Testamentary capacity

Wills, trusts and estates

Part of the common law series

Wills

Legal history of wills Joint wills and mutual wills Will contract · Codicil Holographic will · Oral will

Sections Attestation clause Residuary clause Incorporation by reference

Contest Testamentary capacity Undue influence Insane delusion · Fraud

Property disposition Lapse and anti-lapse Ademption · Abatement Satisfaction of legacies Acts of independent significance Elective share · Pretermitted heir Wills and conflict of laws

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Other types Protective · Spendthrift Life insurance · Remainder Life interest Reversionary interest Testamentary Honorary · Asset-protection Special needs (Supplemental Needs)

Governing doctrines Pour-over will Cy-près doctrine Trusts and conflict of laws

Estate administration

Intestacy · Testator · Probate Power of appointment Simultaneous death · Slayer rule Laughing heir · Advancement Disclaimer of interest · Inheritance tax

Related topics

Advance directive (Living will) Totten trust

Other common law areas

Contract · Tort · Property Criminal law · Evidence

v • d • e

In the common law tradition, testamentary capacity is the legal term of art used to describe a person's legal and mental ability to make a valid will. This concept has also been called sound mind and memory or disposing mind and memory.

Presumption of capacity

Adults are presumed to have the ability to make a will. Litigation about testamentary capacity typically revolves around charges that the testator, by virtue of senility, dementia, insanity, or other unsoundness of mind, lacked the mental capacity to make a will. In essence, the doctrine requires those who would challenge a validly executed will to demonstrate that the testator did not know the consequence of his conduct when he executed the will.

Certain people, such as minors, are conclusively deemed incapable of making a will by the common law; however, minors who serve in the military are conceded the right to make a will by statute in many jurisdictions.

Requirements

The requirements for testamentary capacity are minimal. Some courts have held that a person who lacked the capacity to make a contract can nevertheless make a valid will. While the wording of statutes or judicial rulings will vary from one jurisdiction to another, the test generally requires that the testator was aware of:

1. The extent and value of their property
2. The persons who are the natural beneficiaries
3. The disposition he is making
4. How these elements relate to form an orderly plan of distribution of property.^{[1][2][3] [4] [5]}

The legal test implies that a typical claimant in a will contest is a disgruntled heir who believe he should have received a larger share than what he received under the will. Once the challenging party meets the burden of proof that the testator did not possess the capacity, the burden subsequently shifts to the party propounding the will to show by clear and convincing evidence that the testator did have the requisite capacity.

Proof of testamentary capacity

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Those who contest a will for lack of testamentary capacity must typically show that the decedent suffered from mental unsoundness that left them unable to remember family members or caused them to hold insane delusions about them. Dead Man's Statutes sometimes restrict evidence which can be admitted concerning transactions with the decedent.

Lawyers for people whose testamentary capacity might be called into question often arrange for a will execution to be video taped. On video, they ask the testator about his property and about his family, and go over the contents of the testator's will.

Even when a testator are found to have lacked testamentary capacity due to senility, loss of memory due to the aging process, infirmity or insanity, courts will sometimes rule that the testator had a "temporary period of lucidity" or a "lucid moment" at the time of the execution of the testamentary instrument. Such finding will validate a will that would otherwise be denied probate.

A way to forestall a will contest would be to have a self-proving will, in which an affidavit of the witnesses to the will specifically swear or affirm that the will was prepared under the supervision of an attorney.

See also

• Capacity (law)
• Memory
• Memory and aging

Foonotes

References

• Addington v. Wilson, 5 Blackf. (Ind.) 137, 61 Am.Dec. 81 (Sup. Ct. Ind. 1854)
• Allman v. Malsbury, 224 Ind. 177, 65 N.E.2d 106 (Sup. Ct. Ind. 1946)
• Hays v. Harmon, 809 N.E.2d 460 (Ind. Ct. App., 2004)