Probate disputes can happen for a number of reasons, and one of the most common is undue influence. The claim is essentially that someone else influenced the estate plan. It doesn’t reflect the person’s true wishes.
Often, the person who is accused of using undue influence is in a position of power or authority over the other. For instance, say that an elderly person has physical or mental challenges as they age, so one of their children has been acting as a caregiver. If that child then refuses to help the elderly person unless they change their estate plan, it’s an example of undue influence. They’re trying to manipulate the person or coerce them into doing something that they didn’t want to do of their own free will.
Why would this happen?
Typically, the individual is just looking for personal gain. Say that a parent has three children and was planning to leave $500,000 to each one of them. Two of these adult children are living in different states, meaning that one child does the bulk of the work looking after the elderly parents.
The sibling who is the caretaker begins to feel resentful about how much they have to do. They manipulate their parent into changing the estate plan so that each other sibling only gets $200,000, and the bulk of the inheritance goes to them as the caregiver. They may even tell themselves that this is a justifiable change because they’re providing help and assistance, but they are still manipulating the other beneficiaries out of what they would otherwise have gotten, which could lead to a legal challenge.
This is just one example of complications that can arise during probate. Those who are going through the process must be well aware of their legal options.
