Matter of Estate of Hanson: Texas Appeals Probate Case

Have you changed your Palm Beach will multiple times? Do you leave large   sections of the estate to different children in different wills? You may be gearing up for a Palm Beach will contest and not even know it. Check out what happened in a case out of Texas filed on April 30, 2015.

Palm Beach Will Contest

• When a Palm Beach will is admitted to probate, opponents may challenge the will claiming that it is not The True Last Will and Testament of the Testator.
• Is your will up to snuff?
• Do you know who can challenge a will?
• You have to be an interested party.
• That means that the person has to either inherit under an alternative will or throughintestate succession.
• That means no matter what you do to a child, they might always have standing to challenge your will?
• Before you go about making a will every week with a different child taking the whole cake you may want to see what happened to an estate in Texas.

Matter of Estate of Hanson

• Shortly before his death the decedent executed a Last Will and Testament that revoked his prior will. After his death, a will contest ensued when his daughter, offered the 2011 will for probate. The 2011 will left her father’s entire estate to her, whereas the prior will, executed in 2008, had left the majority of the estate to her brother. The jury at trial found that the daughter had unduly influenced her father to change his will and that she had failed to offer the 2011 will for probate in good faith and with just cause. On appeal the jury verdict was affirmed.
• Palm Beach litigators know that a probate will contest is ripe to occur at times like this where both children have a preferred will.
• Is your estate plan prepared for a will contest?

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