Wills face a higher risk of being contested in court when compared with a revocable living trust. This is because a revocable living trust becomes effective immediately when the trust document is signed and will usually last for some time after the owner passes away.
It will, however, only become into effect when a person dies. In the event that one of your family members wishes to contest your will, all they need to do is illustrate that you were being affected by undue influence during the time the will was signed or that you were incompetent during that time.
In order to bring forward an official contest associated with a revocable living trust, however, the legal circumstances are much more difficult. The individual bringing forward the contest has to show that the person signing the trust was not only impacted by undue influence or incompetent at the time the document was signed, but at each time property was transferred into the trust, when every distribution was made, and at the time each investment decision was made.
This makes it much more complicated to contest a revocable living trust. As you can see this is just one of the many benefits of having a comprehensive revocable living trust. Talk to your estate planning attorney to learn more.
