Acting as a caregiver for an older adult is a demanding job. Adult children, spouses and sometimes even professional caregivers work around the clock to ensure that those with physical or cognitive challenges caused by advanced age can live comfortably and safely.
Most of the time, caregivers are diligent about supporting the people who need them and upholding ethical standards. Unfortunately, some people might abuse the access and authority that come with a caregiving role.
Families may worry about a caregiver manipulating, threatening or coercing older adults into making drastic revisions to an estate plan that undermine the older adult’s wishes and benefit the caregiver. In those cases, acting to halt the undue influence or contest a compromised will can protect older adults and their legacy.
What is undue influence?
Every competent adult technically has the right to establish their own estate plan. The terms included in a will or other documents should honestly represent their wishes and not pressure, coercion or manipulation from another person.
Undue influence occurs when someone in a position of authority over a vulnerable adult abuses that relationship for personal gain. Families may want to maintain records of prior estate planning documents and the role that the caregiver played.
If an estate plan later reveals that late-in-life adjustments reduced what others inherited for the benefit of a caregiver, inappropriate demands on their part might be to blame. Undue influence may come in the form of a threat. Caregivers can withhold medication or food. They can socially isolate older adults and convince them that their families have abandoned them.
They can play on an older adult’s emotions by pretending there is a deeper connection between them than they have actually developed or by painting themselves as a victim of untenable circumstances who needs a hero. In some cases, families may choose to remove and replace the caregiver who abuses their position. Other times, they may need to contest a will that benefits a caregiver at the expense of those the now-deceased older adult intended to actually be their beneficiaries.
Reviewing the conduct of the caregiver and different versions of estate planning documents with a skilled legal team can help concerned families determine if undue influence has truly undermined a loved one’s estate plan. A will contest could result in the courts setting aside compromised documents to protect the true legacy of a person who has died.