If you are making an estate plan, you might come across no-contest clauses in your research. People insert these into their wills to try and prevent anyone from challenging them. The threat being that if someone contests the will, they stand to lose everything they might have otherwise inherited.
Not every state treats no-contest clauses the same. Here is what California has to say about them.
A no-contest clause is valid if someone directly contests the will without probable cause
The law considers that a person has probable cause to file a contest when given what they knew when they filed it, and allowing for some further research, a reasonable person would think they had a “reasonable likelihood” of winning their case.
The legal grounds on which they can contest a will are limited to:
- Forgery
- Lack of due execution
- Lack of capacity
- Menace, duress, fraud, or undue influence
- Revocation of the will under specific circumstances
- Disqualification of a beneficiary under specific circumstances
If someone files a contest that is not based on one of those things or does not have a reasonable chance of success, a court will likely uphold a no-contest clause, and the person will lose anything they stood to inherit.
Those making a will can expand the scope of a no-contest clause
There are two further reasons a court can uphold a no-contest clause on your behalf, but only if you specifically write them into the no-contest clause that you craft within your estate plan:
- If someone challenges the transfer of a piece of property on the grounds it was not yours to transfer at the time
- If a beneficiary files a creditor’s claim (or acts upon one that is filed)
If you are considering including a no-contest clause in your estate plan or challenging a will containing one, it’s crucial you learn more before proceeding. A few words can make a great difference in a legal document such as this.