Yttrium-transition metal-magnesium (indium) Heusler phases YPdMg, YPdIn, YAgMg, YAgIn, YAuMg, and YAuIn and their quaternary compounds (solid solutions) Y(PdAg)Mg, Y(PdAg)In, Y(PdAu)Mg, Y(PdAu)In, Y(AgAu)Mg and Y(AgAu)In were synthesized from the elements in sealed niobium ampoules in a high-frequency furnace or by arc-melting, respectively. All compounds crystallize with the cubic MnCuAl type structure (Heusler phase), space group Fm3[combining macron]m. The structure of Y(AgAu)Mg was refined from single crystal X-ray diffractometer data: a = 689.97(5) pm, wR = 0.0619, 52 F values, 6 parameters. Magnetic susceptibility measurements show Pauli paramagnetic behavior for all samples. The compounds were investigated by Mg,Y and In solid state MAS NMR spectroscopy. Large positive resonance shifts are observed for all nuclei. A review of the present data in the context of literature data on isotypic Heusler phases with Cd and Sn indicates that theY shifts show a correlation with the electronegativity of the main group atoms (Mg, Cd, In, Sn). The solid solutions Y(AgT)Mg (x = 0.1, 0.25, 0.33, 0.5; T = Pd, Au) clearly show Vegard-like behavior concerning their lattice parameters, and their main group element resonance shifts arising from spin and orbital contributions are close to the interpolated values of the corresponding end-member compounds.