Missouri Revised Statutes
Chapter 461 - Nonprobate Transfers Law
Section 461.065 - Transferring entity, protection.

Effective - 28 Aug 1995
461.065. Transferring entity, protection. — 1. The owner in making provision for a nonprobate transfer under sections 461.003 to 461.081 gives to the transferring entity the protections provided in this section for executing the owner's beneficiary designation.
2. The transferring entity may execute a nonprobate transfer with or without a written request.
3. The transferring entity may rely and act on:
(1) A certified or authenticated copy of a death certificate issued by an official or agency of the place where the death occurred as showing the fact, place, date, time of death and the identity of the decedent; or
(2) A certified or authenticated copy of any report or record of a governmental agency, domestic or foreign, that a person is missing, detained, dead or alive and the dates, circumstances and places disclosed by the record or report.
4. The transferring entity may rely and act on, and shall have no duty to verify, information in a written request made by a person specified in subdivision (14) of subsection 3 of section 461.062, under oath or affirmation, subscribed before a notary public or other person authorized to administer oaths, for execution of the beneficiary designation.
5. The transferring entity shall have no duty:
(1) To give notice to any person of the date, manner and persons to whom transfer will be made under the beneficiary designation, except as provided in subsection 6 of this section;
(2) To attempt to locate any beneficiary or lineal descendant substitute, or determine whether a nonsurviving beneficiary or descendant had lineal descendants who survived the owner;
(3) To locate a trustee or custodian, obtain appointment of a successor trustee or custodian, or discover the existence of a trust instrument or will that creates an express trust; or
(4) To determine any fact or law that would cause the beneficiary designation to be revoked in whole or in part as to any person because of change in marital status or other reason, or that would qualify or disqualify any person to receive a share under the nonprobate transfer, or that would vary the distribution provided in the beneficiary designation.
6. (1) The transferring entity shall have no duty to withhold making a transfer based on knowledge of any fact or claim adverse to the transfer to be made unless, prior to the transfer, the transferring entity has received written notice at a place and time and in a manner which affords a reasonable opportunity to act on it before the transfer is made, that:
(a) Asserts a claim of beneficial interest in the transfer adverse to the transfer to be made;
(b) Gives the name of the claimant and an address for communications directed to the claimant;
(c) Identifies the deceased owner and the property to which the claim applies; and
(d) States the amount and nature of the claim as it affects the transfer.
(2) If a notice as provided in subdivision (1) of this subsection is received by the transferring entity, the transferring entity may discharge any duty to the claimant by delivering a notice or sending a notice by certified mail to the claimant at the address given in the notice of claim advising that a transfer adverse to the claimant's asserted claim may be made in thirty days from the date of delivery or mailing unless the transfer is restrained by a court order. If the transferring entity so delivers or mails such a notice it shall withhold making the transfer for thirty days after the date of delivery or mailing and may then make the transfer unless restrained by a court order.
(3) No other notice or other information shown to have been available to the transferring entity, its transfer agent and their employees, shall affect the right to the protections provided in sections 461.003 to 461.081.
7. The transferring entity shall have no responsibility for the application or use of property transferred to a fiduciary which the fiduciary as such is entitled to receive.
8. Notwithstanding the protections provided the transferring entity in sections 461.003 to 461.081, in the event the transferring entity is uncertain as to the beneficiary entitled to receive a transfer or the beneficiary's proper share, or in the event of a dispute as to the proper transfer, the transferring entity may require the parties to adjudicate their respective rights or to furnish an indemnity bond protecting the transferring entity.
9. A transfer by the transferring entity in accordance with sections 461.003 to 461.081 and pursuant to the beneficiary designation in good faith and in reliance on information the transferring entity reasonably believes to be accurate, discharges the transferring entity from all claims for the amounts paid and the property transferred.
10. The protections provided a transferring entity in sections 461.003 to 461.081 are in addition to protections provided by chapters 400, 403, 404 and 456.
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(L. 1989 H.B. 145 § 38, A.L. 1995 S.B. 116)