Many Minnesota residents have taken the time to create a will that passes their assets to their family members. Most of the time, the assets are distributed evenly among siblings, but occasionally a person distributes their assets in a different way. If siblings do not receive an equal portion of the assets, an estate may face a legal challenge.
When siblings do not receive an equal portion of their parent’s will, especially if it’s unexpected, they can feel like something happened that shouldn’t have with their parent’s estate. A sibling can feel like it’s unfair that they didn’t receive something they were expecting. In this situation, siblings may find that they need to challenge the will.
There are a few reasons siblings may want to challenge a will. One is that their parent lacked the capacity to create the will in the first place. They could argue that the parent had dementia or another mental illness where they were not able to recognize family members or understand their finances. Another basis for a will challenge would be that the creator was unduly influenced by someone else. A person could allege that their parent was influenced by someone else to create their will and it wasn’t their true intent.
Sometimes there are issues that come up with a family member’s will. Siblings can feel like they were unfairly excluded from all or part of it. In these situations, an attorney can help the family figure out the situation and work towards a solution.