Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: In Missouri, once the personal representative publishes notice to creditors, a creditor has 6 months to file a claim; and if notice is never published, the absolute deadline is 1 year from the date of death; and a creditor who is personally mailed notice gets 60 days.
What is the creditor-claim deadline in Missouri?
| Once notice to creditors is published | 6 months |
| If notice is never published (absolute deadline) | 1 year from the date of death |
| Creditor personally mailed notice | 60 days |
“[Claims] shall become unenforceable and shall be forever barred against the estate…one year following the date of the decedent’s death. Separately, claims which are not filed…within six months after the date of the first published notice of letters testamentary or of administration or, if notice was actually mailed to, or served upon, such creditor, within two months after the date such notice was mailed, or served, whichever later occurs…are forever barred.”
Source: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 473.444 (one-year outer bar); § 473.360 (notice-triggered deadlines)
What makes Missouri different
Missouri runs two independent nonclaim statutes in tandem: an absolute one-year bar from death that applies even if administration is never opened, layered with a shorter six-month/two-month notice-triggered bar.
Does this deadline apply the same way if the estate never opens probate?
These deadlines are creatures of the probate process itself; they run once an estate is opened (by publication, mailing, appointment, or the grant of letters, depending on Missouri’s own rule above). A creditor of a decedent whose estate never enters probate at all is not cut off by this particular statute, though the underlying debt’s own ordinary statute of limitations still applies.
Sources
| Statute | Mo. Rev. Stat. § 473.444 (one-year outer bar); § 473.360 (notice-triggered deadlines) |
| Missouri courts (general reference) | Missouri judicial branch |
| Missouri Secretary of State / legislature | Missouri state government |
| Confidence | High |
Every statute quoted on this page was read directly from the state’s own legislature/code site this session, or, where that site blocked automated access, from a reputable legal-citation mirror quoting the same official text with its official citation (disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; the exact deadline in a given estate can turn on facts (whether a personal representative was appointed, whether notice was ever published or mailed) that only your own probate court file can confirm.