Your parents may have not included you in their will. Is there anything you can do to challenge it? There must be something you can do. If you are a person who would benefit from the will then you may have an opportunity to challenge it, according to basic probate laws. The laws are different in every state. The Probate Code says those people who are considered to be “interested persons” in the will can contest it. It can be spouses, children, even creditors or others who have rights to the estate.
Steps to challenging a will
There must be specific reasons you would have to prove in order to challenge the will successfully. They include:
- The will was not signed and witnessed properly. The will must have at least two adult witnesses, dated and signed by the testator (the one creating the will). The witnesses cannot be people who will benefit from the will.
- You could say that the testator was manipulated by someone else. They had what is called undue influence on the testator to leave them property or items in the will.
- You could challenge your parent’s testamentary capacity. This is the legal term used to describe a person’s legal and mental ability to write a will. It is also called being of sound mind and memory and your parents did not have that. You could say that your parents did not have the mental capacity to understand what they were writing in their will.
- You could say that the will was created by fraud. If the testator was tricked into signing the will by someone, then that may be considered fraud.
If you are considering challenging your parents will, it is good to have the essential information to move forward.