A contentious relationship between siblings could lead to a will contest after a parent has died. Sometimes this happens when a son or daughter thinks that a last will and testament does not truly reflect the wishes of a deceased parent.
If you should suspect that a will from your parent contains problems, there are a number of ways to alert yourself to possible defects.
Lack of proper signatures
To be a legal will, the document must have signatures from required parties. Your parent should have signed the will unless a health condition made it impossible. Two disinterested witnesses should also have signed the document.
A disinterested person is a neutral party, someone who does not stand to gain from the will. While a lack of witnesses may indicate a problem, you might also suspect something is amiss if you find signatures of people who could inherit from the will.
Forged signatures
Think about how your mother or father signs documents. If you notice a will has handwriting that does not look familiar, Policy Genius explains that someone could have forged a signature. Sometimes a malicious actor will even forge an entire will in the handwriting of another person.
Finding more wills
There should be a single will to dictate what happens to the estate of your parent. So if you find multiple wills supposedly written by your loved one, you may wonder which is authentic. You might even suspect someone coerced your relative into writing a new will.
Consider what your parent would truly want for his or her estate. A good understanding of your family member may alert you to clues that a will has problems.