Disinheritance

In life, things don’t always go as we plan. Sometimes, for example, a relationship that we thought would last for life fizzles out. Or, even worse yet, the person might do something to betray you, severing the relationship for good.

Whatever leads up to a ruined relationship, people often have to make changes. One such change could be disinheriting the other person. This is not an easy process, and it should always be done with the help of an experienced attorney.

Knowing some information ahead of time, however, can make the disinheritance process more manageable and easier to understand.

Try to Go for a Living Trust Whenever Possible

If you happen to have a living trust instead of a will, you’re in luck. A living trust makes disinheritance much simpler.

With a living trust, it becomes much more difficult for someone to successfully challenge the validity of your document and any changes you may have made to it since these plans are drawn up a few years or even many years before death.  As a result, people will have a difficult time claiming you weren’t in your right mind when you made the changes or that someone unduly influenced you to make the changes.

It’s also nice that a living trust is a private document, unlike wills, which are public. People are less likely to feel embarrassed or ashamed at being disinherited, which can cause them to fight the decision, since no one else has to know about it.

If you have a living trust, you will be glad for it when you start the disinheritance process. If you don’t, don’t panic. You’ll just have to work a little harder and a little more closely with a professional to make sure your wishes are clearly backed up and airtight in your will.

Be Careful About Your Beneficiary

One final thing to keep in mind is that the person who have will have the most control over your assets after your death will be your beneficiary. Thus, if you have named someone a beneficiary, but you wish to disinherit that person, you will want to remove that designation immediately.

While removing someone as your beneficiary isn’t technically the same as disinheriting someone, it does a lot of the same things and keeps your assets away from someone you wouldn’t want to have them.

As you can see, the disinheritance process can be a tricky one. With the right help and guidance, however, you can make it through!