Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Missouri

Re: Wills and the Missouri laws.

If the will is non-discriminatory and does not unduly favor the executor/beneficiary, then, even though the executor/beneficiary engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. So long as there is not a class that was better entittled under the inheritance laws (if no will had been written)(ie. children of the deceased), then the beneift will probably stand, although the executor may be prohibited from being entitled to an executor's fee.

Re: Wills and the Missouri laws.

I am sorry that I must disagree with the previously posted response. The purported Will would not be legally enforceable in a Missouri Court, unless it was a "nuncupative' will written "in extremis". A Will must be written by an attorney unless the testator reasonably believes that he is facing the immediate likelihood of death. Also,I believe that the Missouri statutes require a valid last Will and Testament to comply with certain specific requirements regarding the attestation and witnessing of the Testator's signature, and these requirements would not necessarily be met by some document that was signed and notarized. If the Missouri law has not changed so as to make my opinion outdated, then the decedent's estate would pass to the decedent's heirs according to the statute of descent and distribution, and not according to the intentions of the decedent as expressed in the purported Will.