Missouri Laws Affecting Conserved Funds

See Mo. Rev. Stat. § 472.010. (West, Westlaw through the Second Reg. Sess. of the 93rd General Assembly (2006)).

As a representative payee, you should be sending the conserved funds of a deceased beneficiary to the probate court of the circuit court in which the deceased individual had a permanent residence.

If the deceased individual was not a resident of any county in Missouri, then the conserved funds should be sent to the district court in which the deceased left the largest amount of real property. The Missouri State Court system has a website which lists the circuit courts and the counties which they serve.

The Web site can be found at: www.courts.mo.gov/page.asp?id=321. There is a link to each of the circuit courts’ homepages with the contact information for the probate divisions.

State Laws

The appropriate place to send conserved funds in Missouri is to the probate division of the circuit court in which the estate is being probated.

472.20. Jurisdiction of probate division of circuit court.

The probate division of the circuit court may hear and determine all matters pertaining to probate business, to granting letters testamentary and of administration, the appointment of guardians and conservators of minors and incapacitated and disabled persons, settling the accounts of personal representatives and conservators, and the sale or leasing of lands by personal representatives and conservators, including jurisdiction of the construction of wills as an incident to the administration of estates, of the determination of heirship, of the administration of testamentary and inter vivos trusts, of disability and incapacity proceedings as provided by law and of such other probate business as may be prescribed by law.

See Mo. Rev. Stat. § 472.020. (West, Westlaw through the Second Reg. Sess. of the 93rd General Assembly (2006)).

To determine which circuit court is probating the estate, the Missouri Revised Statutes provide:

§ 473.010. Venue.

1. The will of any decedent shall be probated and letters testamentary or of administration shall be granted:

(1) In the county in which the domicile of the deceased is situated;

(2) If he had no domicile in this state then in any county wherein he left any property; except that when the major part of a nonresident decedent’s estate in this state consists of real estate, the will shall be probated and letters testamentary or of administration shall be granted in the county in which the real estate or the major part thereof is located;

(3) If the decedent had no domicile in this state and left no property therein, in any county in which the granting thereof is required in order to protect or secure any legal right.