When a person dies his property is usually distributed to heirs by the estate’s personal representative.
Before a personal representative can distribute estate property, he must get authority from probate court.
The court will require several documents from the personal representative before it will grant such authority.
BOND
One of the documents that the personal representative must submit is a bond.
The Massachusetts’ probate bond is available at mass.gov as form MPC 801.
By filling out and signing this form, the personal representative is promising to fulfill his duties to the estate and its heirs in good faith. Moreover, if the personal representative misuses the estate’s assets, he shall be personally liable to the court.
SURETY
A bond will be signed without sureties, with personal sureties, or with corporate sureties.
A surety is like a co-signer for the personal representative. If the personal representative misuses the estate’s assets, the personal representative and his sureties will be liable to the court and the estate for the money lost.
Without Sureties
According to Massachusetts law, a bond may be filed without sureties if
- the decedent’s will states that sureties are not needed, or
- all heirs waive the requirement for sureties, or
- the personal representative is a qualified bank or trust company, or
- the court concludes that it is in the best interest of the estate to waive the sureties requirement.
Personal Sureties
If sureties are necessary, a personal representative may have two disinterested people sign the bond as personal sureties.
According to the bond form these personal sureties shall be liable “for losses caused by improper administration of the estate by the [personal representative].”
Each surety must reside in Massachusetts and possess enough assets to compensate the estate for any loss it suffers from the personal representative’s misconduct.
Corporate Sureties
If the personal representative is unable to find personal sureties, then he must purchase a corporate surety from a bank or insurance company that provides such services.
Need legal help? Contact me at justin@jrmccarthy.com
The real estate attorney i hired emailed me on the day of closing on the sale of my fathers house tells me that the buyers attorneys changed their minds and will not accept my DPOA signature on closing documents because of an ex tenant who was harassing my family for years told them that I was drug addict alcoholic and that she was suing me in housing court and that the DPOA document was fraudulent. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and the attorney tells me that i have to terminate the P&S and release deposit?! The buyer did not have any knowledge of this and continued to plead with me to sell house . I wasn’t breaching contact they were!! Changing there minds ?? I never received any paperwork that terminated the sale and only after going back n forth over the fact that my father was to lose 860,000 dollars because someone said I was a bad person!?? There are so many more facts that I have proof of that the actions of both the attorney and the real estate agent forced me to do threatening that I will lose house if I didn’t agree telling me I had no legal rights to go to court. After getting new buyers for 60 thousand less than the first offer I was once again forced to take an additional 20,000 of that accepted offer again being threatened that the buyers would walk away if I didn’t deduct that money of the sale price towards the removal of the solar panels which they were not removing I signed a transfer of my fathers agreement over to the buyers and they had no intention or legal rights to remove the panels which I didn’t find out till later! Also something was not right about my father having a mortgage loan with Wells Fargo, the mortgage documents have two mens names on them that were indicted and convicted of multiple charges of mortgage fraud and and identity theft!! I’m still fighting Wells Fargo 3 years later. All the information that is sent is all different the fact that the discharge is from the original lender that sold the mortgage to Wells Fargo the same day it was signed! The closing attorney sent me an expired email saying not to ever contact him again by text phone or email!! After I requested to see all the payments that he was supposed to make out of the proceeds! Wells Fargo will not give me the amount that was paid off and in an activity statement that was sent to me does mot match the payoff quote which also as of the first sale no closing disclosure was ever gone over with me!! Today the first buyer Texted me asking why I didn’t sell house to him ?? The attorneys that supposedly the buyers had were the first employers of my real estate attorney which seemed even more suspicious that my attorney wouldn’t be able to work with them when they were being contacted by that tenant who by the way I won in court to have her judgment vacated!! She actually admitted to owing my father 3 months rent she stiffed us on back when she was moving out!!Can anyone just look at all my paperwork and at least tell me I wasn’t wrong!!