Maumee Probate Litigation Blog

There are many valid reasons why an heir or family member may need to bring a challenge to a will or estate plan. Maybe you suspect that the executor or trustee is violating their duty for personal profit. Perhaps there is evidence that there was undue influence on your loved one before changes were made to the will.

It's also possible that the most recent version of the will resulted from decisions made during a period of diminished capacity for the testator. As a beneficiary or heir, you have the legal right in the state of Ohio to bring a challenge against either the estate plan itself or the executor. However, there are potentially consequences to bringing a challenge.

Your parents made an estate plan and it very clearly laid out what should be done with their financial assets. Bank accounts got divided. Investment portfolios got cashed out and split up. Real estate got sold so that you could split the money perfectly. If your parents' estate was worth $1.5 million, you and your two siblings both got just about $500,000.

After all, your parents knew that leaving you an unequal bequest could start an estate dispute. Children want things to be fair and equal. Your parents prioritized that and planned for it.

There are several reasons for challenging a will. While the majority will pass through probate with no issues, around 1 percent of all wills will be contested. The problem with contesting a will is that the person who wrote the will is no longer alive. This makes it very hard for the courts to determine what their wishes would have been.

Courts usually stick closely to what the will says, but there are exceptions to every rule. For instance, if you can show that the will was recently changed before death, then there may be a reason to contest the will and good grounds to do so.Usually, successful challengers are spouses. The most successful grounds show that the person who wrote the will lacked testamentary capacity or was unduly influenced.

You loved your parents very much, and when they passed away, you knew you'd be left with many of the assets they owned. What happened next was nothing you could have ever expected. Instead of receiving information about assets that would be distributed to you, you found that many of the assets were being given to the family's newest friend.

That friend was not someone you were comfortable with, and he got a little too close to your parents for comfort. You felt like there was something off with him, and now you think that he manipulated your parents into changing the will and estate plan. Due to undue influence and the fact that your parents struggled with dementia and the inability to make sound decisions, you want to challenge the changes to the estate. Can you?