In an ideal world, your estate planning would go smoothly, with your family members knowing what to expect as far as inheritances are concerned and without and quibbles over what each individual receives from your estate. Yet, if you’re like many New Yorkers, then you worry about whether one of your loved one is going to challenge your estate plan in probate court in hopes of securing a larger portion of your assets.
That’s no small worry, as an estate challenge can reshape how your assets are distributed. While this could result in your hard-earned wealth being inherited by someone you intended to cut out of your distribution scheme, the challenge process can also cause a lot of familial infighting and damage relationships. That can be stressful to think about, but the good news is that there are steps that you can take to reduce the chances of your estate plan being challenged.
How to reduce the risk of an estate plan challenge
There are practically an unlimited number of ways to approach your estate planning. However, even though there’s no one way to approach concerns about an estate challenge, there are steps you can take to reduce your overall risk. This includes:
- Using a no-contest clause: With this clause in your estate plan, you tell an heir or beneficiary that they will lose their inheritance if they challenge your estate and lose. This can be enough of an incentive for them to refrain from contesting your estate, especially if you’ve left them something of significant value.
- Utilizing lifetime gifts: Monetary gifts that you give during your lifetime can’t be challenged, and if the family member that you expect to contest your estate plan accepts a lifetime gift, then it can be an acknowledgement on their part that you possess the requisite mental capacity to specify where your assets go. The latter can significantly reduce the risk that your estate will be challenged for lack of testamentary capacity.
- Talking to your family: You don’t want your estate to be susceptible on grounds of undue influence. This argument often arises when a loved one helps care for you as you age, with others claiming that their closeness was used to steer your estate planning decisions. But if you talk to your family up front to clearly specify your intent, then you can reduce the perception that you’re being unduly influenced by any one of them.
- Using trusts that avoid the probate process: A will has to go through probate court, which can increase the risk that someone will raise concerns about its validity. If you use certain trusts, though, you can bypass the probate process altogether. This can minimize the chances that a disgruntled loved one will turn to the probate court to try to undo the estate planning vehicles that you’ve set in motion.
Use the estate planning process to your advantage
One of the greatest benefits of the estate planning process is that it is customizable to suit your needs. Therefore, you can get as much out of the process as you want. To do so, though, you have to know about the estate planning vehicles available to you and how to reduce the risks associated with the process.
While that might seem complicated to do, it doesn’t have to be. You can read up on estate planning strategies that may be advantageous to you and your family so that you can make the fully informed decisions that protect your vision of the future.
