Protecting Your Inheritance: What You Need to Know
✨ Key Points
- Inheritances can be challenged, even when you expect to receive assets under a will or trust.
- Inheritance disputes often involve contested wills, probate issues, or unclear estate planning.
- Early legal guidance is essential for protecting your inheritance and enforcing beneficiary rights.
Being left money or property by a parent or loved one can provide important financial securityespecially when the inheritance is substantial.
However, protecting your inheritance isn’t always as straightforward as many people assume.
Even if you believe you’re named in a will or trust, disputes, legal challenges, or unclear estate planning documents can put your inheritance at risk.
In reality, inheritance disputes are more common than people realize.
Issues such as contested wills, claims of undue influence, lack of capacity, or improperly executed documents can all lead to delays—or even complete loss—of an expected inheritance.
That’s why understanding estate planning and inheritance laws is critical if you anticipate receiving assets from a family member’s estate.
If conflicts arise, it may be necessary to take legal action to enforce your rights as a beneficiary.
Seeking legal advice for inheritance matters early can help you navigate probate, challenge unfair claims, and ensure that the deceased’s wishes are honored.
With the right guidance, you can protect what was intended for you and avoid costly mistakes.
Know what you stand to gain
The topic of what you might inherit from a loved one might seem like a gauche one to broach.
However, being kept in the dark can be even more trouble for you down the line.
Sometimes, a statement of wishes (the recorded intention of the estate holder’s wishes at the time) can be used as evidence that a will was manipulated or changed unfairly.
As such, if your parent or loved one mentions a will with your inheritance, it’s a good idea to ask them what you are being left and to make a record of the conversion.
Anticipating a fight
If there is a sizeable inheritance being left behind and some family members or other parties might think they have a claim to more of it than they get, it might be a good idea to anticipate that trouble.
If you anticipate any trouble or, similarly, if you have any reason to believe a will was unfairly changed to reduce your inheritance, you may want to hire an estate litigation specialist.
The will does not always have the final say on who gets what, and you may need to make your case legally to ensure that you get what you should.
Protecting Your Inheritance: Getting the worth of your assets
Ensuring that you get all of your inheritance is one thing, but getting the worth of that inheritance is another.
It may be that your loved one has left some assets to you, and you would rather get the monetary worth of those assets.
This can be done with the help of an estate liquidator, though you should anticipate that they will take a cut of the worth of the assets, too.
You do have the option of selling the assets that you inherit yourself, but you don’t have the experience that a liquidator would bring, so it’s important to be careful.
Watch out for the taxman
It’s not just other claimants that might try to take some of your inheritance away from you.
There are taxes on inheritance that can differ depending on where you live, so sometimes you may need to take strategies to cut down the taxman’s cut.
This can be done by, for instance, putting your money into a trust or by giving away some of the money.
Charitable giving is a way to get a deduction on some of your taxes.
No one wants to spend any time fighting over the money left behind by a departed loved one.
However, there may be occasions when another will try to take the inheritance rightfully yours, and simply letting them is rarely an option.
As such, you should keep the tips above in mind.
