Contested Will/Estate

[Anonymous]

If you have, or no of anyone who has, been involved with a contested will, what are the circumstances? Did you/they win?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have, or no of anyone who has, been involved with a contested will, what are the circumstances? Did you/they win?

Do you know any of the details of the will? All the wills in our family are written such that if you contest your bequest or if you contest the will in general, then you are automatically removed as a beneficiary and no longer entitled to anything from the will.

[Anonymous]

I’m in the thick of it now. It’s a huge mess and if the estate wasn’t substantial it wouldn’t be worth it. Aside from the gigantic expense of the lawyers it takes a huge emotional toll dealing with all the negativity from the other side. We’re over two years in and no closer to any resolution. Hearings get continued for seemingly no reason and there really is no reprieve. Im hoping to recoup about 1/3 of what I should have received but in my case if we didn’t pursue it the trustees would have just not distributed anything. The odds are stacked against the beneficiaries.

The trust in question in my family is written that if anyone contests it they don’t get anything but in our case we’re not contesting the terms of the trust, just the blatant theft of the assets by the trustees.

[Anonymous]

pp, how? How would trustees be able to steal from the trust?

[Anonymous]

Executors have so much power. An unscrupulous executor (and I assume trustee) could try to keep assets not specifically written up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m in the thick of it now. It’s a huge mess and if the estate wasn’t substantial it wouldn’t be worth it. Aside from the gigantic expense of the lawyers it takes a huge emotional toll dealing with all the negativity from the other side. We’re over two years in and no closer to any resolution. Hearings get continued for seemingly no reason and there really is no reprieve. Im hoping to recoup about 1/3 of what I should have received but in my case if we didn’t pursue it the trustees would have just not distributed anything. The odds are stacked against the beneficiaries.

The trust in question in my family is written that if anyone contests it they don’t get anything but in our case we’re not contesting the terms of the trust, just the blatant theft of the assets by the trustees.

I'm sorry you are going through this! How are you proving the theft?

[Anonymous]

I had every right to contest a will but I decided not to because I wanted nothing to do with the other parties or dealing with the whole legal process. The amount of money wasn’t life changing and a year or two battle wasn’t worth it.

[Anonymous]

My brother contested our aunt's will. She left everything to me and he got all pissed. He hardly called or visited her in the last 5 years of her life. He did not win. Our parents tried to pressure us to settle, meaning I split half and half with him. I would've done it anyway had he not sued me. So I fought to the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Executors have so much power. An unscrupulous executor (and I assume trustee) could try to keep assets not specifically written up.

There is a lot more transparency and court oversight of executors built into the system than there is of trustees. People tend to think probate is bad and trusts are a panacea, but a trust can be a disaster if the trustee isn’t honest and/or the beneficiaries decide they don’t agree with how things are being handled. A trust is good if everyone agrees, but probate is set up to handle contested proceedings, and works better in those cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:pp, how? How would trustees be able to steal from the trust?

My trustee steals from My trust. She uses the money for herself. She’s a family member. I’m not going to sue her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had every right to contest a will but I decided not to because I wanted nothing to do with the other parties or dealing with the whole legal process. The amount of money wasn’t life changing and a year or two battle wasn’t worth it.

A cousin of mine has a similar situation. Sibling took dad to a lawyer a for a new will and walks out of the office as the sole executor, even though both siblings had been co-executors in every previous will their dad had made. It was obvious to the family that the dad had been experiencing some cognitive decline at the time.

The father died a few months later, and the one sibling completely takes everything over, even changing the locks on the house to keep the sibling out. The rest of the family suspects that the executor sibling is playing fast and loose with the assets and not keeping good records of sales of personal property.

It’s a mess but my cousin doesn’t want to contest the will because it would be very expensive and probably not worth it for the value of the estate involved for the same reasons as the post above. We asked him why he would let his sibling get away with this and he said that his sibling would have to live with himself, knowing how he treated his sibling to get extra money from the estate.

It is sad when people take advantage of their elderly parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m in the thick of it now. It’s a huge mess and if the estate wasn’t substantial it wouldn’t be worth it. Aside from the gigantic expense of the lawyers it takes a huge emotional toll dealing with all the negativity from the other side. We’re over two years in and no closer to any resolution. Hearings get continued for seemingly no reason and there really is no reprieve. Im hoping to recoup about 1/3 of what I should have received but in my case if we didn’t pursue it the trustees would have just not distributed anything. The odds are stacked against the beneficiaries.

The trust in question in my family is written that if anyone contests it they don’t get anything but in our case we’re not contesting the terms of the trust, just the blatant theft of the assets by the trustees.

You do realize that executors and trustees are paid by the estate, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m in the thick of it now. It’s a huge mess and if the estate wasn’t substantial it wouldn’t be worth it. Aside from the gigantic expense of the lawyers it takes a huge emotional toll dealing with all the negativity from the other side. We’re over two years in and no closer to any resolution. Hearings get continued for seemingly no reason and there really is no reprieve. Im hoping to recoup about 1/3 of what I should have received but in my case if we didn’t pursue it the trustees would have just not distributed anything. The odds are stacked against the beneficiaries.

The trust in question in my family is written that if anyone contests it they don’t get anything but in our case we’re not contesting the terms of the trust, just the blatant theft of the assets by the trustees.

You do realize that executors and trustees are paid by the estate, right?

Of course I do, so we’re paying 3/5 of the lawyer fees of the opposing lawyers through the estate in addition to the cash that’s coming out of our pockets to pay our lawyers. Like I said it’s a mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m in the thick of it now. It’s a huge mess and if the estate wasn’t substantial it wouldn’t be worth it. Aside from the gigantic expense of the lawyers it takes a huge emotional toll dealing with all the negativity from the other side. We’re over two years in and no closer to any resolution. Hearings get continued for seemingly no reason and there really is no reprieve. Im hoping to recoup about 1/3 of what I should have received but in my case if we didn’t pursue it the trustees would have just not distributed anything. The odds are stacked against the beneficiaries.

The trust in question in my family is written that if anyone contests it they don’t get anything but in our case we’re not contesting the terms of the trust, just the blatant theft of the assets by the trustees.

I'm sorry you are going through this! How are you proving the theft?

Through discovery. It’s substantial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m in the thick of it now. It’s a huge mess and if the estate wasn’t substantial it wouldn’t be worth it. Aside from the gigantic expense of the lawyers it takes a huge emotional toll dealing with all the negativity from the other side. We’re over two years in and no closer to any resolution. Hearings get continued for seemingly no reason and there really is no reprieve. Im hoping to recoup about 1/3 of what I should have received but in my case if we didn’t pursue it the trustees would have just not distributed anything. The odds are stacked against the beneficiaries.

The trust in question in my family is written that if anyone contests it they don’t get anything but in our case we’re not contesting the terms of the trust, just the blatant theft of the assets by the trustees.

I'm sorry you are going through this! How are you proving the theft?

Through discovery. It’s substantial.

Sorry you’re going through this. I’m always surprised when people think they won’t get caught doing stuff like this. That is the one good thing about probate is that there is court oversight, so executors who aren’t on the up and up have a better chance of getting caught.