A Stipulated Will.. Legal Or No?

Edwards Finance > Wills

Q. During the course of my life recently, I came across some interesting info.. Let's say in your will, you leave say, 10 million dollars to your son and 10 million dollars to your daughter and the balance of your estate (500 Million) to a charity. Obviously, your son and daughter ain't gonna be too happy about that. However, in your will you stipulate that the son and daughter will only receive the 10 mill *if they do not contest the will*. Now, my question is.... Is such a stipulation legal.. On the one hand, if you believe (as I do) that a will is a "gift" and should have no legal requirements of "fairness", then this would seem to be a legal move. However, with so many legalities surrounding the will and probate process, I would think that such a move would not be legal. On the THIRD hand, if it IS, in fact, legal I would think that a lot of people would be doing this and if everyone did it, it would virtually eliminate contested wills.. Comments on the subject??

A. -I wasn't really looking for the cold hard facts. If that was my intent, I would have availed myself of the newsgroups you mention or the Web... I was hoping to stimulate some educational responses re: the subject, of which yours was one. Not so much the letter of the law, but people's feelings about it... Your response was most appreciated -They would tell you to put it in a trust ( trusts are not as easy to contest ) Then talk to to a "Good" Financial planner They would tell you about setting up a "CRAT" or charitable remainder annuity trust where you can set it up where the charity gets their lump sum but promises to pay the children an income for their life. The benefit to the estate is that it gets a tax break ( not as much as it would by not providing an income ) but the kids cannot outlive the money and they can play a part with their father's legacy. A simple answer is that people who have that kind of money never rely on a will by itself, so it doesn't matter. They would use ill revocable trusts, Crat's, living trusts, life insurance and gifting money now to lower the estate taxes.

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