6 Missouri Rules That Decide What Happens When a Will Can’t Be Found

Searching for a loved one’s will can add stress to an already hard time.

Missourians facing that issue may find the law has more answers than they expect.

Here’s how the state handles a will that can’t be found, and what your options may be.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Probate rules and dollar thresholds are subject to change.

1. The Lost-Will Presumption

A missing will comes with a presumption attached.

In a 1934 ruling, the Missouri Supreme Court said a properly executed will kept by its maker and missing after death is presumed destroyed.

The presumption is that the maker did it on purpose, to cancel the will.

That presumption can be rebutted, but if nobody produces enough evidence against it, it stands as fact.

A presumption, not a verdict.

If you’re asking a court to honor a lost will, that’s the presumption you’d have to overcome.

Missouri’s revocation statute lists two ways to cancel a written will.

One is a later written will.

The other is burning, canceling, tearing or obliterating it, done by the maker or in the maker’s presence and at their direction.

A will that’s simply gone missing isn’t on that list.

2. Delivering a Will to the Court

A will that isn’t where you expect might be in somebody else’s hands, and the statute covers that.

Whoever has custody of a will after its maker dies has to deliver it to the probate division of the circuit court that has jurisdiction of the estate.

The other choice is the probate division in the county where the will is found.

That court keeps a copy and sends the original on by certified mail.

A will found in a safe deposit box counts as being in the bank’s custody, and the bank may copy it before delivering it.

Even a bank counts.

If you think a relative is holding the will back, the statute gives the court a tool.

When a probate division is satisfactorily informed that someone has a will and won’t produce it, the court may summon that person and compel its production.

3. The One-Year Bar

A missing will, like any will, runs out of time under Missouri's probate statute.

If no notice of letters has been published, the will has one year from the date of death to be presented to the court.

A will that misses its deadline can never be admitted to probate.

That makes the date of death the day your count starts, whether or not the paper has turned up.

It's a short window.

If you're searching now, check the date of death first.

Letters of administration, the court papers that let someone run an estate, carry the same one-year limit, with a few exceptions.

Once notice of letters has been published, the will's deadline changes.

It becomes six months after that first publication, or 30 days after a case over the will's validity begins, whichever is later.

4. The Verified Statement

A lost will can still be presented to the court, even when the paper is gone.

Missouri's statute accepts a verified statement in place of the paper.

That works when the will has been lost, destroyed or held back, or is otherwise unavailable.

The statement has to explain why the will isn't available and set out the will's provisions as far as anyone knows.

A petition asking the court to admit the will, an affidavit under section 473.097, or an authenticated out-of-state order admitting it has to go with it.

Presentation comes before proof.

If you can't produce the paper, the statute gives you this route in.

You still have to explain why it's gone.

5. Who Inherits First

If nobody ever admits a missing will to probate, the estate generally follows Missouri's descent statute, section 474.010.

A surviving spouse takes the entire estate if the person left no children or other descendants.

With surviving children, the spouse's share shrinks.

The children, or their descendants, take the rest in equal parts.

With no spouse, the children or their descendants take it all.

If you're a child of the person who died, you and any brothers or sisters split that share equally.

With no children or descendants, the statute turns to parents, brothers and sisters, or their descendants, in equal parts.

After them come grandparents, uncles and aunts, then great-grandparents, and so on.

Every share stays subject to the payment of claims against the estate.

Your place in that order comes from the statute, not from what anyone remembers the person wanting.

It's a formula.

6. The $40,000 Affidavit

Missouri lets a small estate skip letters, so a missing will doesn't always mean a court fight.

People entitled to an estate can collect it without letters if its value, after liens, debts and encumbrances, doesn't exceed $40,000.

The Missouri Revisor of Statutes lists that version of the section as effective in 2002.

Thirty days have to pass after the death, and no application for letters can be pending.

The affidavit has to say the person left no will, or that any will was presented within the section 473.050 limits.

No letters needed.

If you're a distributee entitled to receive property, you can sign it any time after 30 days from the death.

When the property listed is more than $15,000, the clerk publishes a notice to creditors once a week for two weeks in a row.

Follow the steps, and your right to the property is treated as if a full administration had happened.

When a Will Surfaces Late

A will that turns up late can still change who runs an estate.

If letters of administration were granted and you find a will afterward, section 473.143 says the letters are revoked once probate of that will is granted.

Letters testamentary, the version used when there's a will, are granted in their place.

The found will still has to be presented within the section 473.050 deadlines to be admitted.

Timing still decides it.

If you're the one holding it, section 473.043 already says to deliver it to the probate court.

When No One Opens an Estate

When a will never turns up and nobody opens an estate, section 473.663 gives heirs a court route.

The route opens when no one has begun administration within one year of the death.

It also requires that no written will was presented within the section 473.050 time limits.

Then anyone claiming an interest as an heir, or through an heir, can petition the probate division of the circuit court to determine the heirs.

If you're the one filing, the petition has to list the date of death.

It also names the heirs, with their relationships and addresses, as far as you know or can learn with reasonable diligence.

You also have to describe the property the court is being asked to rule on and give its value.

The court sets a hearing, and notice goes out by publication once a week for four consecutive weeks.

Notice runs for four weeks.

The section covers deaths on or after July 13, 1989.