In Massachusetts, the single most powerful protection against creditors is the homestead law: under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 188, every homeowner automatically gets a $125,000 homestead exemption on a principal residence with no paperwork at all, and by recording a written Declaration of Homestead at the Registry of Deeds you raise that protection to $500,000 in home equity. That recorded $500,000 figure is one of the most generous homestead protections in the country, and it shields your equity from most unsecured judgment creditors. Massachusetts couples this with unusually strong wage and bank-account rules, so even after a creditor wins a court judgment against you, a large share of your property and income stays legally beyond reach.
Below is how the main Massachusetts exemptions work, what they do and do not cover, and the steps to actually assert them when a creditor tries to garnish your wages or levy your bank account.
The Massachusetts homestead protection
The automatic $125,000 homestead under Chapter 188 applies to a home you occupy or intend to occupy as your principal residence, and it exists even if you never file anything. To get the much larger $500,000 protection, you (or an attorney) record a Declaration of Homestead at the county Registry of Deeds where the property sits. Massachusetts also offers an enhanced homestead for owners who are age 62 or older or who are disabled, where each qualifying owner can claim up to $500,000, so a married elderly couple may stack protection well beyond the standard amount.
Important limits: a homestead does not defeat a mortgage you signed, a properly recorded mechanic's lien, tax liens, or court-ordered child or spousal support. It protects equity from ordinary unsecured creditors, such as credit-card companies, medical-debt buyers, and personal-loan lenders who have sued you and won.
Wages: stronger than the federal cap
The federal baseline under the Consumer Credit Protection Act lets creditors garnish up to 25% of disposable earnings. Massachusetts is significantly more protective. Under M.G.L. Chapter 246, Section 28, the amount of weekly wages exempt from a creditor's attachment is the greater of 85% of the debtor's gross wages or 50 times the greater of the federal or Massachusetts minimum hourly wage. Because the Massachusetts minimum wage reached $15.00 per hour (and is the higher figure), the protected weekly floor works out to roughly 50 times $15.00. As of 2026 that math points to about $750 of weekly wages shielded before any garnishment can touch them, but you should confirm the current minimum-wage rate with the Massachusetts Department of Labor Standards or the Attorney General's office, because the rate can change and that directly moves the exempt amount.
In practice, the 85%-of-gross test means many wage earners in Massachusetts keep far more of their paycheck than the federal 25% rule would allow. As with most states, the protection narrows for child support, alimony, certain taxes, and federally guaranteed student loans, where collection rules are different and harsher.
Bank accounts and the trustee-process levy
When a Massachusetts creditor levies a bank account, it uses a court procedure called trustee process. State law automatically protects a baseline amount of money in your account from that levy. Under M.G.L. Chapter 246, Section 28A, $2,500 in a deposit account is exempt from trustee-process attachment. That protection applies on its face to the funds, but you generally still must respond to the court paperwork to make sure the bank releases the protected money rather than holding it.
The deeper protection comes from the source of the money. Funds that are themselves exempt, such as Social Security, do not lose their exemption just because they sit in a bank. Under federal regulation, when Social Security, SSI, VA, and certain other federal benefits are paid by direct deposit, the bank must automatically protect up to two months' worth of those benefits from a garnishment order. Money traceable to exempt income stays exempt even above the flat $2,500 figure.
Retirement accounts
Most retirement savings are well protected in Massachusetts. Employer plans governed by the federal ERISA statute, including most 401(k) and pension plans, are generally beyond the reach of judgment creditors. Massachusetts also exempts IRAs and other qualified retirement plans from creditor process under M.G.L. Chapter 235, Section 34A, subject to limited exceptions such as orders for support and contributions made shortly before bankruptcy. The practical takeaway: a creditor with a court judgment usually cannot raid your retirement account to satisfy an ordinary consumer debt.