Estate planning provides many benefits that may include reducing the costs of handling your estate upon death, providing for the transfer of your property to family, protection of assets from creditors and other positive consequences. However, one important benefit of careful estate planning that some people never think about is discouraging the conflict and animosity of family members or other loved ones contesting a will. These disputes can arise in any family and cause an enormous drain on the net wealth that took a lifetime to build while leaving deep-rooted hostility between loved one’s left behind. If a will is successfully contested, the disposition of your assets may conflict with your goals and intentions.
When our New Mexico Estate Planning Attorneys at Jay Goodman and Associates develop an asset succession plan for our clients and draft the documents to carry out our client’s intentions, we consider strategies for preventing the damaging impact of a contested probate proceeding. We have provided some strategies for preventing a will contest:
Lack of Capacity:
The most common legal basis for challenging a will or trust is that the person who prepared the document lacked the mental capacity to draft an enforceable last will and testament or trust. The best way to preempt such a challenge if you are of advanced age or have had medical issues is to have a mental health professional and/or doctor evaluate your medical condition immediately prior to drafting and executing a will.
Professional Trustee:
While it may be tempting to appoint a family member as your executor or trustee, the selection of a professional to serve in this role might help prevent legal challenges. Family members may have closer ties to some branches of your family than others particularly if you or others in the family have been divorced and remarried. Although a professional trustee can still be accused of mishandling an estate, they are less likely to be accused of exercising bias or favoritism toward one family member as opposed to another.
Independent Legal Counsel:
While many people have a family attorney, it is sometimes a good idea to work with a New Mexico Estate Planning Lawyer who is not also the attorney of the family members and other loved ones to whom you plan to gift (or not gift) your assets.
Ensure Outright Ownership:
If you intend to pass certain assets to your beneficiaries in their entirety, you need to confirm that the assets are not subject to joint ownership. If there are co-owners of the asset, your interest may be automatically transferred upon death to the joint owner.
The above information is designed solely to illustrate general principles of law, and does not constitute a specific legal opinion on individual cases. We suggest that you contact experienced legal counsel for a specific opinion tailored to your individual circumstances.
If you have other questions about avoiding challenges to your estate plan, we invite you to review Part II of this blog post. The best way to obtain specific information about your situation is to contact an Albuquerque Estate Planning Law Firm. The New Mexico estate planning law firm of Jay Goodman and Associates, PC offers a free consultation in our centrally located offices in Santa Fe and Albuquerque so that we can discuss your options. Call us today to schedule your free consultation at (505) 989-8117 to learn about your rights and options.
Comments are closed