2019 Missouri Revised Statutes
Title XXXI - Trusts and Estates of Decedents and Persons Under Disability
Chapter 473 - Probate Code — Administration of Decedents' Estates
Section 473.620 Order in which assets are appropriated — abatement.

Effective 28 Aug 1955

473.620. Order in which assets are appropriated — abatement. — 1. When it is necessary that there be an abatement of the shares of the distributees, they shall, subject to the provisions of the will, abate, without any preference or priority as between real and personal property, in the following order:

(1) Property not disposed of by the will;

(2) Residuary devises;

(3) General legacies;

(4) Specific devises.

­­A general legacy charged on any specific property or fund for the purposes of this section is deemed property specifically devised to the extent of the value of the thing on which it is charged. Upon the failure or insufficiency of the thing on which it is charged, it is deemed a general legacy to the extent of such failure or insufficiency.

2. Subject to the provisions of the will, and to section 473.623, devises of the same class shall abate proportionately.

3. If the provisions of the will or the testamentary plan or the express or implied purpose of the devise would be defeated by the order of appropriation and application prescribed by subsection 1 hereof, the property of the testator shall be apportioned in the manner found necessary to give effect to the intention of the testator.

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(L. 1955 p. 385 § 218)

(1984) In determining how the surviving spouse's election to take against the will affects the distribution of the rest of the estate when the testator has not specified what is to happen, the court held that the legislature did not intend for the abatement statute to apply to an election to take against the will. Wilkinson v. Brune (Mo. App. E.D.), 682 S.W.2d 107.