Estate plan requirements

Missouri

Everything your estate plan needs to be valid in Missouri: execution requirements, the documents we generate, statutory citations, and the exact wording our generators insert.

Requirements at a glance

Document	Witnesses	Notary
Will	2 required	Recommended
Living trust	None required	Recommended
Power of attorney	None required	Required
Healthcare directive	2 required (plus notary)	Required

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Will, living trust, durable power of attorney, healthcare directive, and six more documents, all valid in Missouri once signed the way Missouri requires.

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Missouri content last reviewed May 18, 2026.

News

Recent changes in Missouri

August 28, 2025E-Will

Missouri authorizes electronic wills and estate planning documents

The Missouri Uniform Electronic Wills and Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act takes effect, authorizing electronic wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and beneficiary deeds.

HB 754 / SB 221Source

Will

Mo. Rev. Stat. §474.310 et seq.

Witnesses: 2 required

Two competent witnesses must sign in the presence of the testator

Notarization: Recommended

Not legally required, but recommended for self-proving affidavit

Holographic will: Not valid

Missouri does not recognize handwritten wills without witnesses

Self-proving affidavit: Available

Missouri prints the whole self-proving mechanism as the officer's own certificate at Mo. Rev. Stat. §474.337.1: the will is made self-proved by the acknowledgment of the testator and the witnesses, each made before an officer authorized to administer oaths, evidenced by the officer's certificate under official seal, in form and content substantially as the section sets out. Two recitals in that form do work a generic affidavit leaves out, and both are conditions the certificate asserts about the ceremony: that the testator and the witnesses appeared TOGETHER before the officer, and that each witness signed the will in the presence AND HEARING of the testator. The certificate may be made at execution or at any subsequent date. Under §474.337.2 an officer who has no official seal -- including a commissioner of deeds acting under §486.130 and a judge advocate or other commissioned officer of the Armed Forces acting under Article 136 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice or §492.070 -- may instead include in the certificate a statement that he has no official seal and reciting the facts establishing his authority, and that statement has the same effect as a seal.

State-specific notes

•Missouri sets the will-making age at 18, with one statutory exception: a minor emancipated by adjudication, by marriage, or by entry into active military duty may also make a will (Mo. Rev. Stat. §474.310).

ViewSelf-proving affidavit wording

THE STATE OF MISSOURI COUNTY OF _______________ Signed by the Testator and the Witnesses on appearing together before the officer whose certificate follows: ___________________________________ Testator ___________________________________ Witness ___________________________________ Witness I, the undersigned, an officer authorized to administer oaths, certify that {testatorName}, the testator, and the witnesses, whose names are signed to the attached or foregoing instrument, having appeared together before me and having been first duly sworn, each then declared to me that the testator signed and executed the instrument as his last will, and that he had willingly signed or willingly directed another to sign for him, and that he executed it as his free and voluntary act for the purposes therein expressed; and that each of the witnesses, in the presence and hearing of the testator, signed the will as witness and that to the best of his knowledge the testator was at that time eighteen or more years of age, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence. In witness whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name and affixed my official seal this ______ day of ______________, 20______. (Signed) ___________________________________ (SEAL) ___________________________________ (Official capacity of officer)

ViewIndependent administration recital

I authorize and direct that my estate be administered independently, without adjudication, order or direction of the probate court, under Mo. Rev. Stat. §473.780. I make this direction by specific reference to that section, so that the letters testamentary issued to my Executor shall provide that my Executor may administer my estate independently under §473.780.1, and I do not require the consent of my devisees or heirs under §473.780.2 as a condition of that administration. Nothing in this direction prohibits independent administration, restricts any interested person's statutory right to petition the court for supervised administration or for any other relief, or relieves my Executor of the inventory, appraisement, settlement, and closing requirements Missouri law imposes.

ViewWitness disqualification / interested-witness rule

Mo. Rev. Stat. §474.330: a beneficiary may serve as an attesting witness without invalidating the will, but if the will is not otherwise attested by two disinterested witnesses, the interested witness forfeits the portion of any beneficial disposition that exceeds the value of what the witness would have taken by intestacy. Creditors and executors named in the will are not interested unless they take a personal beneficial disposition.

