When people in Ohio are considering challenging a will, they need to identify who the interested parties are. This includes all the individuals who are named in the will.
It is not uncommon for people to underestimate just how many interested parties there may be because it is not limited to named individuals. All the family members of the person who prepared the last will and testament are generally considered to be interested parties even if they are not beneficiaries. Furthermore, if there is a previous will, the individuals named in that document are also considered interested parties even if they are not mentioned in the current will.
Both the individual who is challenging the will and the one who is defending it must identify the interested parties. This is because they must be notified and offered the chance to participate in the litigation as well.
People who are preparing a will may want consider strategies that could reduce the likelihood that it will be contested. First, they may want to work with an attorney to prepare the will. This can help ensure that the right legal language is used and that its intentions are not ambiguous. If a person wishes to disinherit a family member, it may be better to explicitly say this in the will instead of simply not mentioning the individual. People should also prepare a will when they are healthy so that it will not be easy to raise a question of competence. This competence could be questioned by allegations that in preparing the will, the person was unduly influenced by another individual. A no-contest clause can reduce the likelihood that a beneficiary will challenge the will since if they are unsuccessful, they could be cut out of the will entirely.
