Massachusetts is the state where the most out-of-state assumptions break. The estate tax starts at $2,000,000 with no portability between spouses, a durable power of attorney fails unless it says the right words, there is no living will statute, real estate closings run through an attorney, and the Commonwealth charges an LLC five hundred dollars a year to exist. Michael Holmes is admitted in Massachusetts and works with clients who live there, own property there, or are moving between Massachusetts and one of the other five states where he is licensed.
How We Serve Massachusetts Clients
Massachusetts Estate Planning
The Massachusetts estate tax exemption is $2,000,000 and is not indexed for inflation. A married couple cannot simply double it, because Massachusetts has no portability, so preserving both exemptions takes affirmative structuring at the first death rather than a checkbox on a return. See our Massachusetts estate planning page for the mechanics, including the credit that replaced the old cliff and the state-only QTIP election.
Massachusetts Elder Law
MassHealth is a spend-down program rather than an income-cap program, and Massachusetts narrowed its estate recovery in 2024 to the federally mandated services for deaths on or after August 1, 2024. Our Massachusetts elder law page covers long-term care planning, the homestead figures, and the power of attorney trap.
Massachusetts Real Estate
Massachusetts is an attorney-conveyancing state, it has two parallel title systems, and a broker offer to purchase can bind a seller before any lawyer sees a purchase and sale agreement. Details on our Massachusetts real estate page.
Massachusetts Business Law
The Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act rewrote what an enforceable noncompete looks like, the independent contractor test is among the strictest in the country, and the LLC annual report fee is four to five times the corporate one. See Massachusetts business law.
What Sets Massachusetts Apart
- A $2,000,000 estate tax with no portability. Families nowhere near the $15,000,000 federal exemption are squarely inside the Massachusetts one.
- No living will statute. The health care proxy under G.L. c. 201D is the operative instrument; a written statement of wishes is evidence, not a binding directive.
- Express durability required. Massachusetts never adopted the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, and a power of attorney without durability language dies exactly when it is needed.
- No transfer-on-death deeds. Real estate cannot be moved out of probate with a beneficiary deed here; it takes joint tenancy, tenancy by the entirety, a life estate or a trust.
- A $1,000,000 declared homestead, doubled in August 2024 and still reported as $500,000 across much of the internet.
- Registered land. A meaningful share of Massachusetts property sits under the Land Court system, where the certificate of title controls and adverse possession does not run.
Multi-State Clients and Massachusetts
The recurring Massachusetts problem is the second home and the relocation. A nonresident who owns Massachusetts real estate is inside the Massachusetts estate tax, and the method for computing that tax changed for deaths on or after August 1, 2025 — from a pro-rata fraction to a computation that reduces the estate to its Massachusetts property. A Cape or Berkshires house held by a Texas or Idaho resident deserves a fresh look under the current rule.
Moving the other direction, clients who arrive in Massachusetts holding documents drafted elsewhere frequently need them redone rather than merely reviewed: the living will has no force here, and a power of attorney drafted in a uniform-act state may or may not carry the durability language Massachusetts insists on.
Schedule a Massachusetts Consultation
Call the Massachusetts line at (857) 353-6373, or use the form on our Massachusetts contact page. Most matters are handled by phone, video and secure document exchange.