I’m not rich, or old, do I really need an estate plan?

Yes, you do. No matter what you have or how young you are, you need an estate plan. An estate plan is more than just a Will. It also includes direction on how to provide for your care if you are alive and unable to do so yourself. Nobody is immune to accidents or early onset of disease, and there is no age where you are death-proof. Estate planning is something you do to protect you and your loved ones if something goes wrong, and there is no set time or place that could happen.

My mother has dementia and no longer can make decisions on her own. She does not have any Power of Attorney documents. Is there anything that can be done to help her?

Yes. When you have a loved one who needs another person to step in and make decisions for them but does not have the proper documents to do so, you may ask the Court to place your loved one under a Guardianship. A guardianship allows someone to step in and make either financial or healthcare decisions (or both) for your loved one. The process is a legal matter, and you must get the Court’s approval in order to act a Guardian for another person. The Court also oversees the Guardianship, meaning that there are reporting requirements as well.

My father wrote a Will that leaves everything to his new girlfriend and nothing to his family. Can we challenge the Will?

Possibly. You cannot successfully challenge a Will just because you do not like what it says. Similarly, you cannot successfully challenge a Will just because a loved one did not include you in it. However, you may challenge a Will on the grounds of either lack of capacity (the person making the Will did have the mental faculties to do so) or undue influence (someone convinced the person making the Will to make dispositions they would not have made on their own). The question of success depends on many facts, but if a Will seems to be out of character for the person who made it, it can be challenged.

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