Missouri

Missouri estates are heard in the Probate Division of the Circuit Court in the county where
the deceased lived. The court issues letters testamentary, and the estate proceeds either
supervised or independently.

Independent administration

Where the will authorises it, or all the distributees consent, the personal representative
can act as an independent personal representative — selling assets, paying claims and
distributing without control or order of the court. Supervised administration, where the
court approves the significant steps, is the fallback.

Asking for independent administration in the will is the cheapest gift a Missouri testator can
leave their executor.

The deadline, and it is unforgiving

Missouri is strict about time, and a will presented late is forever barred from probate.

• Where letters have not been published, the will must be presented within one year of
  death.
• Where letters have been published, the window is six months from first publication —
  or thirty days after a will contest is commenced, whichever falls later.

Separately, no letters of administration issue at all unless application is made within one
year of death. Texas allows four years; Missouri allows one, and then closes the door. Do not
let a Missouri will sit in a drawer, and confirm the current position with the Probate Division
rather than assuming an old estate can still be opened.

Smaller estates

Missouri offers a small estate affidavit procedure and a refusal of letters route for a
surviving spouse or unmarried minor children, both of which avoid a full administration. Ask
the clerk which applies before opening one.

No death tax

Missouri levies neither an estate nor an inheritance tax. Only the federal return can arise.

Before distributing

Publish the notice to creditors, let the claim period run, file the final income tax returns,
and account.

A Missouri will must be in writing, signed by the testator (or by another at their
direction and in their presence), and attested by two or more competent witnesses who sign
in the testator's presence. The testator must be 18 or older, or a lawfully married minor,
and of sound mind.

Missouri does not recognise holographic wills

A handwritten will is perfectly acceptable provided two witnesses attested it. Without
witnesses it is not valid in Missouri, regardless of how clear the intention or how
obviously genuine the handwriting.

This matters at the state line. Missouri sits next to states that do accept holographic wills,
so a handwritten will made in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee or Kentucky may be worthless once
the maker moves here. Missouri will, however, generally honour a will that was validly
executed under the law of the place where it was made — so take advice rather than assuming
either way.

Ask for independent administration

State expressly that the personal representative may serve independently and without bond.
Those words are what keep the estate out of supervised administration, and they are the single
biggest cost lever in a Missouri will.

Self-prove it

Attach a self-proving affidavit signed before a notary, so no witness has to be located later.

Watch the one-year clock

Because Missouri generally requires a will to be presented within one year of death, tell
your executor where the original is and make sure someone else knows too. A will nobody can find
within twelve months is a serious problem here in a way it is not in most states.

Also

• Name an alternate personal representative.
• A surviving spouse has an elective share and statutory allowances whatever the will says.
• Review after a marriage, divorce, birth or a move to Missouri.

Yes, and Missouri is unusual in the country: its statutory schedule is a minimum, not a
maximum.

The statutory schedule

Under RSMo § 473.153, compensation is computed on the value of the personal property
administered plus the proceeds of any real property sold:

Confirm the current figures against the statute before relying on them.

Minimum, not maximum

Most states treat a percentage schedule as a ceiling. Missouri treats this one as the minimum
fee for the services rendered. Where the estate demanded more — litigation, a business to wind
up, real estate that took two years to sell — the representative may petition the court for
additional compensation for extraordinary services, and the court can allow it.

The independent administration limit

There is a counterweight worth knowing. In an independent administration, the compensation
of the personal representative or their attorney may not exceed the § 473.153 minimum
without the court's authorisation. So the schedule functions as a floor in a supervised
estate and, in practice, as a ceiling in an independent one unless you go and ask.

If the will fixes the figure

A will provision governs where the representative accepts on those terms.

Tax

Compensation is taxable income; an inheritance is not. With no Missouri death tax to deduct
it against, a family representative who is also a beneficiary often does better declining.

A Missouri personal representative is reimbursed from the estate for the reasonable expenses
of administration, separately from the statutory compensation.

Normally claimable

• Funeral, burial or cremation, the headstone, and a reasonable reception.
• Probate Division filing fees, certified letters testamentary, certified death certificates,
  and publication of the notice to creditors.
• Attorney's fees, and accountant's fees for the final Form 1040 and any Form 1041.
• Appraisals of real property, farmland, farm equipment, vehicles, firearms and collections.
• Carrying costs on estate property until sale: insurance, property tax, utilities, security,
  maintenance, lawn care and snow removal.
• Storm and tornado damage mitigation on estate property — tarping, tree removal, emergency
  board-up.
• On a farm, the genuine costs of keeping it operating through a season where that is in the
  estate's interest.
• Cleaning, clearing, storing, moving and shipping contents.
• Travel on estate business at a reasonable rate.
• Bond premiums where the will did not waive bond.

Normally not claimable

• The representative's lost wages, meals near home, or personal spending — that is what the
  statutory compensation covers.
• Costs run up for one beneficiary's convenience rather than the estate's.
• Improvements beyond preparing a property for sale as it stands.
• Anything without a receipt.

The rule that decides it

Open an estate bank account and run everything through it. Missouri's compensation schedule
is calculated on personal property administered plus proceeds of real property sold, so a
clean record of what came in and what was sold does double duty — it evidences the expenses and
it is the arithmetic your own fee is built from.

Most Missouri estates are administered by a family member serving independently, with a lawyer
retained for the filings. A bank trust department or an attorney serving as personal
representative earns its cost in specific cases.

Consider a professional when

• The estate includes a working farm, particularly where some children farm and others do
  not. Land, equipment, grain and a farming entity rarely divide neatly.
• The estate holds an operating business or rental property that must keep running.
• The one-year deadline has been missed or is close. Getting an estate opened late, or
  finding an alternative route to transfer title, is specialist work.
• There is conflict among the beneficiaries. Note the Missouri consequence: independent
  administration depends on the will authorising it or the distributees consenting, so a
  single objector can push the estate into supervised administration.
• A beneficiary is a minor or incapacitated, so a trust runs for years.
• The named representative lives out of state and cannot readily attend a county Probate
  Division.

What it costs

Corporate fiduciaries charge a negotiated percentage, usually referenced to the § 473.153
schedule, with a minimum annual fee. Attorneys generally bill hourly. Remember that in an
independent administration the attorney's fee is also capped at the statutory minimum
without court authorisation — worth clarifying at the outset who will apply for more, and when.

Middle ground

Appoint a family member, ask for independent administration without bond in the will, and
let them retain a probate attorney at the estate's expense.

A named representative who does not want the job can decline before letters issue.