Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina

I don't fully understand how you were "pressured." Unless someoneheld a gun to your head or the equivalent, a duress argument really is not going to work in my opinion. When presented with the agreement, you could and should have hired your own attorney to explain this to you and discuss the pros and cons of signing.

The fact that you signed and have remorse does not tell me or any other attorney very much. I don't know why you signed, I have not looked at the agreement, I don't know what assets and debts there were in the estate and I don't know why a family agreement was presented in the first case.

It may be that a will was filed and rather than subject the estate to a costly will caveat proceeding, that it was better to enter into some kind of family arrangement. If that is the case, it would be logical and while you don't like it, it still may have been the best course of action. But if there was a baseless challenge then maybe not. I don't know.

If this concerns you, then I would take the will, a copy of anything relevant from the court file (like a caveat), a copy of any correspondence between the personal representative and a copy of the family settlement agreement that was reached to an attorney and pay the attorney to review these documents for you. I will be happy to review the documents and render an opinion for a reasonable fee. Please contact me at [email protected] if interested.