Hi. I’m Reed Bloodworth a business litigation estate and
trust litigation attorney in Orlando Florida. Today I wanted to discuss some
common scenarios in trust and estate litigation where it may be in your best
interest to contact a trust and estate litigation attorney.
Terminally Ill Isolated Family Member Changes a Will
These scenarios consist of situations where a terminally ill isolated family member changes a will or trust
has been changed and the person who was changing the will or trust suffered
from potentially some type of health issue or had been isolated from their
family.
Dementia or Alzheimer's Some of these common scenarios are the person making the
trust or the will had dementia or Alzheimer’s. Another common one is the person
was in very poor health or was heavily medicated potentially on their death
bed.
Isolated Person Changes Will or Trust
Another common scenario is when the person changing the will
or the trust has been completely isolated from the rest of their family by
someone else.
These types of situations are situations where wills or
trusts are changed under very suspicious circumstances. For example if someone
has dementia or they have Alzheimer’s or they are heavily medicated due to a
severe medical condition or perhaps they’re in hospice just because they’re
very elderly these are all situations where the person making the change to the
will or trust may not have had the mental capacity to make those changes.
When Elderly Person is Kept Isolated
The situation where the person changing the will or trust is
you know isolated from their family this is a sadly a common scenario where an
elderly person is not allowed to speak with potentially their sons or daughters
or other family members and they are kept isolated from those people who were
beneficiaries under a prior will or trust and are surprised at the time of
death or sometime after the person dies to find out that they are no longer
beneficiaries that the person who had isolated them is now the sole recipient
of all of that person’s estate.
Undue Influence=Control Over Person Making Change
These types of situations give rise to various claims. Some
common ones are undue influence. Undue influence is a situation where the
person who had the will changed for their benefit had a control over the person
that was making the change. They may have had a high degree of difference in
their mental abilities which harkens back to the various medical conditions we
talked about or they simply could’ve isolated this person they could have
berated them harassed them done a number of things to make them change their
will or trust to name the new beneficiary the sole beneficiary of the will or
trust.
Making Changes with Alzheimer's or Severe Dementia, or Heavy Medication
The other very common cause of action in this situation is
lack of capacity. When someone has Alzheimer’s they have severe dementia they
are heavily medicated because they’re dying of cancer or they’re very elderly
and they’re in hospice care these people typically do not have the mental
capacity to understand what it is they’re doing when they change a will or they
change a trust.
The law requires a person to have the mental capacity to
understand what it is they’re doing at the time they execute a will or trust.
If they don’t that will or trust can be challenged in court and can be voided
so that the proper beneficiaries receive what they should have to begin with.
These are just some common scenarios and they’re scenarios
that if you experience this it would likely be in your interest to contact a
trust and estate litigation attorney.
So again my name is Reed Bloodworth an attorney in Orlando
Florida. Give me a call. Let’s talk about what happened to you.
