Do You Want To Take Someone Out Of Your Will? What To Know

Estate planning is a very important task you need to seriously consider taking care of. This is the best thing you can do before you pass away to ensure your affairs are in order for your family and loved ones. As you plan your estate, you need to decide who or what entity will receive an inheritance from you. One way to do this is to have a will in place. Over the years, you should evaluate your will and make changes as needed. You may find you have to remove people from your will for a particular reason. If you need to take someone out of your will, think about the following:

Are There Legal Considerations Required for Removal?

If you want to take someone out of your will, you need to consider the legalities and procedures for doing so. If the person you want to take out of your will is not an immediate family member, you should be able to simply have your attorney remove their name from your will. If the person you want to take out of the will is an immediate family member, there are some things you may have to do.

Some states have certain requirements you must meet to make the change. You may have to provide evidence behind your reason to take the family member out of your will. The reasons could be related to abuse, drug use, divorce, and the like.

What Is the Easiest Way to Remove a Family Member?

If you really want to take an immediate family member out of your will but do not want to go through a variety of legal hurdles, there is one thing you can do that will make the process easier. Instead of taking the family member out of your will completely, leave them in the will but change their inheritance. First, you will change the amount of their inheritance to a much smaller sum. Next, have your attorney include a no-contest clause in the will and your estate documents. Once this happens, no one can make any changes to the will or challenge the will once you pass away. Even though you still are leaving something to the person you want to remove, this option helps prevent legal frustrations on your part while still keeping the person from getting much from your estate.

Making changes to the beneficiaries in your will is an important decision. You need to carefully think about your decisions and discuss your options with your estate attorney and have them help you make the changes to ensure they are ironclad legally.