Challenging a will

[ncf355]

Hi all,

have a family issue ongoing with regard to a will

The family member (not me!) has 1 other sibling that he has no contact with

The father recently passed away and left the sister as executor

It would appear the will is rather unfair:

10% to family member

80% to his sister

10% to another non family beneficiary

When the sister wrote to him (very formal) she enclosed a cheque for the amount, but did not enclose a copy of the will which of course sent alarm bells rining (particularly as he had a rough idea of the estate value)

Yesterday, we obtained a copy of the will and it set out the terms as above (as expected).

Is it a case of tough luck, or are there likely to be any avenues that could be followed to challenge the will

The family members aunt is very agrieved about the content as she believes the other parent that passed away some time ago would have wished the two siblings to be treated equallly.


Thanks for any help you can give

[charitynjw]

Re: Challenging a will

Hi ncf355

Is there any evidence of undue influence or mental capacity issues?

[ncf355]

Re: Challenging a will

We can't be sure of the influence issue as the sibling was visting regularly, unlike the brother so had the opportunity - we are reasonably happy he was of good mental capacity

Oddly, the will stated that if the sister died prior to the father, the full amount passed to the brother

[Inca]

Re: Challenging a will

If you have no evidence of coercion or undue pressure/influence and the Will is signed,witnessed and is clearly set out then I doubt very very much it could be contested.
My parents did the same thing and there were 6 of us siblings (left everything to me)..noone knew the contents whilst they were alive..I did what I thought was the decent thing and divided everything equally but not everyone thinks like me.

[ncf355]

Re: Challenging a will

If you have no evidence of coercion or undue pressure/influence and the Will is signed,witnessed and is clearly set out then I doubt very very much it could be contested.
My parents did the same thing and there were 6 of us siblings (left everything to me)..noone knew the contents whilst they were alive..I did what I thought was the decent thing and divided everything equally but not everyone thinks like me.

This is what I thought may be the case, oh well, woth getting a specialist to look it over I suppose just to check all is as it should be



Well done to you Inca, the right and just way to act!

[Inca]

Re: Challenging a will

My reasoning (apart from it wasn't a fair Will)..was.....parents had gone..I still had to live with my family in my life and I wasn't risking losing that ( 1 has been excommunicated by me cos he's a moron but that's a whole different scenario.)

[ncf355]

Re: Challenging a will

Ah, makes sense

Unfortunately in this situation the borther and sister dont talk anyway (though brother has no real idea why!)

[Inca]

Re: Challenging a will

Families eh? There's rarely one that doesn't have issues especially during Xmas and bereavment (to quote Eloise)
Could have been worse hun,,the Dad could have died intestate..that's a barrel of laughs (NOT)...or in the case of my OH's Uncle (who he hasn't seen for years)..the Executors and beneficiaries had all died before him so the estate is divided between THIER kids.....none of whom have ever heard of each other!

[jon1965]

Re: Challenging a will

Maybe something to look at was when the will was written.

I remember a piece of advice given to me by a solicitor when I was checking out if I had done everything correctly with my wifes estate. "When solicitors get involved , the only people who win are the solicitors"

Sometimes you just have to accept it, my aunt left £500000 to charity and nothing to my Uncles family (who had died a few years before). We think she went a bit peculiar before she died but we had always been a close group.

[Inca]

Re: Challenging a will

I swear my Mum had the hump when she wrote hers.....she left my (nice) brother a message...'You have done very well for yourself and I'm very proud of you so I leave you all my love'.......gave us all a giggle at the reading,,he's the 3rd of 6 so noone yet knew what she had done cos I'm 6th (the baby). We thought she'd left us all a little message.