Be Careful When Going Through Probate Litigation Process
After loved one dies and the surviving family members and of beneficiaries will decide how to well distribute the inheritances and the remaining assets. Unless there are no conflicts among the dependents or creditors if any, a court supervised process called probate litigation will have to begin and survivors may contest a will on a variety of grounds. In most cases though, it could be all the paperworks.
Common reasons of contesting a will are related to the fraud allegations, undue influence and the fiduciary’s breach of confidence. However among other things it becomes so hard and challenging because the case itself is surrounded by grief and other strong emotions because it is so close to the death of a loved one. Dealing with other family members over the distribution of assets can be an extra burden as the grieving process is still on-going and it could impact any individual’s sound and reasonable decision making ability. While going through the strong emotions and grief, everyone involved would have to overcome the difficulties and reason through the disputes or confusions in the middle of the probate process. Thus it could take longer than whey they originally expected, and therefore cause more issues and make things complicated without proper mediation steps involved. Even with the distribution decision made by the court, the survivors can still feel hurt if he/she would think that they were given less than others even according to the will. Often times this frustration might trigger another series of litigation filed at the court on top of each other, before any settlement can be reached.
There are situations where the estates don’t even need to go through regular probate, but rather be considered as small estates under its own state law. This process can be used to simplify the entire procedure with reduced length of time.
Other factors that would make the process difficult are involving the surviving family members own circumstances such as dysfunctional members, underage heirs, divorcee and sibling rivalry. These types of underlying disputes can be very dangerous and damage the whole family or even the process itself. What is typically happening is that these type of issues are not discovered early in the process and rather becomes bigger as the progress is made and heading towards the final settlement decision at the court. Also there are different level of capabilities to understand the process and decision or even appeal in terms of why such a decision needs to be made of how a certain percentage of distribution has to be made. If the beneficiaries are under age and lacking the financial knowleges or negotiation skills, then it may be possible that some beneficiaries’ voices may not be heard, while others may strongly drive the negotiation to their own advantages. This could lead into another step of tax issue where income and estate taxes should be handled properly to avoid any financial imbalances among the participants.
At any point of time, if you feel yourself not prepared well enough to deal with such difficult situation, it is always the best to talk to a qualified attorney in the local state.
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