Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Minnesota
Will Contest - Need Advice on whether to challenge uncle's will.
My bachelor uncle recently died (age
84) - no spouse or children. A prior
will indicated his estate should be
equally divided between his eight
brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, all
these brothers/sisters are deceased.
There are ten surviving nieces and
nephews who likely would have shared
in the distribution of his estate. While
on his deathbed (highly medicated and
occassionally delusional) an attorney
niece drafted a new will naming herself,
three of her brothers, and an additional
nephew sole beneficiaries of the estate.
The will is signed by my uncle eight
days prior to his death and witnessed
by two nephews who are also named
beneficiaries in the new will. Five
nieces/nephews are left out, including
myself. I�m concerned about (1) ethical
issues surrounding my cousin drafting a
will where she in named as a beneficiary
(as well as executrix), (2) whether the
five �left out� cousins have a strong
case to show �undue influence� and (3)
how difficult it would be to show mental
competency of our uncle in executing
this will. We are loath to contest the
will unless there is a good probability of
succeeding. Any ideas on what we
should do?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Will Contest - Need Advice on whether to challenge uncle's will.
Thank you for the post.
You may certainly challenge the will claiming, among other things, that undue influence was used and/or that the testator was not competent to understand the document. It may also be challenged based on the fact that interested parties were the only witnesses to the signing.
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Re: Will Contest - Need Advice on whether to challenge uncle's will.
You have just stated a classic case where a will contest should succeed. Your question could be used on a law school exam. Winning isn't everything, however. Such things tear families apart and cost a great deal of money.
You didn't say anything about how much money was involved, or about who was closer or closest to this poor man in his final days. If someone can explain a reason why he may have wanted to do it this way, the new will might be hard to beat.
The attorney ethics literature is filled with commentary about how ugly and unsavory it is to name yourself in a will. An ethics complaint would at the least make this attorney uncomfortable, but getting her disciplined does not mean that the will itself is invalid.
Seek legal advice face to face with a competent lawyer to explore this further.
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