This blog has previously mentioned the most common question we hear when people find out we work in probate litigation: “What can I do to make sure my family doesn’t fight over my property after I die ...

Disinheriting a child or family member from one’s estate plan can be one of the most difficult and often heartbreaking issues in estate planning. Simply considering leaving a child out of an estate ...

No-contest clauses can be beneficial, but also albatrosses. The existence of a clause itself cannot prevent all challenges or always result in forfeiture when a challenge is asserted. Similar to ...

Many people are familiar with so‑called “no contest” or in terrorem clauses—provisions in a will or trust that attempt to discourage lawsuits by threatening to cut off a beneficiary who challenges the ...

While courts narrowly construe in terrorem clauses to avoid forfeiture, that doesn’t mean they ignore them. Jacob Wackerhausen / Getty Images Who should be afraid of an in terrorem clause? You, that’s ...

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Some states, such as Florida, ban no-contest clauses in wills as against public policy. A greater number of states allow these measures — also known as “in terrorem” clauses — but rarely enforce them.

The Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled that an estate beneficiary did not trigger the “in terrorem” clause in his father’s will by providing an affidavit that supported his disinherited brother’s ...

In Carlson v. Colangelo, the New York Court of Appeals addressed in terrorem (no-contest) clauses in trust agreements. The court affirmed and clarified that in terrorem clauses in trust agreements, ...

Wills are supposed to make things simple. But sometimes, the words people use in their wills do the opposite. Relationship clauses—rules about who gets what based on family ties or behavior—can turn a ...