13.3 Will and Estate Litigation

• Library: A Lawyer's Guide to Estate Planning: Fundamentals for the Legal Practitioner (ABA) (2018 Ed.)

13.3 Will and Estate Litigation

On occasion an estate becomes involved in litigation. This sometimes occurs when the surviving spouse is bequeathed less than the statutory share or dower interest allowed under state law. In other situations, heirs who are omitted from the will or are granted an unusually small share may claim that the will was the result of undue influence or that the decedent was mentally incompetent at the time of writing the will. The decision to litigate is quite obviously a postmortem decision, which may alter the testator's testamentary...