Most people assume they know what a will is. They have heard the term their entire lives. They know it involves dividing up property and naming who gets what. That general understanding is not wrong, but it is incomplete in ways that matter.

This is the first post in the Estate Planning Library, a series from Williams Legal Services that works through the core documents, concepts, and decisions in estate planning one at a time. We start here because the will is where most people start thinking about estate planning, and because understanding what a will actually does and does not do is the right place to begin.

What a Will Is

A Last Will and Testament is a legal document that expresses your wishes for how your probate estate should be distributed after you die. It names a personal representative (sometimes called an executor) to administer your estate. If you have minor children, it is also where you nominate a guardian for them.

That is what a will does. Notice what is not on that list.

A will does nothing while you are alive. It has no effect during a period of incapacity. It does not manage your finances if you are injured or ill. It does not authorize anyone to make medical decisions on your behalf. It sits in a drawer until you die, at which point it becomes effective and goes through a court process called probate.

What a Will Does Not Control

This is the part most people do not know, and it is important.

A will only controls assets that pass through your probate estate. A significant portion of most people’s wealth passes entirely outside the will, regardless of what the will says.

Assets with named beneficiaries pass directly to those beneficiaries. This includes life insurance policies, retirement accounts, IRAs, and 401(k)s. The will has no say over any of them. Assets held in joint tenancy pass automatically to the surviving joint owner. Assets already held in a trust pass according to the terms of that trust.

This means someone can have a perfectly drafted will and still have their wishes ignored, simply because most of their assets pass outside of it. The will is one piece of the plan, not the whole plan.

Missouri Requirements

To be valid in Missouri, a will must meet specific requirements. The person making the will (the testator) must be at least 18 years old and of sound mind. Sound mind means understanding the ordinary affairs of life, knowing the general nature and extent of your property, and understanding who the natural recipients of your estate would be.

The will must be signed by the testator and witnessed by at least two competent witnesses. Those witnesses must be at least 18 years old. If a witness is also a beneficiary under the will, that creates a problem. A benefiting witness must forfeit their inheritance unless there are at least two additional disinterested witnesses. Getting the witness selection wrong is one of the more common ways a will runs into trouble.

Missouri does recognize handwritten wills, sometimes called holographic wills, but they carry real risk. The requirements for validity are strict, courts scrutinize them carefully, and they are far more likely to be contested. A properly drafted and witnessed will is the right choice.

If you have moved to Missouri from another state, a properly executed out-of-state will is generally valid here. That said, Missouri has its own laws on intestacy, property ownership, and administration. It is worth having your documents reviewed by a Missouri attorney to confirm there are no issues.

What Happens Without One

If you die without a will in Missouri, the state has a default plan for your estate. It is called intestate succession, and it determines who inherits from you based on a fixed legal formula, regardless of your actual relationships, your intentions, or your family’s needs.

The results frequently surprise people. Under Missouri law, if you are married and have children who are also the children of your surviving spouse, your spouse receives the first $20,000 of your probate estate plus half of the remainder. Your children split the other half. If any of your children are from a prior relationship, your spouse receives only half the estate, and those children from the prior relationship receive the other half. If you are married with no children, your spouse does generally receive everything, but the path to get there still runs through probate, with all the time and cost that involves.

Beyond asset distribution, dying without a will means no one has been nominated as personal representative. The court will appoint one. If you have minor children and no guardian nomination, the court will make that decision too, without knowing your wishes.

Who Needs a Will

The honest answer is most adults, and anyone with minor children without exception.

The guardian nomination alone justifies having a will. If both parents die without one, a court decides who raises their children with no input from the parents. That is a significant risk to accept when the alternative is a straightforward legal document.

Beyond that, a will is appropriate for anyone who has specific wishes about how property is distributed or who wants to name their own personal representative. It is worth noting, though, that for most of those goals, other planning tools will do the job more effectively. A will that leaves a house to your children still requires probate to transfer it. A beneficiary designation or a funded trust accomplishes the same result without court involvement. For most families, the will plays an important supporting role, but the real work happens in the documents around it.

A Note on What Comes Next

The will is the starting point for estate planning conversations, but it is rarely the finish line. For many families, a will alone leaves significant gaps. It does not avoid probate, it does not address incapacity, and it cannot manage assets during your lifetime.

The next post in the Estate Planning Library covers the Revocable Living Trust, the document that works alongside the will and that often does the heavier lifting in a complete estate plan.

If you’d like help putting a will and the rest of your estate plan in place, you can schedule a free consultation using the calendar link below.