MissouriSB2212025 Regular SessionSenateWALLET

Modifies the standard of review for agency interpretation of statutes, rules, regulations, and subregulatory documents

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

31 provisions identified: 9 benefits, 1 costs, 21 mixed.

More privacy for court workers

Judicial privacy protections now cover court clerks, administrators, juvenile officers, and other covered court workers and their immediate families. After a valid written request, agencies must remove covered personal information from public content within five business days. Covered people and businesses have the same deadline to remove it online and cannot share it through another medium. Requests last until written consent to release the information or the officer’s death. Statewide court-system records remain governed by Missouri Supreme Court rules.

State pays more court interpreter costs

Missouri pays reasonable, court-approved interpreter or translator fees for parties and witnesses, not just in criminal proceedings. The state also pays necessary travel expenses within state travel rates. Interpreter travel time is not paid.

Stronger emergency protection for children

A verified petition can support an emergency protection order for immediate danger involving a child’s pet, stalking, or child sexual assault. When the court issues that order, it must appoint a guardian ad litem or court-appointed special advocate. The court can also order Children’s Division services and an investigation when allegations support juvenile-court authority. An ordered investigation requires a written report within 30 days.

Compensation judges face new pay limits

Missouri workers’ compensation judges’ pay is set solely by the law’s specified rates. Their pay does not rise automatically when lawmakers fund raises for executive employees. An administrative law judge in charge receives the judge’s rate plus $5,000.

Retirement coverage changes for compensation officials

Retirement rules include legal advisors and associate administrative law judges appointed or employed under sections 287.600 or 287.615. Personnel appointed or employed under section 287.616 no longer fall within this covered definition. The law also removes the benefit ban for officials removed by impeachment or misconduct, disbarred officials, and their beneficiaries. Those individuals must still meet the remaining retirement benefit requirements.

Families can shield deceased relatives’ records

Eligible family members or personal representatives can ask courts to make a deceased person’s misdemeanor conviction record confidential. This applies to records in the automated court case system after at least six months since death. The request must include a death certificate. The court must grant confidentiality if it finds no unfair harm to another person.

More driving options after treatment

People completing the specified long-term corrections treatment program can ask their sentencing court for limited driving privileges. People successfully completing the specified 120-day institutional treatment program can also petition for limited driving privileges. Qualifying adult treatment courts and DWI courts can grant privileges to participants or graduates otherwise barred by another law. Completion or participation does not guarantee driving privileges.

New protection-order rules for minors

For protection orders, the law raises the adult age from 17 to 18; emancipated people still count as adults. For respondents under 18 who are not emancipated, papers must reach a custodial parent, guardian, or appointed court guardian. When an emergency order is entered against a minor respondent, the full-order hearing moves to juvenile court. An unrepresented minor respondent must receive a guardian ad litem, a court-appointed representative.

Spouses can demand income-producing trust assets

A spouse with a mandatory right to trust income can require action when assets do not support the marital tax deduction. The trust must hold property for which a gift or estate tax marital deduction was allowed. The trustee can make property earn income, convert it to income-producing property within a reasonable time, or adjust income and principal. The trustee chooses one or a combination of these steps.

Some cities gain police oversight options

Cities with more than 125,000 but fewer than 160,000 residents are exempt from specified limits on civilian police oversight. They can create a civilian group to receive and investigate public complaints, make findings, and recommend discipline. The law allows these groups but does not require cities to create them.

Some beneficiaries must repay estate taxes

A fiduciary must charge beneficiaries who gain income-tax savings when a deduction choice raises estate taxes paid from principal. This applies when deducting a principal payment for income taxes reduces the estate’s marital or charitable deduction. Repayment equals the related estate-tax increase, limited to the payment that otherwise qualified for that deduction. The fiduciary can collect directly, withhold future distributions, or use another collection method.

Changed deadlines for trust beneficiary claims

The law removes special two-year deadlines for claims about unfair trustee adjustments between income and principal. Other claim deadlines still matter. When the one-year deadline after an adequately disclosing report does not apply, a five-year period runs from specified events. Those events include the end of the beneficiary’s interest or the trust.

