Chapter 41, Chapter 41

Every person not prohibited by the following section may, by will, dispose of any estate to which he shall be entitled at his death, and which, if not so disposed of, would devolve upon his heirs, personal representative, or next of kin. The power hereby given shall extend to any…

The validity and effect of wills executed prior to the time this code becomes effective shall be determined by the laws of this state in force at the time of their execution. Every will re-executed, or republished, or revived by any codicil, shall, for the purposes of this chapte…

No person of unsound mind, or under the age of eighteen years, shall be capable of making a will.

No will shall be valid unless it be in writing and signed by the testator, or by some other person in his presence and by his direction, in such manner as to make it manifest that the name is intended as a signature; and moreover, unless it be wholly in the handwriting of the tes…

No appointment made by will, in the exercise of any power, shall be valid unless the same be so executed that it would be valid for the disposition of the property to which the power applies, if it belonged to the testator; and every will so executed shall be a valid execution of…

Notwithstanding the two preceding sections, a soldier being in actual military service, or a mariner or seaman being at sea, may dispose of his personal estate as he might heretofore have done; and the will of a person domiciled out of this state at the time of his death shall be…

(a) If after executing a will the testator is divorced or his marriage annulled, the divorce or annulment revokes any disposition or appointment of property made by the will to the former spouse, any provision conferring a general or special power of appointment on the former spo…

No will or codicil, or any part thereof, shall be revoked, unless under the preceding section, or by a subsequent will or codicil, or by some writing declaring an intention to revoke the same, and executed in the manner in which a will is required to be executed, or by the testat…

No will or codicil, or any part thereof, which shall be in any manner revoked, shall, after being revoked, be revived otherwise than by the re-execution thereof, or by a codicil executed in the manner hereinbefore required, and then only to the extent to which an intention to re-…

No conveyance or other act subsequent to the execution of a will shall, unless it be an act by which the will is revoked as aforesaid, prevent its operation with respect to such interest in the estate comprised in the will as the testator may have power to dispose of by will at t…

If a will be attested by a person to whom, or to whose wife or husband, any beneficial interest in any estate is thereby devised or bequeathed, if the will may not be otherwise proved such person shall be deemed a competent witness; but such devise or bequest shall be void, excep…

If a will charging any estate with debts be attested by a creditor, or the wife or husband of a creditor, whose debt is so charged, such creditor shall, notwithstanding, be admitted a witness for or against the will.

No person shall, on account of his being executor of a will, be incompetent as a witness for or against the will.

A will shall be construed, with reference to the estate comprised in it, to speak and take effect as if it had been executed immediately before the death of the testator, unless a contrary intention shall appear by the will.

Sections eight through eleven of this article shall be applied and construed to effectuate its general purpose to make uniform the law with respect to the subject of this legislation among states enacting it.

Sections eight through eleven of this article may be cited as the "Uniform Testamentary Additions to Trusts-Uniform Act (1991)".

A provision for or advancement to any person shall be deemed a satisfaction in whole or in part of a devise or bequest to such person, contained in a previous will, if it would be so deemed in case the devisee or legatee were the child of the testator; and whether he be a child o…

If a devisee or legatee die before the testator, or be dead at the time of making of the will, leaving issue who survive the testator, such issue shall take the estate devised or bequeathed, as the devisee or legatee would have done if he had survived the testator, unless a diffe…

Unless a contrary intention shall appear by the will, such real or personal estate, or interest therein, as shall be comprised in any devise or bequest in such will, which devise or bequest shall fail or be void, or be otherwise incapable of taking effect, shall, if the estate be…

A devise of the land of the testator, or of the land of the testator in any place, or in the occupation of any person mentioned in his will, or otherwise described in a general manner, and any other general devise which would describe a leasehold estate, if the testator had no fr…

A devise or bequest shall extend to any real or personal estate which the testator has power to appoint as he may think proper, and to which it would apply if the estate were his own property, and shall be construed to operate as an exercise of such power with respect to such pro…

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, and notwithstanding there is no other ground of equity jurisdiction, courts possessing general equity powers shall have and take jurisdiction of a suit to construe an ambiguous will at the suit of the executor, or administrator with the…

(a) A will may validly devise or bequeath property to the trustee of a trust established or to be established: (i) during the testator's lifetime by the testator, by the testator and some other person, or by some other person including a funded or unfunded life insurance trust, a…

Sections eight, nine, ten and eleven of this article apply to a will of a testator who dies after the effective date of this legislation.

