into the case |
|---|---|---|
| What route is being screened? | Voluntary administration / collection of personal property by affidavit | Confirm that the will, prior appointment, family facts, and asset titles fit this route. |
| What property and basis count? | personal probate property only; gross value for this route. | Keep real property, liens, beneficiary transfers, and survivorship transfers classified separately. |
| What is the amount screen? | $25,000 | Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut. |
| What is the time or deadline record? | 30 days after death; Section 3-803 states a general one-year-from-death action limit but also contains exceptions and equitable relief; § 3-801 is reserved. It cannot honestly be collapsed into publication, actual-notice, appointment, and outer-limit deadlines as one number. | Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number. |
| What does the cost record establish? | 2 published schedules; the proceeding and value basis control the total. | Ask the Probate and Family Court about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings. |
| What does compensation use? | A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation. A will provision may be renounced before qualifying when no compensation contract exists; the statute states no percentage base or extraordinary-services schedule. The relevant base is the estate accounting. | Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate. |
Filing record
What the Massachusetts cost record can answer
Statement of voluntary administration
Basis: estate-value. Status: operative. This is the filing fee named in G.L. c. 262, § 40; requested copies and service are separate.
- Statutory filing fee $100
Formal or informal probate and appointment
Basis: estate-value. Status: operative. The same statutory amount covers the listed formal and informal probate/appointment filings.
- Statutory filing fee $375
Case-file context
Keep the Massachusetts answer with its neighboring conditions
A route answer is easier to use when the facts that can change it stay in the same record. These are the reviewed Massachusetts descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.
Route context
Massachusetts calls the small personal-property route voluntary administration and files it in the Probate and Family Court.
After 30 days, an interested person may file a voluntary-administration statement when the Massachusetts domiciliary left only personal property and the non-motor-vehicle personal property does not exceed $25,000. A prior petition for appointment disqualifies the route; one motor vehicle may be included outside that $25,000 wording.
Compensation context
A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation. A will provision may be renounced before qualifying when no compensation contract exists; the statute states no percentage base or extraordinary-services schedule.
A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation. A will provision may be renounced before qualifying when no compensation contract exists; the statute states no percentage base or extraordinary-services schedule. The relevant base is the estate accounting.
Deadline context
Section 3-803 states a general one-year-from-death action limit but also contains exceptions and equitable relief; § 3-801 is reserved. It cannot honestly be collapsed into publication, actual-notice, appointment, and outer-limit deadlines as one number.
- 2026 session-law supersession remains manual because the publisher exposes no section history.
- The $25,000 wording excludes or separately treats a motor vehicle; the current asset model has no motor-vehicle flag.
Court-material note: Massachusetts publishes statewide probate forms, a court fee page, and a statewide court-location directory.
Arithmetic illustration
See the Massachusetts amount screen without mistaking it for a result
The recorded Massachusetts ceiling is $25,000, and it is tested against personal probate property only, on a basis this site records as gross value for this route. Counted that way, $18,800 sits below the Massachusetts figure and $31,300 sits above it. Both are comparisons to a published number rather than legal outcomes: two estates holding the same total can land on opposite sides of this line, because what Massachusetts counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.
| Illustrative counted amount | Comparison to the Massachusetts ceiling | What it does not decide |
|---|---|---|
| $18,800 | Below $25,000 | Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties |
| $31,300 | Above $25,000 | Whether another statutory route or court process applies |
Next evidence to collect
Name the proceeding and ask for mandatory surcharges, copies, publication, and later filings separately.
- Record the date of death, the county, and the exact proceeding or affidavit being considered.
- Classify each asset by title, beneficiary, trust, real-property status, and the value basis shown above.
- Open the official court material below and keep its form or schedule with the estate record.
- Do not distribute property until the route, creditor position, and required approvals are resolved.
Official material
- Probate and Family Court forms for wills, estates, and trustsMassachusetts Court System
- Probate and Family Court filing feesMassachusetts Court System
- Probate and Family Court locationsMassachusetts Court System
Massachusetts publishes statewide probate forms, a court fee page, and a statewide court-location directory.
Source trail
Records used by this Massachusetts map
- G.L. c. 190B, § 3-1201Massachusetts General Laws, Voluntary Administration; reviewed August 9, 2026
- G.L. c. 262, § 40Massachusetts General Laws, Probate and Family Court Fees; reviewed August 9, 2026
- G.L. c. 190B, § 3-719Massachusetts General Laws, Personal Representative Compensation; reviewed August 9, 2026
- G.L. c. 190B, § 3-803Massachusetts General Laws, Limitations on Presentation of Claims; reviewed August 9, 2026
Filing-cost source
Each legal input links to the government source reviewed for this page. Source text can change; confirm the current rule before acting.
G.L. c. 262, § 40
Reviewed source note: for the filing of a petition for public administration, for formal removal of personal representative, for statement of voluntary administration, $100;