Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 167D, § 5 (2026)

Demand deposit account and savings account for persons 18 years of age or under or 65 years of age or older

✓ current as of July 2026

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Section 5. A natural person 18 years of age or under or 65 years of age or older may choose 1 demand deposit account and 1 savings account which, in each instance, shall include a joint account in which the spouse of the eligible depositor, regardless of age, is the joint tenant therein or the joint tenant would otherwise be an eligible depositor and which has been established and used for personal, family or household purposes, upon which no service, maintenance or other similar charge shall be imposed. No such account shall be subject to: (i) a minimum balance requirement; (ii) a charge for a deposit or withdrawal; or (iii) a fee for the initial order or subsequent refills of the basic line of checks offered by the bank, which shall include the name of the depositor. For the purposes of this section, the term ''savings account'' shall include a regular passbook, regular statement savings or regular NOW account, so-called.

A savings account in trust for another person shall be covered by the notice, services, fee and charge provisions of this section only if the trustee is a person 18 years of age or under or 65 years of age or older. A consumer shall notify a bank of the consumer's eligibility for such accounts and provide proof of age in a form acceptable to the bank. A bank may, however, assess a fee for certain services in accordance with the bank's published service charge schedule, which shall include, stop payment orders, wire transfers, certified or bank checks, money orders, deposit items returned, transactions at electronic branches and through other electronic devices a reasonable charge, as determined by the commissioner, against any such account when payment on a check or other transaction on the account has been refused because of insufficient funds or paid despite insufficient funds. A bank shall post in each of its banking offices a notice informing consumers of the availability of the banking services under this section. A bank shall, in addition to the notice posting requirement, disclose annually to all depositors, in a manner of its choosing, the provisions of this section applicable to a person 18 years of age or younger or 65 years of age or older. For the purposes of this section, the term ''check or other transaction'' shall include, but not be limited to, a check for purposes of the federal Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, 12 U.S.C. section 5002, an electronic funds transfer, as defined in section 1 of chapter 167B or regulations thereunder, or a transaction processed by an automated clearinghouse.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 7 cases, 1991–2012 · leading case: Heffernan v. Wollaston Credit Union, 567 N.E.2d 933 (Mass. App. Ct. 1991).

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Heffernan v. Wollaston Credit Union, 567 N.E.2d 933 (Mass. App. Ct. 1991). · cites it 3× “” G. L. c. 167D, § 5. This section, although in part redundant of G.”

United States v. U.S. Currency, $81,000.00, 189 F.3d 28 (1st Cir. 1999). “2d at 937 ; see Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 167D, § 5 (Joint Accounts) (“[A]ny part or all of the deposits and interest represented by the joint account may be withdrawn, assigned or transferred in whole or in part by any of the individual parties.”

Sovereign Bank v. Sturgis, 863 F. Supp. 2d 75 (D. Mass. 2012). “, G.L. c. 167D, § 5. In the case of the statute governing the transaction at issue here, the legislature provided this power to “banks” incorporated in Massachusetts alone.”

Schlichte v. Granite Sav. Bank, 662 N.E.2d 238 (Mass. App. Ct. 1996). “Periodic statements showing the changes in the accounts continued to be mailed to Colantuono, who was unquestionably aware that the accounts were now joint.”

Fitzpatrick v. Small, 564 N.E.2d 1035 (Mass. App. Ct. 1991). “155, § 46, and reinserted as G. L. c. 167D, § 5. See St. 1983, c. 590, § 2.”

Glasman v. Glasman, 29 Mass. L. Rptr. 339 (Mass. Super. Ct. 2012). “DISCUSSION The defendants cite G.L.c. 167D, §5, for the proposition that “any part or all of the deposits and interest represented by joint accounts may be withdrawn, assigned or transferred in whole or in part by any of the individual parties.”

Colella v. North Easton Sav. Bank, 4 Mass. L. Rptr. 518 (Mass. Super. Ct. 1995). “That statute provides that any part or all of the deposits in a joint account may be “withdrawn, assigned, or transferred ... by any of the individual parties” and, further, that “payments” to any of the parties to a joint account discharges a bank’s liability.”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.