Wills and undue influence

"Undue influence" refers to coercing or manipulating someone into changing their Will. It's always a change that favours the person doing the influencing. It usually happens not long before a person, weak or sick, passes away. In law, a Will that was made under undue influence can be contested in court, because it does not reflect the true wishes of the testator. Even though the testator signs the Will, it becomes clear that he or she only signed it because of the undue influence.

The person who coerces, manipulates or influences an elderly person to change the Will may be what is often called a "recent friend", someone new on the scene who seems to be interested only in the elderly person's money. Believe me, elderly people can be very vulnerable to this, particularly if they are lonely or frightened of being alone.

However, it's not just recent friends that pull this kind of thing. Coercion, manipulation and influence are sometimes also applied by an elderly person's children. At times I'm shocked at the utter coldness of people's children when there is money involved. Other perpetrators are caregivers of the elderly person, neighbours and other relatives such as nieces and nephews.

I'm attaching an article here that appears on the Wills and Estates Blog on Lexis-Nexis.com. It reviews the Texas case of The Estate of Eugene Clifford Everett. It sets out the facts of the case pretty clearly and concisely. My guess is that a number of my readers will recognize the scenario, based on some of the questions I receive.  Read it not just to understand what constitutes undue influence, but to see what the courts did about it. Yes, this case is from Texas, but we have legislation here to deal with undue influence as well.