How to stop someone contesting a will?

With estates, commonly asked questions are:

“How do I stop someone contesting my Will?

How can I make sure that the person who I want to inherit my money and my assets, actually inherits it?

How do I prevent someone from making a claim on the person’s inheritance that I want it to go to?”

If the question is “How do I stop someone from contesting my Last Will and Testament?”

The answer is, you cannot.

If the question is “How do I stop someone from contesting my wishes as to who inherits my assets?”  the answer is, there are many ways.

In South Australia, certain classes of people are entitled to contest a person’s Will such as spouses, de-facto partners, children, step children and grandchildren of a deceased person.

If you want to protect your estate and your assets from a claim from a greedy or spurned relative after your death then you will need to take measures outside of your Last Will and Testament to ensure it doesn’t happen.

A Last Will and Testament is not the only way for assets to be handed down from generation to generation. Some people choose to give all of their money and assets away while they are still alive and provided that they are doing it of their own free will and are of sound mind to do so, there is nothing anyone can do to contest it.

However, this could leave someone vulnerable and destitute for the remaining days of their life and is not always a good option unless you trust the person you are giving your estate away to.

A less risky option is to place all of your assets in a Family Trust or another kind of Trust. This will ensure a person has control over their assets, but when they die it is distributed in accordance with the terms of the Trust and not a Will, thereby denying a person an inheritance claim.

Another option may be to transfer bank accounts and real estate into joint names with the person you intend to benefit, but such may be risky without the proper legal safeguards.

Whatever estate planning you are considering should take into account tax implications and impacts on pension or other Government entitlements so it is important to combine your legal advice with financial and accounting advice before deciding which way to go.