Legal Articles

Probate Missouri Personal Representative (Executor, Administrator)

Under Missouri Law, the Personal Representative is the individual appointed to administer and wind-up a decedent’s estate. This is essentially the same thing as an “administrator” or “executor” in other states. A court’s issuance of either Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration will allow a personal representative to take charge of an estate. Before making…

Missouri Small Estate Administration — Probate

There are in fact instances when probate is not a complete pain. Under Missouri law, if a decedent’s estate is worth (1) less than forty-thousand dollars ($40,000), (2) formal Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration (or other Letters) are pending or are refused, (3) the personal representative submits an affidavit taking on personal responsibility for…

Wills, Trusts: Omitted Spouse, Child(ren)

Missouri probate law is old-fashioned in many ways. A great example of this is the omitted child(ren) and omitted spouse rule codified in RSMo, 474.235-240. The ideological underpinning of the laws are that families are inherently close and tight-knit. It would be inconceivable, then, that a family member — particularly a parent — would disinherit…

Probate: Small Estate Administration Exception

Under Missouri law, if a decedent’s estate is small enough — that is, under a certain dollar value — it does not always require the grant of Letters of Administration or Letters Testamentary along with a formal court order of Supervised/Unsupervised estate administration. RSMo 473.097 was created by the Missouri Legislature so that heirs of…

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