When a person passes away, their estate directives may come as a shock to their loved ones. Perhaps the person spoke for most of their life about leaving their estate to a particular charity, but instead left it to one of their carers that they had known in their final months.

Alternatively, they may have left their children out of their will and created a trust for the benefit of someone they did not know very well. Cases such as these can unfortunately be common, and they usually arise because of an aging person’s declining mental capacity paired with another person’s ruthlessness and greed.

If you have a reason to believe that a trust made by a deceased person is not valid, you may be able to contest it. In general, trusts are far more reliable than wills, therefore it can be more difficult to contest them. However through trust litigation it can be possible to challenge the validity of the trust.

Arguing that the trust maker did not have the mental capacity to create the trust

If a person makes changes to their estate plan later in life, they can only do so legitimately if they have the mental capacity to do so. You may be able to argue that a person took advantage of your loved one’s mental incapacity and coerced them into creating a trust. By doing so you may be able to show that the trust is not valid.

Trust litigation can be very complex, therefore it is important to learn more about the law in order to successfully challenge a trust.