Fair’s fair
If you’re a fair-minded, decent soul you may prefer to look away now! It never ceases to amaze me quite the lengths some people will go to in order to get a share of someone’s estate. One will dispute case I am currently handling involves Jane. That’s not her real name of course, nor is anyone’s name real in this otherwise true story.
Jane phoned me for advice a couple of months ago. She explained that she was feeling hurt and cheated by some distant relatives who had wheedled their way into being named beneficiaries to an estate. The story concerns her aunt Marilyn and her cousin Ted. Her aunt Marilyn had one child, Ted, who happened to be about the same age as Jane. Jane had been treated by Aunt Marilyn as if she was her daughter, taking her on holidays with her and Ted. Jane and Marilyn’s family remained extremely close until Marilyn’s death. Jane and Ted were almost like brother and sister.
Ted suffered with minor learning difficulties and Jane was always there to care for him, especially as Marilyn got older.
Sudden new beneficiaries
Marilyn was a wealthy woman but did not leave a will. During her lifetime she had always promised Jane that she and her family would be provided for. Marilyn told Jane she had discussed this with Ted who agreed Jane should benefit if Marilyn and Ted were to die. Ted lived with his mother, never married and never had children.
After Marilyn’s death her estate passed under the Intestacy Rules to her son Ted. Sadly, at this time Ted was very ill and had been diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly out of the blue appeared some relatives who had never really been in contact with Marilyn or Ted. They took over Ted’s care from Jane under the guise of wanting to give her a break. You can probably tell what happened next.
Ted died shortly afterwards at the age of 62. It came to light that his will (which originally provided mostly for Jane and her children, as was Aunt Marilyn’s wishes) had been amended before his death. In place of Jane and her children, the new beneficiaries were the formerly distant relatives. Jane felt betrayed by them.
Suspicious changes to the will
There are two elements to this claim; firstly Jane believes that Ted was too ill to know what he was doing and the effect that changing the will would have – in legal terms that Ted ‘lacked capacity’. The second is that Jane believes that Ted must have been placed under pressure to change his will, this is called undue influence. He was someone with a slight learning difficulty, ill with cancer and very much open to manipulation.
Will dispute cases such as these can be hard to prove and are very reliant on proving the background to the case. In this case, I am hopeful I can succeed in challenging the will, having the will declared invalid and reverting to the rightful position where Jane and her children inherit as had always been intended.
If you die without making a will then your estate will automatically pass to your next of kin. If Marilyn had only made a will in the first instance, then she could have ensured that her wishes would have been carried out and the whole issue would have been avoided. However because she did not, her estate passed to Ted whose will she had no control over. If you have a concern about whether a will is valid or something is suspicious please talk to us as soon as possible as time limits apply.
