Creating an estate plan and ensuring everything is in order is a great way to help things progress smoothly with your assets after your death. However, there is always the potential for something to happen that slows down the probate process and creates headaches for your loved ones. A common action taken is to contest a will. This is when someone asks the court to invalidate your will. Obviously, you do not want this to happen. There is something you can do to ensure it does not.
People will often contest a will if they are not happy with the decisions you made or if they feel like they did not get what they should have. Sometimes it happens because of an issue within your family. In any case, it puts a stop to probate because the court has to first determine if your will is valid before it can make any other actions. This can be time-consuming. In the meantime, your family has to wait for disbursements, which could cause them financial hardship or lead to further legal issues.
Luckily, the Ohio Revised Code gives you an option that allows you to prevent anyone from contesting your will. If you file your will with a probate court while you are still alive and have a judge declare it valid, then nobody can contest it.
Of course, the downside to this is that you should be pretty sure this is the final draft of your will and that you will not make further changes to it before you go to the court with it. Otherwise, you will have to go back to court to declare the first will invalid and get the judge to declare the second will valid.
