Challenging a Will

While it is rather rare, contesting a will happens and usually in court. Sometimes, they are tossed out for the right reasons. Will challenges tend to be unusual, with approximately 99% going off without a hitch, but there are reasons for why a will challenge my be necessary, and where it may actually be approved in the courts. There are a number of reasons for why a legal challenge may be necessary, including:

Fraud / Undue Influence

The court may also declare that a will is invalid if it was determined that the will was procured through forgery, fraud or undue influence. This will usually involve a position of trust being occupied by someone with evil intentions, like a caregiver or an adult child manipulating a vulnerable will maker into leaving all or most of the property to the manipulator.

Mental State

The maker of the will must have also been of sound mind when the will was put together in addition to filling out all the living will forms. While this is not a rigorous requirement, what it does mean is that he or she should have known what a will does, and that he or she was making one as well as who he or she would be expected to provide for, understood that was owed, and was also able to determine how to best distribute property accordingly.

Age

The maker of the will must have been 18 years or older to legally create a will, or if not already 18 years of age, he or she must have been living in a state that allows under aged individuals to create wills, provided that they are married, in the military or otherwise legally emancipated.

Contents of the Will

What contents are necessary to make a document into a valid and legal will? Each and every state has its own unique rules about what a will needs to contain at the bare minimum, though most require the following:

• The document must expressly state that it is a will and who it belongs to;
• The document must include at least one substantive provision, like a clause leaving property to someone, or appointing a guardian for a child;
• The document must also appoint an executor, which is a personal representative that is responsible for carrying out the terms of the will.

Witnesses

Typed or wills written on computers must be dated and signed in the presence of two adult witnesses, or three if you are living in Vermont. In most states, the witnesses cannot be anyone who is named to inherit something out of the will. Handwritten wills without witnesses are valid in about half of the fifty states, though they must be written and signed completely in the handwriting of whoever is making the will. These wills are more easy to challenge because there are no witnesses.