If you’re worried about your will or other aspects of your estate plan being challenged, then you should be proactive in heading off those arguments. Figuring out how to do that can be difficult, but with a little foresight and legal know-how you can better protect the integrity of your estate plan. So, let’s look at some ways that you may be able to defend against a will challenge or a challenge to some other aspect of your estate plan.
How to protect your estate plan from a challenge
Many estate plans are challenged based on an alleged lack of testamentary capacity, meaning that the individual who created the estate plan didn’t have the proper mental ability to understand the nature and extent of their estate and how their estate plan disposed of their assets. To avoid a successful testamentary capacity challenge, you may want to do the following:
- Give gifts to those you expect to challenge your estate, as acceptance of those gifts may be viewed as an acknowledgement of proper mental capacity.
- Use a letter of instruction to justify why your estate plan is disposing of assets in the way that it is.
- Visit your doctor shortly before executing estate plan documentation so that you have a medical opinion on your mental clarity in the days leading up to the execution of your estate plan.
- Have plenty of witnesses present when you execute your estate plan so that they can attest to your mental well-being at that time.
Act now to protect your estate planning interests
If your estate plan is successfully challenged, then your loved ones and your estate can face an uncertain future that doesn’t align with your wishes. You don’t want that to happen, which is why now is the time to figure out the best way to create your estate plan in a way that fully protects your interests.
