Q: Is there time limit to contest a will or trust

A: There are separate rules concerning a challenge or contest of a will as opposed to a challenge or contest of a trust. A will, in order to be effective for the control or transfer of the assets of a person who has died, must be proved and accepted ("probated") by a court. The spouse and children of a person who has died must be notified that the will is being submitted to the court and offered for probate. The attorney who submits the will to the court for probate or approval may ask the surviving spouse or children to sign a document called a "waiver of citation and consent"("waiver"). If a person is not satisfied with the contents of a will and may wish to file a challenge or contest to the will, the requested waiver should certainly not be signed without first speaking to an attorney. Once the court receives a waiver, the court will grant probate and approve the will as valid and controlling to transfer the assets of the person who has died. It is extremely difficult, and almost impossible, for a person who has signed and filed a waiver with the court to challenge or contest the will at any later date. So, do not sign the waiver if you want to contest the will; you must consult with an attorney as soon as possible if you are asked to sign such a waiver.

If you do not sign a waiver, the lawyer will usually have the court issue a citation (a document like a summons or order to show cause)which will be served upon you with a date on which you have to appear in court to challenge the will by filing written objections; if you do not appear in court on the scheduled date and object to the will, you will be deemed to have waived all objections to the will and the court will then approve the will as valid and contolling concerning the transfer of the assets of the person who died. It is strongly recommended that you retain an attorney to a assist you in filing objections (if the attorney advises that to do so is possible in your case)on the scheduled court date ("return date")of the citation. There are various legal groounds to contest a will but it is an extremely complex and difficult process to do successfully--statistics show that only about 1.% of all will contests or challenges are successful.

The situation involving trusts is much more complicated. With many trusts, there may not even be any court proceedings or duty to notify heirs. The same holds true for assets of a person who died which are transferred to another person by "operation of law" including beneficiary designations on life insurance policies or accounts, jointly owned accounts or joint deeds with survivorship provisions, pay on death ("pod") accounts, transfer on death ("tod") accounts and "in trust for" ("itf") acccounts. With these types of accounts, even the spouse and children may not receive notice that assets are being transferred after a person has died. You should consult wih an attorney as soon as possible to see if steps can be taken to discover such assets or to investigate the possible existence of same.

In the end, time is always of the essence in such situations but there may or may not be any specific deadline; the passage of time without action, however, can only work to your detriment.