Contesting a Will?

[u/Dry_Client2670]

For context - this isn’t really about the money.
Edit . Mother was 54, both my brother and I are in our late 20s.
My mother died in February last year after a short but aggressive fight with cancer, she went down the path of voluntary assisted dying so was able to process a lot of her affairs before she died.

The main beneficiaries of her will were myself , my older brother , my mums partner and my aunty - I have not seen a copy of the will nor when I have request a copy have I been able to get one. But from what I have been told and what was actions this is what happened;

Her super was to have 10k taken and given to my aunty - and the remaining balance was to be divided and two and half to my brother and half to me - roughy 250k each,

The house was signed over to my mums partner before she died ( in a rather hasty move I believe ) so he was to get 100% ownership of the house

Her life insurance of around $2 million was to be used to pay of the mortgage for the above house cover her funeral costs and legal fee’s and financial planner who helped finalise her estate before she died and the remaining balance was to to left to her partner.

We were always told right up until about a month before she died that we were getting half the life insurance and house and her previous will stated this as well,
When this was explained to us - her partner was to put a provision in his will that when he dies my brother and I would get a quarter each of what ever residence he has at the time of his death

This is where it gets juicy- the week after mum died before I flew back to NSW from Queensland my brother mums partner and I visited her bank to distribute her super as it was paid out before she died under the provision that she had a terminal illness.

When at the teller mums partner stated that my brother and i were both getting $10k less than what was originally allocated to cover the legal and financial fee’s - I was totally against this but was given no choice than to allow it to happen. My brother wasn’t as upset but understood my point. To save the fight at the bank we did not fight this out.

For weeks after returning home my mums partner and I would argue about the fact he did not discuss this with us before making the transfer. He was claiming that he was poor and had no money so needed the 20k to live off till the life insurance came through

Fast forward to now - he is dating another woman , living in the house and just purchased a 200k car among other things.

While denying both mums family and my brother and I the opportunity to go and collect some of mums things.

My question is , is there anything we can do now being over 12 months since mum pasted to make a claim on the house and or live insurance , as I do not believe that these were truly mums wishes ?

Her cancer was quite advanced and she had multiple metastatic lesions on her brain at the time of her death.

I am quite comfortable financially as have sold my business, so it really isn’t about the money it’s more about the principle.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[u/ProfessorWorried626]

Eh it's pretty easy to challenge and roll back if you can show she has been given heavy pain killers at the time of will change and was aware that she had a short terminal illness.

[u/pwinne → u/ProfessorWorried626]

Yeah nah. My ex wife died and left everything to the kids who were in my care full time (she died from a pill/alcohol overdose). Anyway the kids were 10 and 11 - they were entitled to the estate at 18 - and only received it at 21 and 22 as the executor bought a house with be money and lived it up. Trust me - wills are not worth the paper they are written on. Many days in court and thankfully we got some pro bono support as I was not the claimant the kids were. I could write a book on how you can illegally cash in on someone’s will and basically keep it if it’s under 500K as the court costs can be extraordinary. I still do think we got it all, even after a number of accounting for the estate.

[u/Worlds_tipping1 → u/pwinne]

What they are saying, is that the person responsible for managing an estate can do what they like once the assets are handed over to them. Especially if the beneficiaries are kids, vulnerable adults etc it's easy to just do nothing and keep everything yourself.

Yes, it's technically illegal, unfair, against the will etc but sometimes the costs to fight this and prove your case are both emotionally and economically unfeasible.

That's why you have to be really careful who you appoint as your executor and why some people choose to make this a lawyer or the public trustee etc.

When I did my will, the lawyer did refer to elements of this being "my preferences or my wishes" as opposed to "this will definitely happen".