Living Trust

Witnesses: None required

No formal execution requirements beyond settlor signature; notarization strongly recommended when funding real property

Notarization: Recommended

Not legally required for the trust document, but needed to transfer real property

Certification of trust: Mo. Rev. Stat. §456.10-1013

Missouri lets your trustee prove the trust to a bank, brokerage, title company, insurer, or transfer agent with a short certification instead of the trust itself. It states that the trust exists, who the trustee is, and what the trustee may do, and it leaves out who inherits and what each person receives. Will.com generates the Missouri Certification of Trust with your trust, built to the contents that section requires. Sign it in front of the same notary, at the same sitting as the trust. The same section also says what happens if someone demands the trust itself anyway. Mo. Rev. Stat. §456.10-1013(8) provides that a person making a demand for the trust instrument in addition to a certification of trust or excerpts is liable for damages if the court determines that the person did not act in good faith in demanding the trust instrument.

Durable Power of Attorney

Witnesses: None required

No witnesses required for power of attorney

Notarization: Required

Notarization is required for a valid durable power of attorney

State-specific notes

•Signed by the principal, dated, and acknowledged in the manner prescribed by law for conveyances of real estate (i.e., before a notary public). Mo. Rev. Stat. §404.705

•Durability requires all three of the following (Mo. Rev. Stat. §404.705, subsection 1): (1) the instrument is denominated a 'Durable Power of Attorney'; (2) it states in substance one of the two statutory formulas, either 'THIS IS A DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY AND THE AUTHORITY OF MY ATTORNEY IN FACT SHALL NOT TERMINATE IF I BECOME DISABLED OR INCAPACITATED OR IN THE EVENT OF LATER UNCERTAINTY AS TO WHETHER I AM DEAD OR ALIVE' or 'THIS IS A DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY AND THE AUTHORITY OF MY ATTORNEY IN FACT, WHEN EFFECTIVE, SHALL NOT TERMINATE OR BE VOID OR VOIDABLE IF I AM OR BECOME DISABLED OR INCAPACITATED OR IN THE EVENT OF LATER UNCERTAINTY AS TO WHETHER I AM DEAD OR ALIVE'; and (3) it is subscribed by the principal, and dated and acknowledged in the manner prescribed by law for conveyances of real estate. Perfect magic words in an instrument titled only 'Power of Attorney' do not survive the principal's incapacity.

Healthcare Directive

Mo. Rev. Stat. §§404.800-404.872

Witnesses: 2 required (plus notary)

Missouri requires both 2 witnesses and notarization

Notarization: Required (with witnesses)

Missouri requires both witnesses and notarization for a valid healthcare directive

State-specific notes

•The Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care must be signed by the principal and acknowledged in the manner prescribed by law for conveyances of real estate, that is, before a notary public (Mo. Rev. Stat. §404.705, incorporated into the DPOA-HC act by §404.810).

•The Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care alone needs no attesting witnesses, because the health care act incorporates only the subscription, dating and acknowledgment rule (Mo. Rev. Stat. §404.810, incorporating §404.705). The document Will.com generates is not that bare instrument: it also contains a Living Will Declaration, and a declaration that is not wholly in the declarant's handwriting must be signed in the presence of two or more witnesses at least eighteen years of age, neither of whom may be the person who signed the declaration on the declarant's behalf (Mo. Rev. Stat. §459.015). Sign before both witnesses and a notary at one sitting.

•The Living Will Declaration inside the document Will.com generates is Missouri's statutory declaration directing the withholding or withdrawal of death-prolonging procedures (Mo. Rev. Stat. §§459.010 to 459.055). The declaration must be in writing, signed by the declarant or by another person in the declarant's presence and at the declarant's express direction, and dated (§459.015.1). The statute sets out a sample declaration and states that it is not necessary to use that sample form, and that the declaration may include other specific directions (§459.015.3). The Department of Health and Senior Services must include an advance health care directive form, and directions for completing it, on its website (§459.016).

•Authority to direct a health care provider to withhold or withdraw artificially supplied nutrition and hydration must be granted to the attorney in fact specifically, not by a general grant of health care authority (Mo. Rev. Stat. §404.820). No attorney in fact may authorize withdrawal of nutrition or hydration the patient can take by natural means with the intent of causing death, and before withdrawal of artificially supplied nutrition or hydration the physician must either explain the intention to the patient and offer the chance to refuse, or certify in the file that the patient cannot understand it.

•Missouri disqualifies the attending physician, the physician's employee, and an owner, operator, or employee of the patient's health care facility from serving as agent unless related within the second degree by blood or marriage, or unless both the patient and the agent are members of the same religious community that conducts religious, charitable, or health care ministry (Mo. Rev. Stat. §404.815).

