Missouri probate explained

“Letters” is the court’s formal grant of authority to the person handling an estate. If there’s a valid will and it names an executor, that person receives Letters Testamentary. If there’s no will — or the will doesn’t name anyone who can serve — the court appoints an administrator and issues Letters of Administration. Either document gives the same practical power: the legal authority to act on behalf of the estate.

Why this matters when a house is involved: no one can sign a deed until the court has issued letters. Title companies will ask for a certified copy, usually dated within the last 30–60 days, to confirm the personal representative is still in office. If a family member tells you “we’re handling Mom’s estate” but they don’t have letters in hand, the estate isn’t legally open yet.

There’s no meaningful difference in how real property is transferred once letters are issued — “executor” and “administrator” just describe how the person got the job. Everything downstream (selling, paying creditors, distributing proceeds) works the same way.

Missouri has two tracks for running a probate estate. Under supervised administration, the personal representative has to get the court’s permission for major decisions — including selling real estate. That means a petition, a hearing, and a formal order of sale. Under independent administration, the PR has the same core powers but doesn’t need court approval for most routine acts. Real estate can generally be sold without a separate trip to court.

Most wills specifically authorize independent administration, and that’s the faster path. If the will is silent, or there’s no will at all, the estate can still be run as independent if all the heirs consent in writing. Absent that, Missouri defaults to supervised.

For a family trying to settle things and sell an inherited home, knowing which track you’re on usually changes the timeline by months. Supervised sales also come with an appraisal-linked minimum price and the risk of a competing “upset bid” at confirmation. Independent sales avoid both. If you’re not sure which track your estate is on, ask the attorney — or we can help you figure it out before you make plans.

Missouri has a simplified path for smaller estates: an affidavit procedure that lets distributees collect assets without opening a full supervised estate. Historically the threshold has been $40,000 in total estate value (after liens and exempt property), though thresholds are revised from time to time — it’s always worth checking the current figure at revisor.mo.gov.

One important nuance for real estate: mortgage balance is netted out of the valuation. A $180,000 house with a $160,000 mortgage has $20,000 of equity and can potentially qualify, even though the gross value is well over the threshold. A $50,000 house with no mortgage won’t qualify if there’s additional estate value that pushes past the ceiling — it’s the total that matters, not the single asset.

The affidavit can be filed 30 days after death, after publication of a notice to creditors, and with a bond equal to the estate value. It’s the fastest way to convey a house when the numbers fit. Title insurers tend to be more cautious about small-estate transfers than letters-based ones — expect some extra paperwork and, sometimes, extra indemnity requirements from the title company.

A Missouri beneficiary deed is a simple estate-planning document that lets an owner name someone to inherit real property automatically at death. While the owner is alive, nothing changes — they keep full control, can sell or refinance, and can revoke or change the deed at any time. At the moment of death, ownership transfers to the named beneficiary by operation of law, completely outside probate.

There’s one requirement that trips people up: the beneficiary deed must be recorded with the county recorder of deeds before the owner dies. A signed but unrecorded beneficiary deed is legally ineffective in Missouri. This catches families off guard more often than you’d think — a deed drafted by an attorney, tucked into a file drawer, and never taken to the recorder’s office does nothing.

If you’re looking at an inherited house and there’s a recorded beneficiary deed naming you, the good news is the property may never have been part of the probate estate at all. You can usually move forward with a sale much faster because you’re selling as the direct owner, not as a personal representative.

When someone dies in Missouri without a will, the state’s intestate succession rules decide who inherits. The two most common patterns: if there’s a surviving spouse and the children are all from that marriage, the spouse takes the first $20,000 plus half of the remaining estate, and the kids split the other half equally. If any of the children are from a prior relationship, the spouse’s preference drops out — spouse takes half, children take half. A spouse with no children generally takes the entire estate.

If there’s no spouse and no children, Missouri walks outward through the family tree: parents, then siblings, then grandparents and their descendants, then great-grandparents. At the far end, if no heirs can be found, the property escheats to the State of Missouri.

The practical implication for selling an inherited house: every heir under § 474.010 is a necessary grantor on the deed. If a decedent left a spouse and three adult children from a prior marriage, you need a deed signed by all four — miss one and title is clouded. That’s why a determination of heirship is often the first step for families dealing with an older, never-opened estate.

When an estate sells a house, the title company has to build a paper trail that proves the seller actually has the authority to transfer clean title. At a minimum, they’ll ask for certified letters (dated within 30–60 days of closing, so they know the PR is still in office), evidence that the estate is in independent administration or a court order specifically authorizing the sale, and a Personal Representative’s deed with the proper statutory recitals — not a standard warranty deed.

They’ll also want proof that notice to creditors was published, that the six-month claim period has run (or indemnity if it hasn’t), a certified death certificate, and an affidavit of heirship or the filed inventory showing who the heirs are. On the property side: a title search run through the decedent’s name and any common variations, release or payoff arrangements for any mortgages and liens, and proof that real estate taxes are paid through closing.

One practical note: not every title company is comfortable with probate work. Some love it and do it daily; others quietly prefer to send it elsewhere. If you’re selling an inherited home, it’s worth asking your attorney (or us) which local title companies actively handle estate sales — it can save weeks of back-and-forth.

This is the single most common source of confusion for families selling inherited property, and the one that most often leads people to expect a giant tax bill that isn’t actually coming. Federal law resets the tax “cost” of inherited property to its fair market value on the date of death. The decedent’s original purchase price doesn’t matter. That reset is called a step-up in basis.

Here’s the example that makes it click: say your parent bought the house in 1975 for $50,000. They pass away, and the house is worth $200,000 at that moment. Six months later you sell it for $220,000. Your taxable gain isn’t $170,000 — it’s $20,000. The $150,000 of appreciation that happened during your parent’s lifetime is wiped clean. You’re only taxed on what happened after the date of death.

A few more things worth knowing: inherited property is automatically treated as long-term capital gains, regardless of how long you hold it. Missouri has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax — this is strictly a federal question. Federal estate tax only applies to estates over roughly $13.6 million, so almost no estate we see comes anywhere near owing it. And of course we aren’t tax advisors — before you act on any of this, confirm the numbers with a CPA.