Last Reviewed and Updated: August 19, 2026
To contest a will, you generally must have legal standing, a valid legal ground for challenging the will, and file an objection or petition with the appropriate probate court before the applicable deadline. Common grounds include undue influence, lack of testamentary capacity, fraud, forgery, or failure to properly execute the will. You will also need evidence supporting the challenge.
Will contest procedures and deadlines vary by state. Because some deadlines can be short, consider speaking with a probate or estate attorney as soon as you believe a will may be invalid.
Contesting a will means formally challenging the validity of a will through the probate court.
You are asking the court to determine that all or part of the will should not control the distribution of the deceased person’s estate.
Disagreeing with what the will says is generally not enough. A person contesting a will normally needs both legal standing and a legally recognized reason for challenging the document.
Generally, you must have a financial interest that could be affected by the outcome of the contest.
Depending on state law and the circumstances, this may include:
Someone who is simply unhappy with the deceased person’s decisions does not automatically have the right to contest the will.
If your concern is that you were intentionally or improperly excluded from an inheritance, see Were You Wrongly Disinherited?.
A successful will contest generally requires evidence that there is a legal problem with the will or the circumstances under which it was created.
Common grounds include:
The person making the will must have had the required mental capacity when the will was executed.
A challenge may allege that the person did not sufficiently understand that they were making a will, the nature of their property, the people who would ordinarily be expected to inherit, or how the will distributed their property.
Undue influence may occur when another person improperly influences the person making the will to change how property will be distributed.
For example, concerns may arise when someone in a position of trust becomes a major beneficiary after becoming heavily involved in the person’s finances or estate planning.
For a detailed explanation of this specific ground, see What Does Undue Influence Mean?.
A will may be challenged if fraud affected its creation or execution. For example, someone might misrepresent the contents of a document or deceive the person making the will about what they are signing.
A challenge may allege that a signature or document was forged or that the will was altered without authorization.
Because fraud and forgery involve their own evidence and legal issues, see Contesting a Will for Fraud or Forgery for a more detailed explanation.
Each state establishes requirements for executing a valid will. Depending on state law and the type of will involved, these may include requirements concerning signatures and witnesses.
If those legal formalities were not satisfied, the validity of the will may be challenged.
For more information about these requirements, see What Constitutes a Valid Will.
Although procedures vary by state, a will contest generally involves the following steps.
Before challenging a will, determine whether you are looking at the most recent document.
A later will or codicil could change or revoke an earlier version. If there is uncertainty about whether another will exists, use the available methods for how to find a will.
You generally need both the legal right to challenge the will and a recognized basis for doing so.
Being disappointed with an inheritance is not, by itself, grounds for invalidating a will.
The evidence needed depends on the reason for the challenge.
It may include:
The evidence should relate directly to the legal ground being alleged.
A will contest is generally brought in the probate proceeding handling the deceased person’s estate.
The required filing may be called an objection, petition, complaint, or another term depending on the jurisdiction and procedural stage.
Because court requirements vary, a probate attorney can help determine what must be filed and when. Learn more about what a probate lawyer does.
After a challenge is filed, the parties may exchange evidence, conduct discovery, negotiate, participate in mediation, or proceed to a hearing or trial.
Some will contests settle before the court decides whether the challenged will is valid.
There is no single nationwide deadline for contesting a will.
The time allowed depends on state law and may also depend on events such as when probate begins, when the will is admitted to probate, or when an interested person receives formal notice.
Missing the applicable deadline can prevent a challenge from proceeding. Therefore, someone considering a will contest should determine the deadline in the appropriate state as early as possible.
If probate has already been completed or significant time has passed, see Can a Will Be Contested After Probate?.
The result depends on what the court determines is invalid.
A court could invalidate the entire will or, in some circumstances, only the affected portion.
If the entire will is invalid, an earlier valid will may control the estate. If there is no earlier valid will, property may pass according to the state’s intestate succession laws.
Therefore, successfully contesting a will does not necessarily mean that the person bringing the challenge will receive the inheritance they want.
Possibly, but being disinherited alone generally does not make a will invalid.
A person who was excluded may still need a recognized legal ground for challenging the will, such as undue influence, lack of capacity, fraud, forgery, improper execution, or a right provided by applicable state law.
For the issues specific to an excluded heir or beneficiary, see Were You Wrongly Disinherited?.
A will contest and a trust contest are not necessarily the same legal action.
If the disputed assets are controlled by a trust, the validity or administration of the trust may need to be challenged separately.
For that situation, see Contesting a Trust. Trust contests can also have their own filing periods, which are discussed in Deadlines to Contest a Trust.
The cost can vary substantially depending on the complexity of the estate, the legal grounds involved, the amount of evidence required, whether expert witnesses are needed, and whether the dispute settles or proceeds to trial.
Attorney fees may be hourly, contingency-based in some circumstances, or structured another way. Court costs, depositions, expert witnesses, medical records, and other expenses can also increase the total cost.
Before proceeding, ask an attorney about the likely costs and whether the potential inheritance justifies the expense of litigation.
Sometimes.
Depending on the dispute and applicable law, interested parties may consider negotiation or mediation before taking a case through a full trial.
However, attempting to negotiate does not necessarily stop a legal deadline from running. Do not allow settlement discussions to cause you to miss the deadline for filing a valid challenge.
To contest a will, you generally need legal standing and a recognized legal ground for challenging the document. You then file the required objection or petition with the probate court within the applicable deadline and present evidence supporting the challenge.
Yes, if you have legal standing and valid grounds under applicable state law. Common grounds include undue influence, lack of testamentary capacity, fraud, forgery, and improper execution. Simply disagreeing with the inheritance generally is not enough.
The evidence depends on the basis of the challenge. It may include medical records, witness testimony, earlier wills, attorney records, financial documents, communications, or handwriting evidence. The evidence should support the specific legal ground being asserted.
Deadlines vary by state and circumstances. The filing period may depend on when probate begins, when the will is admitted, or when formal notice is provided. Because missing the deadline may eliminate the right to challenge the will, determine the applicable deadline promptly.
To contest a will, you need more than a disagreement over who inherited. You generally need legal standing, recognized legal grounds, supporting evidence, and a timely filing with the appropriate probate court.
If you suspect undue influence, fraud, forgery, lack of capacity, or another problem with a will, determine the applicable deadline and consider consulting a probate attorney before taking action.
This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
I deliberately used the URLs from your spreadsheet according to their focus-keyphrase intent. For example, I linked “undue influence” to the page whose focus keyword is Undue influence, fraud/forgery to the page targeting contesting a will for fraud or forgery, and post-probate challenges to the page targeting Challenging a will.
I did not link repeatedly to your separate /contesting-a-will page, because its focus keyphrase is “Contesting a will,” which is extremely close to this page’s “Contest a Will.” That is one pair I would examine closely for cannibalization rather than strengthen with indiscriminate internal linking.
This article was prepared by estate planning researchers and reviewed by S. Miller and staff. With more than 25 years of experience in estate planning documentation and probate processes, our editorial oversight ensures clarity and accuracy. This content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
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