Estate Planning Blog

How a Missouri deed is worded decides who owns the house after an owner dies, and the wrong wording sends it somewhere nobody intended. Here is how survivorship works and where it creates problems.

Missouri law does not automatically hand medical decision-making to your spouse or your oldest child. Naming the person yourself, in writing, is what keeps that choice out of a courtroom and out of a family argument.

Per stirpes is one small phrase on a beneficiary form, and it quietly decides whether a grandchild inherits or receives nothing. Here is what it means, what Missouri assumes when a form is silent, and why the wording is worth a second look.

Per stirpes is one small phrase on a beneficiary form, and it quietly decides whether a grandchild inherits or receives nothing. Here is what it means, what Missouri assumes when a form is silent, and why the wording is worth a second look.

Two women in one family died a year apart with nearly identical assets. One estate closed in about six months. The other took seventeen. Here is what made the difference.