---
type: Authority
title: RSMo Chapter 456 (Missouri Uniform Trust Code)
description: Missouri's trust statute, governing how trusts are created, administered, modified, and how a spendthrift provision protects a beneficiary's interest.
resource: https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneChapter.aspx?chapter=456
tags: [trusts, trust-code, revocable, irrevocable, spendthrift, missouri]
timestamp: 2026-06-22
jurisdiction: Missouri
author: Patrick Nolan
authority_type: statute
citation: RSMo Chapter 456
---

# Summary

RSMo Chapter 456 is the Missouri Uniform Trust Code. It governs how trusts are created, what makes them valid, how they are administered, modified, and terminated, the duties of trustees, and the spendthrift protection that shields a beneficiary's interest from creditors. It applies to both revocable and irrevocable trusts.

# Operative text

Paraphrased from key sections:

- §456.4-401 sets the methods of creating a trust.
- §456.5-502 is the spendthrift provision, which protects a beneficiary's interest from being reached by creditors when the trust so provides.
- The Code distinguishes a revocable trust, which the settlor controls and which counts as the settlor's own property, from an irrevocable trust, which gives up control in exchange for protection, and it sets the duties a trustee owes the beneficiaries.

Read the full chapter at the official source linked above.

# Decision rule

If you want to control how and when assets pass and to keep them out of probate, a trust under Chapter 456 is the vehicle; a revocable trust keeps you in control but counts as yours, while an irrevocable trust trades control for protection.

# Related

- [Revocable Living Trust](/okf/trusts-probate-avoidance/revocable-living-trust.md)
- [Spendthrift Trust](/okf/trusts-probate-avoidance/spendthrift-trust.md)
- [Trust Types](/okf/trusts-probate-avoidance/trust-types.md)
- [Revocable Living Trusts (Estate Planning)](/okf/estate-planning/revocable-living-trust.md)
- [The Six Core Documents](/okf/estate-planning/core-documents.md)
- Official source: https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneChapter.aspx?chapter=456