Posts Tagged Avoid Challenges to Wills

Sentimental Assets and Your Will: Understanding When Someone Can Challenge Your Wishes

Sentimental Assets and Your Will: Understanding When Someone Can Challenge Your Wishes

Emotions can run high after a loved one dies, particularly if your family’s assets include items with sentimental value, and the last thing you want is for your family to start fighting after you pass away. Defuse Conflict Over Sentimental Items Before You Pass Away How can you prevent your heirs from fighting over items with sentimental value? Many people believe that a statement in a will or trust that basically says “tangible personal property should be divided as my heirs see fit” will solve the problem. However, this can lead to a host of potential conflicts. A better approach is to put specific items that you believe are of interest to certain family members in writing, and then discuss your decisions in advance with your family. In this way, many emotionally charged disputes can be avoided. What if you are convinced that a former spouse, one of your children,

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How to Avoid Challenges to Wills and Trusts, Continued

How to Avoid Challenges to Wills and Trusts, Continued

Here are several additional ways to prevent disputes over your estate. Consider putting a no contest clause in your will. If you suspect that one of your children, or his or her spouse, might make trouble over your will, a no contest clause can help avoid potential problems. In essence, this clause makes the risk of challenging your will outweigh the potential benefit of doing so. A no contest clause typically stipulates that if a beneficiary contests the will’s validity or its provisions, his or interest in the will is forfeited. Of course, you have to leave the heir in question enough of an inheritance to motivate him or her not to challenge the will. Prove that you are of sound mind. This might sound “crazy,” but it’s not. Challenges to wills often involve allegations that the maker of the will (the testator) was not of sound mind when the

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