Your parent’s will arrives, and you just don’t like the terms. Maybe you thought that you’d get a specific asset or maybe you thought more money would go your way. You have been looking forward to it, and now you’re disappointed. Can you challenge the will?
You may be able to, but remember that you can’t do it just because you don’t like it. Your parent was not obligated to write a will that you would like. In fact, they can even leave you out of the will entirely if they want. You may feel angry or frustrated about this, but that’s not enough for a challenge on its own.
That said, your displeasure with the will may lead you to ask why it doesn’t give you what you expected. That line of thinking could expose actual legal grounds of a challenge, such as:
- Claiming that your parent did not have the mental capacity to write the will
- Claiming that someone else engaged in undue influence to trick your parent into writing a will they wouldn’t have normally written
- Claiming that the will did not follow the law, and therefore, shouldn’t stand
- Claiming that the will is a fake or was created/signed due to fraud
These are major reasons why you can challenge a will. It’s not just that you do not like what the will says. Something more happened to create such a surprising and dissatisfying estate plan.
If you do decide to challenge for any of the reasons listed above, make sure you know what legal options you have.