A Missouri couple who had been married for 47 years divided their nearly $895,000 joint trust equally in September 2021, after the husband promised that his separate $505,000 retirement account would cover his wife’s extraordinary medical expenses if he died first. A subsequent legal battle over the unwritten promise reached the Missouri Court of Appeals, which on November 10, 2026, upheld a court-created medical trust funded with $505,000 from the husband’s estate. But when he was killed in a car accident barely two months later, the widow discovered that she was not named as a beneficiary of the account. In its ruling in ‘In the Matter of Ray Bergfeld, Deceased’ (ED113884), the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s decision to protect Mary Alice Bergfeld’s access to money for major and traumatic medical expenses, while rejecting her request for broader access to the retirement funds.
However, they also established a joint trust in 2006 to provide financial security for both spouses during their lifetimes. By September 1, 2021, the trust held $894,638.75 in a Morgan Stanley account. He initially proposed that he receive 60% and Mary Alice 40%, but she rejected the arrangement. As part of the agreement, Buzz told his wife that if he died first, his son Bob would manage his approximately $505,000 IRA and use it to pay for her extraordinary medical expenses. Unknown to Mary Alice, Buzz had begun consulting an attorney in April 2021 about dividing the joint trust. On November 22, 2021, Buzz died in a car accident. The Missouri Court of Appeals ultimately affirmed the lower court’s judgment, preserving the $505,000 medical trust for Mary Alice while ensuring that any remaining funds after her death would pass to Buzz’s children.
The judgment noted that Buzz asked his attorney to send legal bills to his daughter Mona’s home rather than the marital residence so that Mary Alice would not know he had hired legal counsel.
Mary Alice and Ray “Buzz” Bergfeld had been married for 47 years and had children from previous marriages. When Mary Alice subsequently asked his son Bob about the IRA, she was told she was not listed as its beneficiary. They maintained separate individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and revocable living trusts to ensure their respective estates would eventually pass to their own children. Buzz wanted to divide the money so he could pass his share to his children while he was still alive. After several rounds of negotiations, he eventually offered an equal division. Any money left in the account after her death would go to his children. His financial adviser had referred him to the lawyer, and some of Buzz’s children attended meetings. He also took his wife’s individual estate-planning documents from a safety deposit box without her knowledge and gave them to his attorney. She later filed a lawsuit against her husband’s estate, alleging fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation over the promise concerning the retirement account.