There are many valid reasons to contest a will and it shouldn’t just be assumed that a legal challenge is being issued because someone is mad about their inheritance. Older people can be taken advantage of, so if you think that their lack of capacity or the undue influence of another individual in their life caused them to write a will that just doesn’t make sense, it makes sense to address that. Our Washtenaw County estate litigation attorneys can tell you more about how this would work.
What is Lack of Capacity?
A lack of capacity means that the person writing a will or making the estate plan doesn’t really understand what they are doing. This could be due to a disease, like dementia, or simply old age. Whatever the reason is, a person should not be writing or editing such testamentary documents when they do not understand what they are doing.
If you are going to write a will, you should understand a few things:
- The value and extent of your estate
- Who your heirs, beneficiaries, and dependents are
- What kinds of assets they are distributing through their will
If someone has any kind of confusion about any of these matters, they lack the capacity to make their estate planning decisions.
How Can Undue Influence and Lack of Capacity Affect Someone’s Will?
Your loved one’s lack of capacity can easily be taken advantage of by someone else. If someone gains the trust of your loved one and encourages them to change their will, you could say that they are exercising undue influence over them.
Unfortunately, this can be a big issue. People see a chance to take advantage and secure an estate’s assets for themselves. If you suspect that someone has taken advantage of your loved one, you absolutely should contest their will.
What Kind of Evidence Can Help Me Contest a Will?
It can be hard to prove that someone’s will should be invalidated. Much of the evidence is circumstantial, but there are still some ways to sow doubt on the validity of your deceased loved one’s will. You can use:
- Medical records of your loved one that indicate that they could have lacked capacity to understand what they were doing at the time the will was written or edited
- Past copies of the will that spread assets around more evenly
- Evidence that the primary beneficiary of the will held some kind of power over the testator
If you can show that the terms of the will are suspicious or that your loved one was not in the right state of mind to be making estate plans, the document could be invalidated by the court.
Schedule a Consultation
So if you suspect that something is odd about a loved one’s will, don’t just brush off that feeling. Contact Collis, Griffor & Hendra to schedule a consultation. We can get right to work helping you challenge any testamentary documents that look suspicious.
