Inheritance theft can occur in many different forms and can create serious challenges for your estate and probate planning. Whether it’s destroying or forging documents or undocumented loans, there are a few ways that someone in your family could actually hijack an inheritance intended for you.
Many contested probate cases end up being between a deceased spouse’s children and a surviving spouse. Understanding the potential issues that could emerge for you and your loved ones should prompt you to schedule a consultation with an estate planning lawyer.
An estate planning attorney will be able to walk you through the process of the necessary estate planning strategies and tools that you can use to minimize the chances of conflict after you pass away. If your adult children believe that a former spouse or spouse from a second or third marriage is taking their inheritance, you need to be sure that any updates or new versions of your estate plan have been clearly documented.
Documenting this and dotting all of the i’s and crossing all of the t’s will make it less likely that any angry family members will choose to pursue legal action that could swallow up assets from your estate and make the probate process longer.
Most people are unclear about how a probate dispute can derail all of their good intentions with their estate plan. Take it upon yourself to review your current plan and to determine where there are potential gaps that our Pasadena estate planning attorney can help you with; there’s no time like the present to get started with these important steps.
