Undue Influence Claims When the Beneficiary Was Close to the Deceased

Imagine this scenario:

A single elderly man develops a close friendship with another man, a caretaker, who helps the elderly man with his day to day activities. As the elderly man becomes more disabled and frail, the helper takes a larger part in the elderly man’s life.

As a thank you, the elderly man provides for his helper to get the bulk of the elderly man’s inheritance through a will. The elderly man’s sisters, who are around but not an active part of the elderly man’s life, get little or nothing from the elderly man’s will.

At his death, the sisters challenge the will, specifically, the elderly man’s decision to leave the bulk of his estate to his non-family helper, instead of them.

They allege undue influence, but is it?

Close Relationships to Beneficiaries

Undue influence can be difficult to determine when the person getting the bulk of an inheritance was close with the deceased.

On the one hand, that situation is ripe for undue influence. People who are close and who “have the deceased’s ear,” can easily give advice, take over finances, and take advantage of someone who is older and whose faculties may be diminishing. The declining person may blindly just follow the beneficiary’s advice, creating a  situation ripe for abuse.

On the other hand though, it isn’t unusual for someone to want to leave a bulk of his or her inheritance to someone who is close to them, or to someone they have a relationship with, or someone they love, who may not actually be family. In some ways, in our example above, it makes total sense for the man to leave his inheritance to his always-there helper, as opposed to his never-there sisters.

This is the problem, when family or beneficiaries left out of a will, challenge the will based on undue influence, where the party receiving the bulk of the inheritance, was close to the deceased. Did the person inheriting exert undue influence at all—or was the inheritance the result of a bona fide, genuine desire to take care of the caretaker?

It’s Not Just the Relationship That Matters

That’s why when making undue influences, the relationship between the deceased and the person inheriting matters—but it’s not the only thing that matters.

More so than the actual relationship, is the mental capacity of the deceased, specifically his or her ability to make his own independent decisions, that matters. Whether a will is a product of the deceased’s own, independent free will, also often hinges on the deceased’s mental status, at the time the will (or modification of the will) was made.

You Can Pick and Choose Beneficiaries

People who make wills are allowed to discriminate. They can choose to leave all their property to one person and none to another. They can like one brother more than the other. They can leave all their money to a charity and none to their family. Just discriminating between beneficiaries, doesn’t invalidate a will or prove undue influence.

The question is whether the undue influence was so great and pervasive, that the deceased in effect did not or could not use his or her own free will. Only then, will undue influence unwind or undo an otherwise valid will.

Do you need to challenge a will or other estate document? Call the West Palm Beach probate lawyers at The Law Offices of Larry E. Bray today for help with your probate law case.

Sources:

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8638830792683835783&q=Levin+v.+Levin&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16562486421876663683&q=heasley+v+evans&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10