When your loved one passed away, you began to gather all the documents you knew you needed from his home. There, you found the documents in a new location; it wasn’t where you’d left them when you were appointed to take care of the estate by your family member. You were surprised when you found that many of the documents were missing or not written the way you remembered.
Now, you’re worried, because someone else is named as the executor of the estate. How could this happen? Your loved one wanted you to take care of his wishes and told you so directly. Your copies of the documents even say so, but changes have been made.
Can you challenge the will?
In your case, challenging the will might be a good idea. Undue influence, which could mean an influence that results in a person changing a will for another person’s personal gain, could make the new documents void.
Manipulating an elderly person, for example, to have him or her change his or her will over into an orderly’s name would be one type of undue influence. A sibling pretending to be another in order to have his mom or dad change the will to his benefit may also be found to be undue influence with the right evidence.
How can you contest a will?
You’ll want to talk to your attorney quickly, so you can begin to challenge the will before any of the assets change hands. You should have information proving that your loved one had no testamentary capacity to make the latest set of changes on his own.
Source: FindLaw, “Reasons to Challenge a Will,” accessed Sep. 01, 2017
