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When Life Changes, So Should Your Trust People draft revocable living trusts to keep their affairs from falling into disorder after they're gone. That’s the practical goal. Families shift. Money…

What a Personal Representative Does—and Where Things Go Wrong You see a personal representative step in, paperwork under one arm, when a Missouri estate hits probate. Sometimes they’re named in…

Missouri Probate: The Costs Nobody Mentions Up Front When someone dies in Missouri, the aftermath isn’t just grief—paperwork and money come next. Probate is the machine that sorts a deceased…

The Day You Turn Eighteen is the Day Everything Changes The day you turn eighteen in Kirksville lands without fanfare for most. Your diploma leaves your hand. The world treats…

First Things First: Why These Allowances Exist The courthouse isn’t the first place most people want to be after a funeral, but for many in Missouri, that’s how it goes.…

The Reality of Trust Challenges in Missouri Paperwork stacks up quick in probate court, but in Missouri, a trust skips the line—unless someone calls foul. The process for challenging a…

What Actually Happens With Your Beneficiaries Someone dies. The money moves—or it doesn’t. In Missouri, the person named as the beneficiary on your life insurance paperwork decides who gets paid,…

An Honest Look at Estate Planning for University Staff The professor with her shoulder bag, the lecturer finishing up at Magruder Hall, the longtime Truman staffer who’s seen two generations…

Pour-Over Wills: The Last Catch in a Missouri Estate Plan Out here, estate plans don’t always go according to script. Maybe you set up a trust, think you’re covered, but…

It happens all the time—a family owns farmland outside St. Louis, a second house across the river, and Dad’s bank accounts scattered across four states. The world got smaller, but…