Missouri Executor and Estate Kit: the $40,000 Small Estate Route After 30 Days, First Month Checklist and Estate Ledger

Who it is for

Whoever is settling the estate of someone who lived in Missouri. Through a court office. A copy of the affidavit and the clerk's certificate is filed with the probate division clerk, usually with a bond the court can waive.

Not the right fit if

The person didn't live in or own property in Missouri, or a will contest or family dispute means you need an estate attorney. Not a form preparation or legal service.

Why it is different

• Sources, checked November 2026: RSMo 473.097, Small estates (Missouri Revisor of Statutes); Form PR16 (SJRC 01-24), Small estate affidavit, intestate (Missouri Courts); RSMo 473.090, Refusal of letters (Missouri Revisor of Statutes); RSMo Chapter 474, Probate Code: Intestate Succession and Wills (Revisor of Missouri); RSMo 474.337, Written will self-proved, how (Revisor of Missouri); RSMo 474.330, Who may witness will, effect of interest in will (Revisor of Missouri); Nolo (secondary source): How to Make a Will in Missouri (Nolo).
• All 11 Missouri facts are confirmed: on an official page, or where none could be read, on a vetted secondary source marked as such.

What is inside

• Missouri small estate route. The entire estate, less liens, debts and encumbrances, $40,000 or less. Distributees can establish title to real estate by recording the affidavit and the clerk's certificate. Real estate counts toward the value, and the procedure can reach it. 30 days. Thirty days after the death. Signed before a notary. The Missouri courts' statewide small estate affidavit form ends with a notary jurat. The statute itself lists what the affidavit must state without naming a notary. Through a court office. A copy of the affidavit and the clerk's certificate is filed with the probate division clerk, usually with a bond the court can waive. PR16, Affidavit to Establish Title of Distributee to Property in Estate of Less than $40,000, Small Estate, Intestate (Without Will). A statewide probate form, revised January 2024 (SJRC 01-24), posted on the Missouri courts' site. Refusal of letters (RSMo 473.090): The probate division may refuse to grant letters when the estate is no larger than the exempt property and the allowance for the surviving spouse or unmarried minor children, or when the personal estate is $15,000 or less and a creditor or other qualified person applies.
• How a Missouri will had to be signed. Two or more competent witnesses, who sign in the testator's presence. Allowed at signing or any later date, before an officer authorized to administer oaths in the state, under official seal. Not recognized unless witnessed: a handwritten will needs the same witnesses as any other will, per Nolo's Missouri page. The will stays valid, but an interested witness loses anything above an intestate share unless two disinterested witnesses also signed.
• Missouri estate ledger (Excel). Assets, debts, payments and distributions; it compares the countable assets with $40,000, dates day 30 after the death and counts real estate in the person's name.
• First 30 days, tracker and letters. The first month in order with day 30 marked, a documents and accounts tracker, and plain letters to a bank, a utility and Social Security.