Lewis County Beneficiary Deed Form

This download supplies a Missouri beneficiary deed prepared under the Nonprobate Transfers Law of Missouri, Sections 461.025 and 461.031, RSMo. The deed conveys an owner's interest in real property to a named grantee beneficiary and expressly states that it is not to take effect until the death of the owner. Under Section 461.025 the interest passes to the beneficiary at the owner's death only if the deed has been executed and filed of record with the recorder of deeds in the city or county where the property is situated before the owner's death.

What the package contains

• Beneficiary Deed form – a fillable PDF with a one-page instructions cover page marked not for recording, followed by the four-page deed.
• Completed example – a filled-in version of the same form, with the same cover page, sections, and page footers, so each block of the blank can be compared with a finished entry.
• Guide – eight pages that set out the statutory framework, explain the form section by section with reference to the example's entries, and describe signing, notarization, recording, and what the deed does not do.

The three files are supplied in a single statewide version; there are no county-specific forms in the package.

How the deed operates

The transfer language is preprinted with no blanks. It states that, for no consideration, the owner conveys all of the owner's interest in the described property to the grantee beneficiary effective on the owner's death, that the deed is not to take effect until that death, and that the interest then passes by operation of law under Sections 461.025 and 461.031. A capitalized paragraph on the face of the deed restates the Section 461.025 condition that the deed transfers the interest only if executed and filed of record before the owner's death, and the guide states that an unrecorded beneficiary deed transfers nothing under that section. The deed is made without covenants of warranty, and the guide explains that it does not clear liens: the beneficiary takes the owner's interest subject to conveyances, liens, security interests, and other matters to which the owner was subject.

The guide also explains lifetime effect under Sections 461.031 and 461.033. During the owner's life the deed changes nothing: the beneficiary has no rights in the property, does not sign the deed, and the beneficiary's signature or agreement is not required for the owner to sell, mortgage, or lease it. The designation may be revoked or changed during the owner's lifetime; a later designation revokes an earlier one unless it provides otherwise, a will does not revoke it unless the designation expressly grants that right, and a lifetime transfer of the property terminates the designation. A revocation or change takes effect on the same terms as the designation itself, so it too operates only when recorded before death.

Owners the form receives

The deed carries one owner block for names, marital status, and mailing address, and two owner signature blocks, each with its own acknowledgment certificate. It receives one owner, or two owners of record, who are natural persons signing in their own right. It is not set up for an entity owner, a trustee owner, an attorney in fact signing for an owner, or three or more owners; the guide describes each of those as a different instrument with its own recitals and certificate. The form carries no signature line for a spouse who is not an owner of record; the guide describes, without applying them, the Missouri homestead and marital-rights statutes that bear on a married sole owner's transfer.

For joint owners as the chapter defines them – spouses holding as tenants by the entirety or co-owners holding as joint tenants with right of survivorship – the guide explains that the chapter postpones the transfer: at the first death the property belongs to the surviving joint owner, and the beneficiary takes at the death of the last surviving owner. A later revocation or change of a joint-owner designation requires the agreement of all owners then living. The guide notes that the chapter states no rule for two tenants in common who sign one deed.

Beneficiaries

The grantee beneficiary block is free-form with a mailing-address line. The guide explains the classes of beneficiary the chapter permits – one or more natural persons, a trust, or an entity – along with stated percentage or fractional shares, contingent-beneficiary wording, and the LDPS and no LDPS notations of Section 461.045. It also sets out the chapter default that surviving multiple beneficiaries share equally unless different shares are stated and hold as tenants in common unless the designation expressly provides for survivorship among them.

What the completed example shows

The example demonstrates a two-owner configuration: spouses naming two beneficiaries, each with the LDPS notation, in equal shares as tenants in common. Every block of the blank is completed – owner and beneficiary entries, county and legal description, street address and parcel number, both signature blocks, both acknowledgment certificates, and the return-to and prepared-by blocks – so the form can be read as it looks when finished.

Recording coverage in the guide

The guide treats recording before death as the effectiveness condition for this instrument, describes the statutory recording fees, and states the Section 59.310 first-page and format standards the form was built to. It also describes, rather than supplies, local variations: certificate-of-value filings published by the City of St. Louis, St. Louis County, and St. Charles County, where whether a beneficiary deed falls within a given ordinance depends on that ordinance and the recorder's intake practice, and the City of St. Louis's additional first-page items and all-parties-notarized intake practice.

Not included

A revocation of the deed or a change of beneficiary is a separate instrument, and the post-death affidavit used in Missouri recording practice to identify the deceased owner and the recorded deed is prepared separately; the chapter prescribes no form for it. The guide describes both, but neither is included in this package.

The form, completed example, and guide are general information about the supplied documents and are not legal advice.