A Legal MinuteMissing & changed wills
How Changes in a Will Affect Probate
The short answer
This is more of an attorney question, and the answer is "maybe": it really depends. Factors include how much the change alters the shares, what the assets are (such as whether a house was sold or a family member bought out the others), and whether someone already spent money they were told was theirs.
From the full episode What Happens When A Will Is Missing (18:15).
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Transcript
Again, that's going to be more of an attorney question. It really does depend. One, it depends how much does it change it? Is it a percentage change where it's the same people, but maybe someone gets more of the pie rather than an equal split?
It depends on what the assets are, you know, was a house sold and converted to cash, or did a sibling or family member buy out the other ones to take the house? And so, there's a lot to unpack there in that question, because unfortunately it really does depend.
I would say the answer is maybe. We'd have to look at it and see, because the other problem you run into is if you have a change and somebody's already spent the money, well, they didn't do it in bad faith. It's not like they stole the money and knew they weren't supposed to spend it. They were told, "This is your money."
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