Electronic wills gain recognition and safeguards

Beginning August 28, 2025, Missouri recognizes electronic wills that remain readable and accessible, with required signing and two witnesses. Witnesses can attend physically or electronically; qualifying wills made under another jurisdiction’s law are also recognized. Courts can order account custodians to disclose a deceased person’s digital assets to retrieve a will, even before estate administration begins. A complete paper copy certified under penalty of perjury satisfies original-form requirements; self-proving wills must include their affidavit. A signed electronic will is presumed revoked if neither it nor a certified paper copy can be found after death; specified later documents or intentional physical acts can also revoke it.

New options and limits for trust payouts

Beginning August 28, 2025, default unitrust rules cover existing and new trusts and estates, subject to trust-term and federal-tax exclusions. A unitrust bases income payments on a percentage of trust value. Fiduciaries can adopt, change, or end this approach without court approval to support fair administration, after notice allowing at least 30 days to object. An objection requires court approval; beneficiaries can seek court action after refusal or 90 days without action on a written request. Policies must explain rates and values; special-tax-benefit trusts or trusts without independent fiduciaries face a 3%–5% rate range and calendar-year-only valuation periods.

Trust accounting can shift beneficiary payments

Trust managers must allocate receipts from financial arrangements not otherwise covered using the law’s allocation standards. They can move money between income and principal—the assets held for later—to repay listed expenses. They can also reserve income for future principal costs, including improvements and preparing property for rent. These transfers require no expected third-party repayment and can continue when an asset passes to a successor interest. Separate adjustments can offset listed tax or financial shifts between beneficiaries, but not the specified income-tax deduction choice.

Trust beneficiaries gain notice, face limits

Trustees must notify qualified beneficiaries at least 60 days before starting a transfer of the trust’s main place of administration. The notice must warn that the move may change governing law and beneficiaries’ rights. Courts can change covered trust decisions only after finding an abuse of discretion. When a fiduciary’s court petition explains the decision, reasons, facts, and effects, an opposing beneficiary must prove abuse. Remedies can include changed trust calculations, payments, repayment, or withholding future payments.

Clearer estate income shares for heirs

After a death creates an estate or trust, or an income interest ends, fiduciaries must account for receipts and costs. Receipts tied to specifically given property go to that property’s recipient, and expenses, taxes, and required interest follow allocation rules. Covered beneficiaries share remaining net income based on their shares of undistributed principal, valued at each distribution date. Fiduciaries must track unpaid income shares; an exception applies to certain trust beneficiaries. Expenses charged to income cannot reduce claimed marital or charitable estate-tax deductions without the allowed adjustment.

Default formulas shape trust beneficiary payments

A covered small allocation can go entirely to principal, subject to adjustment-power limits. It is presumed small only when both its net-income effect and the asset’s share of total value are below 10%. Separate-fund payments count as income up to internal income; when that income is unknown, the default is 3% of value. If value is unknown, expected payments are valued under federal actuarial rules; qualifying marital-trust beneficiaries can request excess income and principal transfers. Other trusts required to pay all current net income must transfer internal-income shortfalls from principal to income. Liquidating-asset receipts count as income up to 3% of asset value, or 10% of receipts when value is unknown; the rest is principal.

New accounting rules for trust beneficiaries

Beginning August 28, 2025, the new trust accounting framework covers existing and new trusts and estates, unless their terms provide otherwise. Missouri’s rules generally apply when administration is based there, or covered life-interest or term-interest property is located there. Trustees accept these rules by accepting a Missouri trusteeship or moving administration there. Fiduciaries must act in good faith, fairly, reasonably, and impartially, subject to the trust’s terms. They can shift income and principal or adopt percentage-based payouts to support fair treatment; the law replaces the old 3%–5% payout framework.

New splits for trust investment receipts

Business cash payouts generally count as income; capital payouts and ownership-reducing payouts go to principal, with listed investment exceptions. Fiduciaries can generally rely on business labels unless they know of possible errors or hold more than 50% of voting power. Payments from another trust retain their income or principal treatment, except purchased investment-trust interests; businesses can use separate records and retain needed cash. Bond interest and no-stated-interest growth count as income, while bond sale and redemption proceeds remain principal, subject to separate statutory rules. Unneeded proceeds from unusual business asset sales go to principal; the law also repeals the blanket rule putting all asset-disposal proceeds there.

