The decedent’s intent to make specific dispositions prevents apportionment

The decedent’s will poured her entire estate into her lifetime trust from which large specific gifts were to be made to the nominated successor trustee, and to his descendants if he should not survive, cash legacies given to two charities, and the remainder divided between two other charities. In Shriners Hosp. for Children v. Schaper, 215 S.W.3d 185 (Mo. Ct. App. 2007), the court reversed the lower court’s order equitably apportioning estate taxes among the trust beneficiaries, the default result under Missouri decisional law, and held that the will and trust read as a whole indicated that the decedent intended that the specific bequests not be reduced by estate taxes, thereby putting the burden of payment on the residue.