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[quote=Anonymous]Roy is involved because he and Mary appear to be the only living children of Thelma. If the will is challenged and found to be defective, then Thelma's assets will be distributed as though she had died intestate, or without a will.

So in that possibility, if Roy and Mary are the only living children of Thelma, her estate will be divided equally between the two of them. The presumption in the law is that the decedent intended for both personal and real property to pass to immediate family and then to next closest blood relatives if there is no immediate family.

If I were a law student and this were a hypothetical in my estates and trusts class, I'd be asking a lot of questions about the circumstances surrounding the writing of this will. I'd want to know if the lawyer who wrote the will had notes from meeting with Thelma and whether she mentioned any specific reason for leaving her family home to a more distant relative and leaving less money to her immediate family members. I'd wonder if anyone had been with Thelma when she went to the lawyer to write the will. I'd even wonder if a lawyer had been involved at all and if maybe this was one of those situations where someone printed a fill in the blank will off the internet.

The answers to those questions would determine whether I'd advise Mary and Roy to challenge the will. In this situation, I'd suggest to Mary and Roy that they should see a lawyer who does this for a living to find out if they have reason to challenge the will.

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