The Art Of Crashing Your Own Bucket List After Party
Estate planning, when you take it seriously, is an exercise in figuring out what matters the most to you and also in realizing how little control you have over what other people do, especially when you are no longer around to voice your displeasure or to dangle incentives in front of them. In your best moments, you might think of your estate plan as the plans for a fantastic after party after the celebration which was your life has ended. Your will can show the people you love how much you appreciated them, and they can each claim the prize that will help them most. Saying goodbye to a family member during his or her final illness never feels like a party, but with a well-crafted estate plan, you can stop the matters related to your end-of-life care from being more painful for your family than they need to be. As every careful planner knows, things do not always go according to plan. You can’t be sure that none of your family members will try to sabotage your estate plan by challenging your will during probate. It might not be possible to remove all possibilities that someone will challenge the validity of your will, but you can certainly build safeguards against such challenges into your estate plan. For help writing a challenge-proof will, contact a Tampa estate planning lawyer.
Premortem Probate: A Dress Rehearsal for Haunting Your Own Probate Case
Some states allow premortem proceedings, where the part of probate where the probate court determines the validity of the will takes place while the testator is alive. The court hears challengers’ arguments about why they believe that the will is the product of undue influence, and the testator has the right to testify in person to persuade the court that he or she understands what the will says and is mentally competent to write a will and sign it. In the states that allow premortem probate, the process originally arose in the context of guardianship cases, where an elderly person’s relatives disagreed about whether the testator was mentally competent when he or she wrote a new will.
If You Want to Micromanage From Beyond the Grave in Florida, You Have to Get Creative
Only a few states conduct premortem probate cases, and Florida is not one of them. In Florida, your best choice is to make the text of the will contain deterrents that will stop people from challenging it. For example, you can write an in terrorem clause in your will. These clauses say that, if a beneficiary challenges the will, this beneficiary automatically forfeits his or her inheritance. By adding one, you can stop your relatives from challenging your will as long as you don’t completely disinherit them.
Contact David Toback About Estate Planning to Prevent Challenges to Your Will
A Central Florida estate planning lawyer can help you draft a will that accomplishes the next best thing to premortem probate. Contact David Toback in Tampa, Florida to set up a consultation.
Sources:
nysba.org/the-viability-of-pre-mortem-probate-in-new-york/
porterwright.com/content/uploads/2021/03/pp-35-02-mar-april-author-pdfs-sneeringer-et-al.pdf
