Section 3-914 Disposition of unclaimed assets - Massachusetts Statutes

[Text of section added by 2008, 521, Sec. 9 effective July 1, 2011. See 2008, 521, Sec. 44.]

Section 3-914. [Disposition of Unclaimed Assets.]

(a) If a personal representative has money which the personal representative considers it advisable to deposit in a savings bank, or in savings accounts in a trust company, or in paid-up shares and accounts of and in a co-operative bank, or with which the personal representative considers it advisable to purchase shares or make deposits in a credit union located in the commonwealth or to purchase share accounts of a federal savings and loan association located in the commonwealth, in the name of the judge of probate, for the benefit of any person, the personal representative may apply to the court by which he or she was appointed for leave so to do, and the court may in its discretion, without notice, direct such money to be so deposited. When the deposit is made the deposit book or certificates of the bank shall be filed in court. When the person entitled to such money satisfies the court of his right to receive it, the court shall by decree direct that it be transferred to him.

(b)(1) If a personal representative holds property the disposition of which depends upon the death of an absentee whose death has not been determined under paragraph (1), (2) or (3) of section 1-107, on or after the day 5 years after the date of the absentee’s disappearance the personal representative, or any person who would be interested in the property were the absentee dead, may petition the court having jurisdiction of the estate for an order that the property be disposed of to the persons to whom and in the shares or proportions in which it would be distributed if the absentee had died on the day 5 years after the date of the absentee’s disappearance.

(2) The court may direct the petitioner to report the results of, or make and report back concerning, a reasonably diligent search for the absentee in any manner that may seem advisable, including any or all of the following methods:

(i) by inserting in 1 or more suitable periodicals a notice requesting information from any person having knowledge of the whereabouts of the absentee;

(ii) by notifying law enforceable officials, public welfare agencies and registers of deaths in appropriate locations of the disappearance of the absentee;

(iii) by engaging the services of an investigator.

The costs of any search so directed shall be paid from estate property.

(3) After any such report directed by the court under paragraph (2) above has been completed to the satisfaction of the court, notice of the hearing on the petition shall be given as provided in section 1-401.

(4) If after the hearing the court finds that the facts warrant a presumption of death under paragraph (4) of section 1-107, it shall enter an appropriate order of disposition of the trust property and any undistributed net income.