3 Ways to Prevent Will Contests

 Posted on January 08, 2025 in Estate Planning and Probate

If you are taking the time to create a will, you should be able to feel confident that your instructions will be followed. You have likely put a lot of thought into who you would want to take some of your belongings and who you want to leave money to. While will contests are somewhat rare, they do happen. There are steps you, as a testator, can take to reduce the chances that someone will challenge your will in court when you are no longer here to speak on your own behalf. Your intended beneficiaries might be at greater risk of going through a will contest if there is a lot of conflict among your family members if you have left nothing to someone who would naturally inherit from you if you did not have a will, or if you have particularly valuable assets. An experienced Comal County, TX estate planning attorney can help you strategize to prevent will contests before they happen.

Using Trusts to Prevent Challenges

Trusts are much less likely to be contested than wills. While wills become publicly available as soon as they are submitted to probate, trusts can be kept private from everyone except your trustees and beneficiaries. This makes it harder for someone you did not name as a beneficiary to raise a legal challenge. Anyone who would naturally inherit from you may have standing to challenge your will but not your trust.

Penalizing Challengers in Your Will 

You can include a clause in your will stating that if anyone files a will contest, he or she cannot inherit anything from you. The problem with this strategy is that it does mean you would have to leave some amount of money to the person you are afraid will file a contest. It does not need to be much - just enough to disincentivize the person from jeopardizing his inheritance by filing a contest.

Explaining Any Disinherited Relatives 

If your main concern is that one of your adult children will file a contest because you have disinherited him, leaving a letter explaining the disinheritance can help. If there is no proof that you deliberately chose to disinherit one adult child of your own free will, he may try to argue that his siblings or others had an undue influence on your decision-making. Leaving a letter plainly stating why you excluded this individual can protect your other beneficiaries.

Contact a Comal County, TX Wills Attorney

Geoff Mayfield, Attorney at Law has the experience needed to help you create a strong and enforceable estate plan. Skilled San Antonio, TX estate planning lawyer Geoff Mayfield can help you strategize to avoid an estate contest. Contact us at 210-535-0870 for a complimentary consultation.