Contest precluded if court approves conservator suggested estate plan

On June 26, 2008, a California appellate court ruled in Murphy v. Murphy that

when a conservator seeks court approval of an estate plan, while the subject is living, any challenge to the will must be raised at that hearing- not when the person dies.

The appellate decision is the first in the country to say attacks on wills would be barred after the estate owner dies, if there has been a court-approved substituted judgment * * *.

The opinion essentially bulletproofs the will of a person found incompetent and placed under the protection of a conservator, if the court OKs a revised estate plan * * *.

See Pamela A. MacLean, In Appellate First, Attacks on Wills Barred After Estate Owner Dies, Nat’l L.J., July 14, 2008.

Special thanks to Raymond Sheffield for bringing this article to my attention.