Article on Reducing Estate and Trust Litigation

Jonathan G. Blattmachr (Attorney, New York) recently published his article entitled Reducing Estate and Trust Litigation Through Disclosure, In Terrorem Clauses, Mediation and Arbitration, 36 ACTEC L.J. 547 (Winter 2010). The ACTEC abstract is below:

Many will contests are threatened or commenced every year in the United States. Often, simple greed is the sole motive for the lawsuit or its threat. In some cases, however, the action is spurred by emotions such as a need to prove the testator cared as much or more for the contestant than for any other inheritor; jealously with respect to a bequest of an heirloom; or a desire for control, such as seeking to prevent another from acting as the executor or trustee under the will. Such contests almost always adversely affect the relations among the decedent’s survivors, sometimes forever, which is one of the last results the decedent would want. The risk of a will contest can often be reduced by planning during life, such as advising inheritors prior to death of the testator’s plans, using a revocable or even an irrevocable trust in lieu of a will, using an in terrorem (disinheritance) provision (perhaps with a direction that the will be admitted to original probate in a state that will enforce such a provision), or conditioning any bequest on an agreement by the legatee to submit any complaint or contest to a good faith mediation or arbitration.