Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Missouri

Re: Missouri Wills

No.

Re: Missouri Wills

No. There is absolutely no doubt that you would be making a big mistake if you insist upon buying on-line forms and doing this yourself. In order to be valid, and enforceable in Court, a Will must comply with the Missouri statutes. I have personally reviewed several of the forms being sold to unsuspecting people like you and I can tell you that they uniformly fail to comply with the statutory requirements. In addition, an attorney who drafts Wills has the experience to consider many factors, ask the right questions, and draft the right clauses to make sure that everything goes as you intend it to go. An attorney has spent years in law school and often years in practice in order to provide competent legal services, and most attorneys will not charge so much for a simple set of Wills that you would save much money doing it yourself. As an example of why you should not do this yourself, I would point out the fact that you included in your question the suggestion that the signatures would be notarized. If you use a form and notarize the signatures, your Wills will not be valid. There is a very specific statutory requirement concerning the witnessing of a Will. The attestation, affirmation, and notarization all must comply with the statute. Do yourself, your wife, and your daughter a huge favor and consult with an attorney.P.S. An attorney can also advise you an assist you in setting ownership of your assets up in ways to avoid property going though probate and still going to your intended beneficiary thus saving everyone a great deal of time, trouble and money.

Re: Missouri Wills

As you can see by the previous remarks, DIY will forms do not get much praise from Missouri attorneys. They are the legal version of a "how to build your own pacemaker" book.

I love the DIY will forms. You buy the form, fill it out and die. Then your daughter hires me because nobody will give her the stuff she thought she was supposed to get. I represent her in your intestate (no valid will) estate(s). A lot of your stuff gets transferred to your creditors. The rest goes to me and your daughter, as the court makes her pay me a sizeable portion of what you thought you were leaving to her.

If you want your money to be used to send my grandchildren to college and not yours, please rely on one of those forms. If you want your heirs to get anything, then only use those forms as a guide to what assets you need to consider and what documents you might need when having competent counsel prepare your estate plan.

Tuition is always going up. Here's hoping you make the right choice.

Good Luck