What is a will contest?
A will contest is a legal proceeding in which an individual’s will is questioned for validity. Individuals who may contest a will are those named on the will’s face as well as those who will inherit if the will is invalid. Validity is measured by whether the will reflects the actual intentions of the testator, the creator of the will. In other words, the court checks if there were any unfair factors affecting the deceased when he or she wrote the will. These factors may include:
- Undue Influence – coercion may take many forms. If the testator was pressured by a family member or anyone else to include him or her in the will but exclude others, the testator was coerced and did not make the will freely. Therefore, the will may be invalid.
- Mental Incapacity – For adults, capacity to make a will is assumed. However, for adults suffering from dementia, insanity, or senility, competency to make a will may need to be proven. For a will to be valid, the testator must, at the moment of signing the will, have been aware of: (a) how much his or her property was worth and the type of property he or she owned; (b) the persons who would normally inherit assets; and (c) the way in which the will would distribute his or her assets.
- Insane Delusion – A will may be invalid if the testator was suffering under a false reality when he or she signed the will.
- Insufficient Execution – A will may be invalid if it was not signed in the way state law requires.
- Fraud / Mistake – A will may be invalid if the testator either misunderstood or was deliberately deceived into believing the will accomplished a different objective than what it actually did.