Trust adjustment powers have new limits

Fiduciaries need not consider or use income-and-principal adjustments, and good-faith choices do not create liability. Adjustments cannot change fixed beneficiary payments or cause listed losses of tax benefits, charitable amounts, or public-benefit eligibility. Nonindependent fiduciaries and trusts using the statutory percentage-payout system cannot use this adjustment power. Eligible co-fiduciaries can act, and powers can be released or delegated in a written record. An adjustment must appear in a beneficiary report or be communicated at least annually to the specified qualified beneficiaries.

Trust fees and costs get divided

Trust income generally pays half of regular trustee and investment-service fees when enough income is available, subject to statutory exceptions. Ordinary income-related costs and specified insurance also come from income; an independent fiduciary can assign more covered costs there. Principal pays listed debts, property-sale costs, principal-based compensation, death taxes, environmental payments, and other assigned costs. If property income directly reduces principal debt, the fiduciary must move an equal amount from principal to income. Reasonable depreciation transfers to principal are allowed, but not for beneficiary homes, personal-use property, or listed specially accounted-for assets.

Trust income follows start and end dates

Trust terms set income start dates; otherwise, income rights generally start when property enters the trust or a successive interest begins. Lifetime transfers use the transfer date, death transfers use the death date, and successive interests start after the prior interest ends. Periodic items due before the starting date go to principal; later items go to income, while nonperiodic items accrue daily. When required income rights end, covered unpaid income goes to the beneficiary or their estate unless trust terms direct otherwise. If the beneficiary can freely withdraw more than 5% of trust value just before ending, income tied to that portion goes to principal.

Trust investment contracts get percentage splits

For derivatives accounted for as a business, 10% of receipts and related payments count as income; the rest is principal. Covered options requiring asset delivery use the same 10% income split for option payments and related gains or losses. For asset-backed securities, identified interest or current return counts as income, and the balance is principal. Payments exchanged for part or all of the security, including redemptions, use a 10% income split for receipts and disbursements.

Trust resource payments follow new splits

Natural-resource rent, specified interest, and renewable-water receipts count as income; other listed receipts go to principal or receive a fair split. A resource split is presumed fair when principal receives the federal depletion-deduction amount. Timber receipts count as income only up to timber growth; excess cutting and standing-timber sales go to principal. Unallocated timber advances and bonuses go to principal, and a reasonable depletion amount must also move there. Interests acquired on or after August 28, 2025, use these rules; older holdings can keep prior methods, and business-accounted receipts are excluded.

Trust taxes follow income and principal

Taxes based on trust income receipts come from income; taxes based on principal receipts come from principal. Taxes on a trust’s share of business income are split based on receipts assigned to each account. Any tax exceeding those receipts comes from principal, subject to the listed allocation exceptions. Fiduciaries must also adjust receipts when deductions for beneficiary payments reduce the trust’s taxes.

Business members gain court dissolution grounds

A limited liability company member can ask the circuit court where its registered office is located to dissolve the business. The court must find at least one legal ground, such as deadlock, abandonment, or substantially impaired operations. Grounds also include protecting member interests, inability to operate under the agreement, or persistent, widespread fraud, mismanagement, or abuse of authority.

Court outcomes required for abuse registry

Missouri’s child abuse and neglect registry now requires a court finding substantiating abuse or neglect. A guilty plea or conviction for a listed offense also supports placement. A Children’s Division finding based only on probable cause or a preponderance of evidence no longer supports placement.

New discipline process for compensation judges

Workers’ compensation judges receive written reasons before the division director files a disciplinary complaint. For willful neglect or incompetence, judges get 90 days from the complaint date to fix the conduct before filing. The Administrative Hearing Commission hears these cases and makes factual findings and legal conclusions. After grounds are found, the director can remove, suspend, or otherwise discipline a judge. Paid suspension without notice is allowed for criminal custody without bond exceeding 14 days, law-license suspension or revocation, or court-declared incapacity.

Cemetery care trusts face payout limits

Endowed-care cemetery trust agreements cannot set a yearly percentage payout rate above 5%. Changing the rate requires an amendment, and principal payouts cannot exceed the agreement’s percentage-based amount. Income not distributed within 60 days after the trust’s fiscal year ends must be added to principal. Cemetery operators can request smaller payouts when the money is not needed.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Nick Schroer
Republican • Senate

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 28 • No: 0

House vote • 5/14/2025

Reported Do Pass

Yes: 7 • No: 0

House vote • 5/9/2025