Missouri living trusts & estate documents

Living trust law in Missouri

A revocable living trust holds your home, accounts, and other property during your life, you stay in full control as trustee and can change or revoke it any time, then passes it to your beneficiaries without probate when you're gone. In Missouri, trusts are governed by the Missouri Uniform Trust Code, RSMo Chapter 456.

Avoiding probate in Missouri

Probate in Missouri is governed by the RSMo Chapters 472 to 475 and handled by the Circuit Court's Probate Division. Missouri allows independent administration.

A small estate affidavit is available for estates of $40,000 or less. That simplified procedure is set out in RSMo §473.097. Assets held in a funded living trust pass to your beneficiaries without probate, whatever the size of the estate. Many Missouri homeowners set one up for that reason. Missouri also authorizes a beneficiary deed (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 461.025) to pass real estate outside probate. A living trust does the same for every asset, not just real estate.

In Missouri, creditors generally have 6 months from the first published notice, with a 1-year absolute bar from death to file claims against the estate (RSMo § 473.360), one reason court probate takes time that a funded trust avoids.

Estate and inheritance tax in Missouri

Missouri has no estate or inheritance tax. The separate federal estate tax reaches only estates above $15 million per person (2026, adjusted yearly), so most families never owe it.

Protecting a surviving spouse in Missouri

A surviving spouse in Missouri who is left out of the will can instead claim an elective share of one-half of the estate where there are no descendants, one-third where there are under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 474.160, a protection the will itself cannot override.

Missouri also sets aside a homestead allowance of up to $15,000 for the surviving spouse, or if there is none the decedent's unmarried minor children in equal shares (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 474.290), exempt from all claims against the estate.

Signing your Missouri documents

1. Sign the living trust. Executed and acknowledged before a notary.
2. Sign the will. Two witnesses; notarized self-proving affidavit included (standalone and pour-over wills).
3. Sign the power of attorney. Sign your Durable Power of Attorney before a Notary Public.
4. Sign the health care documents. Sign your Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and Health Care Directive in the presence of two adult witnesses and before a Notary Public, as the form’s execution block provides.
5. Follow your package instructions. Your package includes page-by-page signing instructions written for Missouri. Follow those as the authoritative guide.

Serving all of Missouri

Answer the questionnaire from anywhere in Missouri and download your completed documents in minutes: Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield, Columbia, Independence, Lee's Summit, O'Fallon, St. Joseph, St. Charles, Blue Springs, Joplin, Florissant, and every community in between.