How can you reduce the risk of an estate plan challenge?

If you intend to create an estate plan that bucks familial expectations, then your estate could be challenged by a disgruntled beneficiary who thought they should’ve inherited more, or by someone who was left out of your inheritance scheme altogether. And if you’re plan doesn’t anticipate this, then you could make errors that leave it susceptible to challenge. As a result, your plan might be completely undone in probate court, thereby devastating the vision of the future that you worked so hard to bring into reality. You can’t let that happen.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to reduce the risk of an estate challenge, thereby protecting your estate plan, your distribution scheme, and your vision of the future. Let’s take a closer look so that you can develop the thorough estate plan that’s right for you.

You may not realize it, but there are preventative measures you can implement to head off estate plan challenges. Here are some ways that you can do that:

• Create a record of your mental capacity: An estate plan can be deemed invalid if it’s found that its creator lacked the requisite mental capacity to make an estate plan. Therefore, as you prepare to engage in the estate planning process, you should document your mental capacity by seeing your doctor shortly before document execution and having plenty of witnesses around you who can attest to your mental clarity in the timeframe leading up to your estate plan’s creation.
• Gift assets to those you expect to challenge: If you suspect that a loved one is going to challenge your estate plan when the time comes, then you might want to consider giving them a gift beforehand. This might alleviate their concerns to an extent, but also their acceptance of a gift can be viewed as their acknowledgement that you have the requisite capacity to dispose of your assets as you see fit.
• Be transparent and articulate: Sometimes simply being clear about your intentions is enough to prevent a challenge and beat back arguments that you didn’t know what you were doing when you created your estate. So, talk to your family about the estate planning process early on, and be clear in why you disinherited someone or why you gave them a smaller piece of your estate.
• Use a no contest clause: A no contest clause indicates that someone named in your estate plan will lose their inheritance if they challenge the estate and fail to prevail on their case. This is oftentimes enough to dissuade a disgruntled loved one from taking legal action against an estate.
• Avoid signs of undue influence: You don’t want to give the appearance that your actions were motivated by someone close to you. So, don’t’ allow a loved one to help too much, if you can avoid it, and be sure to keep a safe distance between yourself and those who stand to benefit from your estate plan.

Be comprehensive in the creation of your estate plan

There’s a lot that goes into an effective estate plan. While it can be stressful to think about the nuances and possibilities that riddle the process, you shouldn’t let them drive you away from crafting the estate plan that’s right for you, your loved ones, and your vision of the future. Instead, you should prepare yourself to be diligent and comprehensive so that you don’t make any devastating mistakes and so that you can take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the estate planning process.