ViewWitness disqualification recital

Missouri's health care power of attorney and its living will declaration have different execution rules. Mo. Rev. Stat. §404.810 applies §404.705 to the durable power of attorney for health care, and §404.705.1(3) requires that instrument to be subscribed by the principal and dated and acknowledged in the manner prescribed by law for conveyances of real estate, which means notarial acknowledgment rather than witnesses. Mo. Rev. Stat. §459.015 governs the living will declaration, and §459.015.1(4) provides that unless it is wholly in the declarant's handwriting it must be signed in the presence of two or more witnesses at least eighteen years of age, and the only person the statute disqualifies is the individual who signed the declaration on behalf of and at the direction of the declarant. Missouri does not bar a relative, an heir, a devisee, the attending physician, or an employee of a health care provider from witnessing; the §404.815 restriction on the attending physician, an employee of the attending physician, and an owner, operator, or employee of a health care facility in which the patient resides limits who may serve as attorney in fact, not who may witness. Two adults who are not the agent and who take nothing under the estate remain sound practice, but Missouri does not require it.

Subscription

6 more documents with a subscription

$29/year unlocks the documents below alongside the four free ones above. Your answers and documents are saved privately to your account, encrypted in your browser, so you can revise them any time life changes.

Disposition of Remains Authorization

Names the agent who controls funeral, burial, or cremation decisions, with optional preferences.

HIPAA Authorization

Stand-alone PHI release that survives death for the period you specify, separate from the in-life authorization in your healthcare directive. The free packet includes it too whenever it has a healthcare directive.

In this state: Gives the written authorization Mo. Rev. Stat. §191.656 requires before HIV infection status or test results may be disclosed, and the patient authorization Mo. Rev. Stat. §630.140 requires before a mental health facility or program may release its records.

Nomination of Conservator / Guardian of the Person and Estate

Pre-nominates the person you want a court to appoint if a conservator (or guardian of the estate) is ever needed.

Business Succession Declaration

Identifies your interests in any closely-held businesses and how they should be transferred or wound down.

Real-Estate Retitling Checklist

Step-by-step instructions for transferring real-property deeds into your trust so the trust actually controls those assets.

Letter of Instruction

Non-binding personal note to your executor and family: where to find documents, account access, funeral wishes, and other practical guidance.

Free vs. paid

	Free	Paid
All 4 state-specific documents	Included in free	Included in paid tier
State-specific signing guide	Included in free	Included in paid tier
Download as PDF, print forever	Included in free	Included in paid tier
Secure online storage	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Covers real estate, business, digital, and funeral wishes	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Disposition of remains authorization	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Standalone HIPAA authorization	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Nomination of conservator	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Business succession declaration	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Real-estate retitling checklist	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Special needs trust provisions	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Letter of instruction, pre-filled and editable	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Edit anytime	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Annual review reminder	Not in free	Included in paid tier

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Electronic will status

Missouri has adopted electronic will legislation (2025). You may be able to create, sign, and witness a will electronically using approved methods.

Digital assets access

Missouri has adopted RUFADAA (2018). This is the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which lets your executor, trustee, or agent access your email, social media, cryptocurrency wallets, cloud storage, and other digital accounts after death or incapacity.

To take advantage of RUFADAA, your will, trust, or power of attorney must explicitly grant authority to access digital assets. Without explicit authorization, service providers can deny access even to a court-appointed executor.

Remote online notarization (RON)

Missouri authorized RON in 2020.

Will

Allowed

Trust

Allowed

POA

Allowed

Remote online witnessing (ROW)

Missouri allows remote online witnessing for some estate planning documents. Witnesses can observe your signing over a live video call instead of being physically present. Not available for a Missouri will signed on paper. Mo. Rev. Stat. §474.320 requires the will be 'attested by two or more competent witnesses subscribing their names to the will in the presence of the testator,' and carries no electronic-presence provision. Missouri's electronic-presence authority is Mo. Rev. Stat. §474.548 (H.B. 754, 2025), titled 'Electronic will requirements,' which reaches only a will that is a record readable as text at the time of signing. Missouri's other estate planning documents run on a different rule: any written estate planning document other than a will that requires a witness to the principal's signature may be witnessed in the electronic presence of the principal (Mo. Rev. Stat. §474.560), and that section names the power of attorney, the durable power of attorney for health care, the health care declaration, the advance directive, the revocable trust, and the beneficiary deed.

Will

Not allowed

Trust

Allowed

POA

Allowed

HC Directive

Allowed

This information is general in nature and not legal advice. Laws change. Consult a licensed estate planning attorney in Missouri for guidance specific to your situation.

Also for Missouri

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Free last will and testament, valid in Missouri.

Missouri healthcare directive

Name your medical decision-maker and treatment wishes.

Missouri power of attorney

Name someone to handle finances if you can't.

Missouri living trust

Skip probate and keep your estate private.

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