In a long-term care crisis?
In a long-term care crisis?
It’s a sad fact that people sometimes prey on the vulnerable elderly. A trusted neighbor, a designing caregiver, or an unscrupulous family member persuades someone with weakened judgment to change a will or trust in their favor — at the expense of the people who were meant to inherit. If you suspect this happened to someone you love, Pennsylvania law provides a remedy: wills and trusts changed under dubious circumstances can be contested.
Only someone who would benefit financially from having the will declared invalid has legal standing to contest it. Typically, that means an heir under a prior will, or someone who would inherit under Pennsylvania’s intestacy law if the challenged will were thrown out. Simply disagreeing with how an estate was divided isn’t enough on its own — you need a genuine financial stake in the outcome.
The most common basis for a will contest is an allegation of undue influence — that someone close to the person who made the will (the “testator”) gained a substantial benefit by persuading the testator to favor them, at a time when the testator’s judgment or independence was compromised. Other grounds include:
Pennsylvania law imposes strict deadlines on will and trust contests. Missing the applicable time limit can end a case before it starts, regardless of how strong the underlying evidence of forgery or undue influence might be. If you believe you have grounds to contest a will or trust, it’s important to speak with an attorney as soon as possible — don’t wait to find out later that the window has closed.
Not every asset passes through a will. Retirement accounts, life insurance, and payable-on-death accounts pass according to their beneficiary designations, and those designations can sometimes be challenged on similar grounds — lack of capacity, undue influence, or fraud — when there’s evidence the designation doesn’t reflect the account owner’s true wishes.
A will or trust contest requires a rare combination of skills: substantial experience in litigation, and a genuine understanding of the elder law issues — particularly diminished capacity — that so often lie at the heart of these cases. Attorneys who practice elder law regularly develop a trained eye for capacity issues that a general litigator may not. Combined with courtroom experience — depositions, direct and cross-examinations, motions practice, and trial presentations — that combination gives you the strongest possible advocate for a case that can take months or years to resolve.
If you believe someone manipulated a loved one into changing their will, trust, or beneficiary designations, Sechler Law Firm can help you understand your options and the time you have to act. Contact us today to discuss your situation.
