After you sign your will, you expect its terms to guide the settlement of your estate. However, if a court finds the document invalid, the distribution process can change.
Establishing the controlling document
When the court rejects your most recent will, it must determine whether an earlier version can govern the estate. That decision depends on the reason for the ruling. If the newer document never becomes legally valid, its attempt to revoke the prior will generally has no effect, allowing that version to govern if it meets all other legal requirements.
A different rule applies when you created a new will that legally replaced the earlier version and later revoked it. In that situation, evidence of your intent may show whether the prior document takes effect again.
If no valid will controls the estate, intestate succession directs the remaining probate property to the legal heirs. As a result, relatives you never named may inherit those assets.
Inheriting through intestate succession
The inheritance order begins with your surviving spouse, who may receive the entire estate or share it with your descendants or parents. The result depends on who else survives you and whether either spouse has descendants from another relationship.
If no spouse survives you, your descendants inherit first. If you leave none, your parents come next, then your siblings or their descendants and finally your grandparents or their descendants.
Not every asset enters this distribution. A valid beneficiary designation or right of survivorship generally allows the named person or surviving owner to receive that property outside probate.
Appointing a substitute representative
The court’s ruling also affects who administers the estate because your choice of personal representative depends on the will’s validity. After rejecting that document, the judge must look to any earlier version or, if none governs, the established order of priority. If an earlier will controls the estate, the person it identifies generally receives the first opportunity to serve.
Without a controlling nomination, a spouse who inherits under a probated will ranks first, while other beneficiaries come next. A spouse who does not inherit under the document follows them, then the remaining heirs.
Each candidate must be at least 18 and suitable to serve. An interested person may challenge an appointment through a formal court proceeding.
Preventing a validity challenge
Following the execution requirements removes one possible basis for a later dispute. For a standard witnessed will, you must sign it or direct someone to do so, and at least two competent witnesses must add their signatures. Those witnesses do not have to be neutral, but choosing people without a financial interest in the will can limit questions about bias.
A contemporaneous record of the property you own, your closest family members and your intended gifts can help show that you understood your choices when you finalized the will. Limiting a beneficiary’s involvement in preparing and executing the document can also reduce allegations of undue influence.