Can Family Members Contest Your Will

Who Has The Right To Challenge A Will In Tennessee?

Your second cousin, whom you haven’t spoken to in twenty years, can’t just decide they deserve part of your estate. Tennessee law is pretty clear about who actually has legal standing to contest a will. You need what’s called a financial stake in the outcome. The list of people who qualify isn’t that long:

• Anyone named as a beneficiary in the current will
• People who were beneficiaries in an earlier version
• Family members who’d inherit under state law if there were no will at all
• Sometimes creditors, though that’s rare

If challenging the will won’t put money in your pocket, courts won’t let you waste everyone’s time with a contest.

What Are Valid Grounds For Contesting A Will?

You can’t challenge a will just because you think it’s unfair. Tennessee doesn’t care if your brother got the lake house and you didn’t. What matters is whether the will itself has legal problems. There are four main reasons courts will consider throwing out a will.

Lack Of Testamentary Capacity

This is the legal way of asking whether someone actually understood what they were doing when they signed their will. Did they know what property they owned? Could they remember who their family members were? Did they grasp that this document would control what happened to everything after they died? Advanced dementia can destroy someone’s capacity. So can certain medications or mental illnesses. But having a bad day or being a little forgetful doesn’t cut it.

Undue Influence

This happens when someone with power over the person manipulates them into changing their will. We’re not talking about gentle persuasion. Undue influence means overpowering someone’s free will completely. The classic scenario? A caregiver isolates an elderly person from their family and pressures them to leave everything to the caregiver. New romantic partners who show up late in life can fall into this category too.

Fraud Or Forgery

Pretty straightforward. Either someone lied to get the person to sign the will, or the signature itself is fake. These cases don’t come up as often as you’d think, but they’re extremely serious when they do.

Improper Execution

Tennessee has rules about how you must sign a will and who needs to witness it. Skip those formalities, and the will might be worthless, even if everyone knows exactly what the person wanted.

How Strong Is A Properly Executed Will?

Courts assume your will is valid. That’s the starting point. Anyone trying to challenge it has to prove something went wrong. They can’t just claim you were confused or someone pressured you. They need evidence that would convince a judge. When you work with a Madisonville estate planning lawyer to create your will, you’re building a strong defense against future challenges. The attorney’s involvement shows you got proper guidance and knew what you were signing.

What Happens During A Will Contest?

Everything stops. When someone files a challenge, the probate court hits pause on distributing assets. Nothing moves until the dispute gets resolved. We’re talking months at minimum. Sometimes years if the case is complicated. The parties start gathering evidence. Medical records. Financial documents. Depositions from anyone who might know something relevant. It gets expensive fast, and all those legal fees come out of the estate. Most contests settle before trial because litigation is uncertain and costly.

How Can You Protect Your Will From Challenges?

You can’t stop someone from filing a contest. But you can make your will strong enough that challenging it becomes pointless. Start by working with Carpenter & Lewis PLLC instead of downloading a form from the internet. Professional preparation creates a paper trail that becomes powerful evidence if someone later claims you were confused. No-contest clauses can help. These provisions say that anyone who unsuccessfully challenges the will loses their inheritance completely. Tennessee courts will enforce them in most situations. Consider getting a capacity evaluation if you’re worried about future challenges based on your mental state. A doctor’s contemporaneous assessment carries serious weight in court. Write a letter explaining your decisions. It’s not legally binding, but it provides context for your choices and can defuse potential conflicts.

What About Disinheriting Family Members?

Tennessee gives you broad freedom to leave your property however you want. You don’t owe your adult children anything. Spouses are different. They have legal protections and can claim a portion of your estate regardless of what your will says. If you’re planning to cut someone out who’d normally expect an inheritance, make that intention crystal clear in the will.

When Should You Review And Update Your Will?

Major changes create situations where family members might feel justified in challenging your estate plan. Getting married or divorced tops the list. Having children or grandchildren matters. Sometimes relationships deteriorate and you need to adjust your beneficiaries. Each time you update your will with a Madisonville estate planning lawyer, you’re creating a fresh, properly executed document that shows a consistent pattern of decision-making. Building a solid estate plan now saves your family from expensive fights later. We can help you structure your will and related documents to honor your wishes while minimizing opportunities for challenges.