If any person die leaving a child, or his wife with child, which shall be born alive, and leaving a will made when such person had no child living, wherein any child he might have is not provided for or mentioned, such child, or any descendant of his shall succeed to such portion…

If a will be made when a testator has a child living, and a child be born afterwards, such after-born child or any descendant of his if not provided for by any settlement, and neither provided for nor expressly excluded by the will, but only pretermitted, shall succeed to such po…

A person having custody of a will shall, within thirty days after the death of the testator is known to him deliver such will to the clerk of the county court having jurisdiction of the probate thereof, or to the executor named in the will, who shall offer it for probate, or deli…

At, or at any time after, the production of a will, any person may move the county court having jurisdiction, or the clerk thereof in the vacation of the court, for the probate of such will, and the court or the clerk thereof, as the case may be, may, without notice to any party,…

After a judgment or order entered as aforesaid in a proceeding for probate ex parte, any person interested who was not a party to the proceeding, or any person who was not a party to a proceeding for probate in solemn form, may proceed by complaint to impeach or establish the wil…

Notwithstanding the two preceding sections, any person interested who, at the time of the judgment or order is under the age of eighteen years, or is a convict or a mentally incapacitated person, may file a complaint to impeach or establish the will, within one year after he beco…

(a) Where a will relative to any personalty or real estate located or situate within this state has been proved or probated outside of this state by another state or jurisdiction within the United States of America, an authenticated copy thereof and the certificate of probate the…

The deposition of an attesting witness or other person may be read on the hearing of any proceeding to probate a will, when under the facts and circumstances the deposition of the witness would have been admissible on the trial of an action at law in the circuit court. In any pro…

Any or all of the attesting witnesses to any will, at the request of the testator, may make and subscribe an affidavit before any officer authorized to administer oaths, in or out of the state, stating such facts as would be required of them in testimony in court to establish and…

For the trial of any appeal under the provisions of sections seven and ten of this article, or for the trial of any issues to be submitted to a jury under the provisions of sections eight and eleven of this article, if good cause therefor be shown, and there be no unreasonable de…

Every will or authenticated copy of a will, when admitted to probate under the provisions of this article, shall be recorded by the clerk of the county court, and indexed by him in a general index of wills, and every such will or copy when recorded shall remain in his office exce…

A duly certified copy of such will when probated, or of an authenticated copy of a foreign will admitted to record as a will of real estate, may be recorded in any other county of the state wherein there is any real estate devised by such will. It is the duty of the personal repr…

The title of a bona fide purchaser without notice and for valuable consideration from the heir or heirs at law of a person who has died heretofore, or who may die hereafter, having title to any real estate of inheritance in this state, shall not be affected by a devise of such re…

Upon delivery of a will unto him as provided in the next preceding section, the clerk shall notify by mail or otherwise the executor and the beneficiaries named in the will, of such delivery, and shall keep the same safe in his office until proceedings may be had for the probate …

The title of a bona fide purchaser of real estate, without notice and for valuable consideration, from the devisee or devisees of a testator, a will of whom has been duly admitted to probate devising such real estate, shall not be affected or impaired by any devise or other dispo…

A county court having jurisdiction to probate a will, or the clerk thereof in the vacation of the court, upon being informed that any person has in his custody the will of a decedent, shall summon him and by proper process compel him to produce the same. Upon the production of th…

The county court shall have jurisdiction of the probate of wills according to the following rules: (a) In the county wherein the testator, at the time of his death, had a mansion house or known place of residence; or (b) If he had no such house or place of residence, then in the …

The county court, sitting in a regular or special session, shall hear and determine all proceedings to admit a will to probate in solemn form. Upon or at any time after the production of a will, any person may offer the will for probate in solemn form by filing in the county cour…

If no contest be made, the court may, on the return day of the summons on the petition, and, if contest be made, on the return day of the process upon notice of contest, or at any day thereafter fixed by the court, proceed to hear and determine the question of probate, and enter …

Any person feeling himself aggrieved by any order or judgment of the county commission admitting or refusing to admit any will to probate may, within three months, or, if such a person be under any disability within three months after such disability ceases, file his petition in …

If there be more than one testamentary paper in question in any such proceeding, the circuit court shall order them all to be produced. The circuit court shall order a trial by jury, if demanded by any person interested, to ascertain whether the will in question, or if there be m…

Every such order or judgment of a county court not appealed from in proceedings for probate in solemn form, or in an ex parte proceeding which has been converted into a proceeding in solemn form by a contest therein, and every such order or judgment of a circuit court on appeal, …