How to Update Beneficiaries After Divorce in Missouri

Missouri law automatically revokes your ex-spouse from your will, revocable trust, and state-regulated accounts the moment your dissolution is final. That sounds reassuring — until you learn about the federal exception that overrides everything.

Under ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act), your employer-sponsored 401(k), 403(b), pension, and group life insurance completely ignore Missouri's revocation statutes. The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed this in Egelhoff v. Egelhoff and Kennedy v. Plan Administrator for DuPont: the plan administrator must pay whoever is named on the beneficiary form on file, regardless of what your divorce decree says.

If you die without updating those forms, your ex-spouse legally collects.

What Missouri Law Automatically Revokes

Under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 474.420, all will provisions naming your former spouse are revoked — they're treated as if they predeceased you. Under § 456.1-112, the same applies to revocable trusts: beneficial terms and fiduciary appointments in favor of an ex-spouse are automatically revoked. Under § 461.051, beneficiary designations on transfer-on-death deeds, payable-on-death bank accounts, and privately-owned life insurance policies are also revoked upon divorce.

These automatic protections are real, but they have a hard boundary: they only apply to assets regulated by Missouri state law.

What Missouri Law Cannot Touch

Employer-sponsored retirement accounts and group life insurance policies are governed by federal ERISA rules, which preempt state law. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed this in Estate of Merritt ex rel. Merritt v. Wachter (2014). If you had your ex listed as the beneficiary on your work 401(k) before the divorce and never filed a new designation form, the plan administrator is legally required to pay your ex — even if your divorce decree explicitly waives their rights to the account.

This isn't a technicality. It's the single most costly post-divorce oversight people make.

The Complete Beneficiary Update Checklist

Employer-Sponsored Accounts (ERISA-Governed — manual update required):

• 401(k) and 403(b) accounts: request a new beneficiary designation form from your plan administrator
• Employer pension or defined benefit plan
• Employer-provided group life insurance
• Employer-provided accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance

State-Regulated Accounts (auto-revoked, but update anyway):

• Individual life insurance policies: contact your insurance company
• IRAs and Roth IRAs: contact your brokerage or custodian
• Payable-on-death (POD) bank accounts
• Transfer-on-death (TOD) investment accounts
• Transfer-on-death deeds for real property

Estate Planning Documents (draft new versions):

• Last will and testament — even though Missouri auto-revokes provisions for an ex-spouse, a new will naming your actual intended beneficiaries prevents any ambiguity
• Revocable living trust — amend to remove ex-spouse as beneficiary, trustee, and successor trustee
• Durable power of attorney — revoke any existing POA naming your ex-spouse and execute a new one
• Healthcare proxy and living will — designate a new healthcare decision-maker

The Order That Matters

Start with ERISA accounts — they carry the highest financial risk and zero automatic protection. Contact each plan administrator, request their specific beneficiary designation form, complete it with your new beneficiary, and submit it. Keep confirmation copies.

Then update your estate planning documents with an attorney or through a self-drafting service. Finally, confirm that your state-regulated accounts reflect the correct beneficiaries, even though Missouri's automatic revocation should have already handled them.

The Missouri After-Divorce Checklist includes a beneficiary designation tracker that lists every account type with space to record confirmation dates, so nothing falls through the cracks.

See more Missouri guides →