---
title: "Massachusetts Life Estate Deed | Funding LTC Marketplace"
url: https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/massachusetts/life-estate-deed/
description: "Massachusetts has no transfer-on-death deed for real estate. How a retained life estate deed works and how it interacts with MassHealth."
last_updated: 2026-10-20
author: George A. Mellendorf, CLTC, LTCP (Central States Insurance Services, Inc.)
publisher: Funding LTC Marketplace
note: Educational content; not legal, tax or financial advice. Markdown copy of the HTML page at the URL above.
---
Massachusetts · Asset Protection Tool

# Massachusetts Life Estate Deed

Last updated 2026-10-20

**Quick answer:** Massachusetts has no transfer-on-death deed for real estate; its transfer-on-death law covers securities only. Bills to add one, such as H.3382 (2019–2020), haven't become law.

If you're searching for a Massachusetts version of the transfer-on-death deed that many other states offer for real estate, the search comes up short. What Massachusetts does have is transfer-on-death registration for securities — M.G.L. c. 190B, § 6-306 confirms that a beneficiary designation on a security registered in beneficiary form doesn't change ownership until the owner dies — but that statute is about securities, not real property.

On the real-estate side, the closest thing on record is legislative history, not enacted law. House Bill H.3382, filed in the 2019–2020 session, would have added a beneficiary-deed provision to Chapter 183, and an earlier bill, H.1565, dealing with transfer-on-death real-estate registration, was referred to the Judiciary Committee and later folded into a study order. Neither bill history adds up to an enacted general Massachusetts real-property TOD-deed statute.

That leaves the retained life-estate/remainder deed as the tool families actually reach for — and it comes with real strings attached. A recorded deed that keeps a life estate for the owner while transferring the remainder interest to someone else has surfaced in MassHealth litigation, where the agency treated the remainder transfer as an estate-planning move carrying its own eligibility consequences. Anyone considering this route needs a transfer-penalty and lien analysis before signing anything.

## Sources and official resources

- [Mass.gov: Paying for a Stay in a Nursing or Rest Home](https://www.mass.gov/info-details/paying-for-a-stay-in-a-nursing-or-rest-home)
- [U.S. Code: 42 U.S.C. § 1396p (liens, estate recovery, transfers of assets, Partnership disregard)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1396p)
- [CMS: 2026 SSI and Spousal Impoverishment Standards](https://www.medicaid.gov/federal-policy-guidance/downloads/cib04272026.pdf)

Rules and figures change. Confirm current details with the agency before you act.

[← Back to the full Massachusetts guide](https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/massachusetts/)