Death Without a Will—The State Takes Over
When someone in Missouri dies without a valid will, the law steps in. The estate doesn’t wait for family debates or old promises—it gets stamped “intestate,” and the old routines kick in on the courthouse side. Maybe the person meant to make a will and never found time, or maybe the paperwork was outdated, misplaced, or ruled invalid. It doesn’t matter why. The aftermath is the same. Missouri law decides who inherits, not the family and not the memory of conversations. Property moves down a line set in state statutes. This transfers power out of the house and into the legal system. Someone’s best intentions or private wishes count for nothing if they never made it official.
The rules are spelled out—Missouri Revised Statutes, Chapter 474. These statutes reach only the assets that fall in the probate basket. “Probate assets” are what the will would have covered: things in your name alone, property that didn’t have a beneficiary listed, or wasn’t held jointly in a way that gives someone else ownership at death. Assets like life insurance, most retirement accounts, and jointly owned houses usually slip past probate altogether. They don’t care about intestacy—they follow whoever is named as the beneficiary or the surviving owner. It’s easy to lose track. Many families do.
Who Gets What? Missouri’s Order of Inheritance
The way Missouri law divides up an estate when there’s no will follows a set pecking order. Family structure at the date of death basically determines the hand you’re dealt. The statutes slice up the inheritance depending on who’s left behind. This is meant to keep fights to a minimum, but if you have children from multiple relationships or a tangled family, the simple chart turns messy fast.
Spouses and Children: The Hard Math
The spouse stands first in line, but their inheritance depends on whether kids are in the picture, and, crucially, whose kids they are. Here’s the basic breakdown:
- No Surviving Descendants: If there are no children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren from the deceased, the surviving spouse claims the whole estate. No share for siblings or parents.
- Descendants With Same Spouse: If all children or their descendants come from both spouses, the surviving spouse gets the first $20,000, plus half of what’s left. The rest goes to the children or, if a child is dead, their branch. The split is mathematical, and often cold.
- Children From Another Relationship: If the person who died had kids not shared with the spouse—kids from before, from someone else—the spouse gets half. The other half gets cut up evenly between all the deceased’s descendants, regardless of which relationship they came from.
Died Unmarried—or the Spouse Is Gone
If no spouse survives, the next of kin line up by set order. The order doesn’t bend for arguments or family favorites:
- Children, or their descendants if a child didn’t survive—they step into their parent’s spot by right of “representation.”
- Parents, if there are no kids or grandkids left.
- Siblings and, if they’re gone, nieces and nephews.
- Grandparents.
- Aunts and uncles, then cousins if needed.
If not one relative in this list can be found, the estate belongs to Missouri. The state doesn’t pay for sentiment.
Inheritance in Real Life: Missouri Law at Work
The rules look tidy in the statute book but roll out messier on the ground. Here’s how the lines fall, by common situations.
Married, No Kids
Jane dies, married to Tom. There are no descendants. Tom takes everything that’s left in probate. Jane’s siblings don’t get a finger on it. Her parents? Nothing, unless Tom is gone too. That’s the rule, and the law doesn’t pause to consider whether Jane was close with her brother or not.
Married, All Children With That Spouse
Take John and Maria—three kids, all theirs. John dies and the estate is $120,000 in probate. Maria gets $20,000 upfront. That leaves $100,000; Maria collects half ($50,000), so her cut totals $70,000. The three kids carve up what remains ($50,000, or roughly $16,666 each). If one child is gone but had kids of their own, those grandkids split their branch’s share.
Married With Stepchildren
Now say Robert dies, married to Elaine. He has two kids from before, one with Elaine. Missouri doesn’t care whose kids those first two are—the law treats all his children equally. Elaine isn’t the mother of the first two, so she pulls half of the probate estate and the kids (from any union) split the other half between them. Some blended families are surprised by this. Stepchildren who weren’t adopted don’t see a cent unless they’re named in a will.
Unmarried, Children Surviving
Katherine dies single. She leaves behind two living kids and a deceased third child who had two of her own. Each living child of Katherine gets one-third. The grandchildren together split the last third that belonged to their parent—each gets one-sixth. That’s “per stirpes”—by the root, not the headcount.
No Immediate Family: The State Waits
If there isn’t a spouse, child, parent, sibling, or more distant relative to find, the assets keep moving down Missouri’s pre-set order. When the line runs out, the property returns to the state. The court will look. But when nobody steps up, Missouri collects.
The Odd Corners—Adoption, Stepchildren, and Other Traps
Missouri law doesn’t have much use for half-measures here. Children adopted by the decedent are treated exactly like biological children. They inherit an equal share. Stepchildren are invisible for intestate inheritance unless legally adopted, no matter the years lived together. Half-siblings get a full sibling’s cut—no splitting the difference for half-blooded ties. The goal is to erase ambiguity, but the effect can sting in modern, blended families.
Assets with named beneficiaries—joint bank accounts, life insurance, retirement accounts, homes titled as joint tenancies—don’t enter this table. They pass by contract or deed, not by will or intestate law. Still, if no valid beneficiary remains or paperwork is missing, those assets can get swept back into the probate estate and sliced under these same rules. Many people forget to update designations and pay the price—the estate’s plans upended by a missed signature or an outdated name.
Children born outside marriage can inherit from either parent in Missouri, but for fathers, paternity often needs proof—a court order, a signed acknowledgment, or clear evidence. It isn’t denied for being “illegitimate”; the law just wants the connection firm.
Heirs only see their inheritance after debts, taxes, funeral expenses, and court costs are settled. Missouri statutes lay out what gets paid first. Sometimes, the debts clean out the pot and the heirs get nothing at all. No amount of wishing changes the numbers on the ledger.
Getting Your Share: The Probate Process in Missouri
If you expect to inherit through intestate succession, you go through probate court. It’s a step-by-step legal process, not something the family handles around the kitchen table. The case opens in the county where the deceased lived. A personal representative gets appointed—sometimes a relative, sometimes not. They pull together a list of probate assets, pay the bills and taxes, notify all interested parties, and finally, cut the remaining estate up according to Missouri law.
No two probates are exactly the same. A straightforward family with a simple estate and no arguments can move steadily. If there’s a fight over who’s next in line, an unclear family tree, or significant debts, the process stretches. The statutes keep order, but they can’t make everyone agree.
The Limits—and Necessity—of a Written Plan
Missouri’s intestacy statutes fill a gap, but rarely the way anyone planned. The order of succession is blunt. It can’t adapt to special bonds, stepchildren raised as your own, a disabled relative who needs care, or donations you meant to leave for a cause that mattered. Wills, trusts, and set beneficiaries remain the only way to place control in your own hands. Their absence puts everyone in the same default line, no matter the history.
After death, there’s enough grief. If a loved one dies without a will, learn the rules or get help fast. Relying on the state’s rules is a risk—what the law delivers usually isn’t what the person would have written, if they’d just found the time. The state does not guess. All it does is tally and divide.
