When used in this code, unless otherwise apparent from the context:

(1) “Administrator” includes any administrator de bonis non, administrator cum testamento annexo, administrator ad litem and administrator during absence or minority;

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Terms Used In Missouri Laws 472.010

  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
  • Executor: includes administrator where the subject matter applies to an administrator. See Missouri Laws 1.020
  • Guardianship: if used in a section in a context relating to rights and obligations other than property rights or obligations, means guardian of the person as defined in chapter 475. See Missouri Laws 1.020
  • Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
  • Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
  • Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, and to partnerships and other unincorporated associations. See Missouri Laws 1.020
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action and evidences of debt. See Missouri Laws 1.020
  • Probate: Proving a will
  • Property: includes real and personal property. See Missouri Laws 1.020
  • Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
  • United States: includes such district and territories. See Missouri Laws 1.020
  • Ward: if used in a section in a context relating to the property rights and obligations of a person, means a protectee as defined in chapter 475. See Missouri Laws 1.020

(2) “Child” includes an adopted child and a child born out of wedlock, but does not include a grandchild or other more remote descendants;

(3) “Claims” include liabilities of the decedent which survive whether arising in contract, tort or otherwise, funeral expenses, the expense of a tombstone, and costs and expenses of administration;

(4) “Clerk” means clerk of the probate division of the circuit court;

(5) “Code” or “probate code” means chapters 472, 473, 474 and 475;

(6) “Court” or “probate court” means the probate division of the circuit court;

(7) “Devise”, when used as a noun, means a testamentary disposition of real or personal property or both; when used as a verb it means to dispose of real or personal property or both by will;

(8) “Devisee” includes legatee;

(9) “Distributee” denotes those persons who are entitled to the real and personal property of a decedent under his will, under the statutes of intestate succession or who take as surviving spouse under section 474.160, upon election to take against the will;

(10) “Domicile” means the place in which a person has voluntarily fixed his abode, not for a mere special or temporary purpose, but with a present intention of remaining there permanently or for an indefinite time;

(11) “Estate” means the real and personal property of the decedent or ward, as from time to time changed in form by sale, reinvestment or otherwise, and augmented by any accretions and additions thereto and substitutions therefor, and diminished by any decreases and distributions therefrom. Under the provisions of subsections 4 and 5 of section 209.625, assets held in an ABLE account established under sections 209.600 to 209.645 shall not be considered the property of the designated beneficiary of said account for purposes of this subdivision when applied in chapter 475, unless the estate is in the charge and custody of a public administrator;

(12) “Exempt property” means that property of a decedent’s estate which is not subject to be applied to the payment of claims, charges, legacies or bequests as described in section 474.250;

(13) “Fiduciary” includes executor, administrator, guardian, conservator, and trustee;

(14) “Heirs” means those persons, including the surviving spouse, who are entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the real and personal property of a decedent on his death intestate;

(15) “Interested persons” mean heirs, devisees, spouses, creditors or any others having a property right or claim against the estate of a decedent being administered and includes children of a protectee who may have a property right or claim against or an interest in the estate of a protectee. This meaning may vary at different stages and different parts of a proceeding and must be determined according to the particular purpose and matter involved;

(16) “Issue” of a person, when used to refer to persons who take by intestate succession, includes adopted children and all lawful lineal descendants, except those who are the lineal descendants of living lineal descendants of the intestate;

(17) “Lease” includes an oil and gas lease or other mineral lease, but does not include month-to-month or year-to-year tenancies under oral contracts;

(18) “Legacy” means a testamentary disposition of personal property;

(19) “Legatee” means a person entitled to personal property under a will;

(20) “Letters” include letters testamentary, letters of administration and letters of guardianship;

(21) “Lien” includes all liens except general judgment, execution and attachment liens;

(22) “Lineal descendants” include adopted children and their descendants;

(23) “Mortgage” includes deed of trust, vendor’s lien and chattel mortgage;

(24) “Person” includes natural persons and corporations;

(25) “Personal property” includes interests in goods, money, choses in action, evidences of debt, shares of corporate stock, and chattels real;

(26) “Personal representative” means executor or administrator. It includes an administrator with the will annexed, an administrator de bonis non, an administrator pending contest, an administrator during minority or absence, and any other type of administrator of the estate of a decedent whose appointment is permitted. It does not include an executor de son tort;

(27) “Property” includes both real and personal property;

(28) “Real property” includes estates and interests in land, corporeal or incorporeal, legal or equitable, other than chattels real;

(29) “Registered mail” includes “certified mail” as defined and certified under regulations of the United States Postal Service;

(30) “Will” includes codicil; it also includes a testamentary instrument which merely appoints an executor and a testamentary instrument which merely revokes or revives another will.

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