What Evidence Is Needed To Challenge A Will Or Estate Plan?

If an estate plan is drafted properly, and with enough advanced notice, in an ideal world, there is no reason to challenge an estate in probate court. But inheritances bring up personal issues and it is often the case that people do challenge someone’s will or larger estate plan.

What are the Allegations?

When they do, they usually do so, alleging that someone was either not mentally fit to make or amend an estate plan—that is, the deceased was mentally incompetent—or else, that the deceased was a victim of pressure and coercion of such an extreme that the estate plan is not really a product of the deceased’s free will.

The Most Important Person Isn’t There

Challenging an estate plan can be difficult, primarily because the person who made it, and the only person who can really say what he or she was thinking, and whether he or she was competent, is no longer there. That leaves those challenging the estate plan to rely on extremal and circumstantial evidence, to prove their case.

Medical Records

Proving that someone who made an estate plan was incompetent or was under duress or coercion starts with a gathering of the deceased’s medical records, for examination of mental illness or incapacitation. Unfortunately, many people don’t take mental competency exams as a matter of course, but it is possible, if the deceased suffered from dementia or some other form of degenerative brain disease, that tests were taken, and medical records document mental decline.

Witnesses

Whether cognitive decline equals incapacity however, is a much harder thing to determine. Often, this requires evidence provided from those who interacted with the deceased. Anybody who spent significant time conversing with the deceased, or even better, helping the deceased manage his or her affairs, is a good witness.

Financial Records

Financial records also can assist, in two ways. The first way is that if the records show erratic behavior, or erratic spending, or simply being ignored (such as bills that are normally paid, not being paid), this can be indicative of incompetency.

Financial records can also show evidence of coercion; if an aid or an advisor seems to be getting payments or transfers of funds towards the end of the deceased’s life, it may show that someone was exerting too much influence over the deceased.

Likewise, if contracts accounts, or other important documents, are signed by someone other than the deceased, like an aid, confidante, or friend, it may also show that person was exerting too much influence.

Isolation

Being kept separate or isolated from loved ones, or others that the deceased used to rely on, can also be evidence of coercion or undue influence, as can quickly executed documents, which don’t have any logical reason for having been executed by the deceased.

A good estate plan can avoid or deter a challenge in court later on. Call the Torrance probate will and estate attorneys at Samuel Ford Law today.

Source:

metlife.com/stories/legal/contesting-a-will/