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Contesting a will is more common then it has been. There are ways to contest it that are
easy then others but the first thing you need to do before you think about contesting a
will, is to have a good understanding of what the will actually says. Because if you are
a beneficiary or someone who's going to take under the will, and you don't like what you
got, maybe you got a third and your sister got two thirds, you got two thirds of one
asset and they got the really good stuff over there, sure you can fight it. But you better
know what that will says. And frankly you need to know what the living trust says, because
most well drawn lawyer drafted wills and trusts will have something in the document called
the no contest clause. If you decide to fight, you might find yourself disinherited like
that. Because the trust of the will says if anybody fights they get cut out. So you can
fight, but before you fight you better know, need to know whether or not you are fighting
is going to get you disinherited. You can hire a lawyer and the lawyer is going to get
paid one or two ways in this. They are going to get paid by the hour, if they get paid
by the hour, they are going to look to you to pay them by the hour. It can be a very
expensive process, assume that you've got plenty of money, that's something you can
handle. Most people don't have a lot of money. Most people don't have that kind of money
that's going to take to do a will contest and so they hire a lawyer on a contingency
fee. Which means a percentage of the estate. Lots of lawyers out there will accept a case
if they think it's a good case, and take a third of what you might receive because they
are representing you, maybe they'll take half. Depends on the lawyer, depends on the state,
depends on the facts. You can contest the will or a trust just make sure you understand
what you're getting into before you get into it.