Dealing with the impact objections to a will can have on a decedent’s estate – large or small – starts with the fundamental questions of what were the circumstances surrounding the drafting of the decedent’s will and what were the contents of the will itself. The extent to which a claimant may successfully lay claim to all or a portion of Robin Williams’ estate will depend on how those questions are answered.
A will is in its simplest terms a written document whose contents are intended to provide direction as to the disposition of a decedent’s estate assets that the decedent a/k/a testator, has accumulated as part of his estate during his or her lifetime. Before those directions are given their intended effect, however, the will must be submitted to the Surrogate’s Court with a petition requesting the Surrogate’s Court to issue letters testamentary to those who the will has named as executors or executrixes of the estate. The executor or executrix is a fiduciary responsbile for seeing that the decedent’s intentions expressed in the will are carried out. After the will is offered for probate to the Surrogate’s Court, the legal challenges and objections to the will can begin.
Typically, challenges to the validity of a will include allegations that the will 1) was not duly or properly executed; 2) was induced by fraud; 3) the testator was the subject of undue influence such that his true intentions were not properly reflected in the will; and/or 4) the testator was not mentally competent when he executed the will.
Each of these involve their own legal precedent, and will be discussed in greater detail in upcoming newsletters. Given Robin Williams’ apparent struggles with substance abuse, depression and the onset of Parkinson's, however, it would appear that objections to his will based on his mental competency would at least initially require the most attention. Those objecting to his will would want to establish that his mental competency at the time he executed the will interfered with his ability to understand the “nature and objects of his bounty”.
In further follow-ups, I will more specifically examine what has to be shown to successfully object to a will’s probate. One thing is for certain, a successful challenge can dramatically change the distribution of a decedent’s estate. The law that controls who receives what portion of a decedent’s estate when there is no will, can direct distribution of estate assets in far different ways then what a decedent may express in his will. And depending upon the size of the estate, the stakes can be quite high.
Sincerely,
Mario Biaggi Jr.