There are many reasons a beneficiary may become belligerent. However, according to the article How to Handle a Belligerent Beneficiary, one way a beneficiary acts out towards an estate is to exercise their right to contest the will or threaten a lawsuit. Moreover, there are two legitimate reasons why a beneficiary may exercise such a right: abatement or ademption.

Unfortunately, the executor must inform each beneficiary named in the will that they are part of the estate. If the beneficiary understands the bequest they may receive, the beneficiary will expect that bequest at some point. So, if abatement or ademption affected a bequest, the intended beneficiary may become belligerent. As a result, the belligerent beneficiary may contest the will or sue the estate.

Why a Beneficiary May Become Belligerent Because of Abatement

The way a beneficiary acts towards abated bequests depends on the size of the estate. In common estates that are small, some beneficiaries won’t expect much and may expect nothing at all. Conversely, even in small estates, beneficiaries will want everything coming to them and more, if possible. These are the beneficiaries that will cause problems over bequests in the estate.

What some beneficiaries fail to understand is that receiving bequests is not a guarantee. The primary responsibility for an executor is to pay the expenses, claims, and taxes of the estate. In a well-funded estate, the beneficiaries will receive their bequests. Conversely, if the estate is too small to cover all or any of the estate obligations, an abatement process will apply to the bequests as explained in the article Paying Debts and Honoring Bequests through the Abatement Process. So, when a beneficiary realizes that abatement applied to their bequest, they may become belligerent.

Additionally, most common people have little knowledge of abatement or that such a process exists. As a result, they are unaware of the circumstances that causes abatement. The cause of abatement could be any one of the following:

• There were not enough estate assets to cover the estate obligations.

• There were enough assets to cover the estate obligations, including bequests. However, the decedent didn’t commit enough of the assets to cover the estate obligations using a probate avoidance strategy.

• The decedent didn’t plan properly knowing the estate was too small to cover bequests.

• The executor mishandled the estate assets.

Basically, because of these misunderstandings, abated beneficiaries will accuse the executor of mishandling the assets, if they react at all. Consequently, they may consider filing a lawsuit or contesting the will.

Why a Beneficiary May Become Belligerent Because of Ademption

The form of ademption that would cause belligerence from a beneficiary is ademption by extinction in an identity theory state. In the article Determining Bequest Distributions Using the Doctrine of Ademption, ademption by extinction using the identity theory is the harshest form of ademption. In a state that uses the identify theory of ademption by extinction, if a decedent left a specific bequest to a beneficiary and changed the bequeathed property during life without updating the will, the intended beneficiary would not receive the bequest since the specific bequest is no longer part of the estate. As a result, the intended beneficiary may become belligerent.

Unfortunately, similar to abatement, common people don’t understand ademption or that the doctrine even exists. Therefore, if a beneficiary is expecting to receive the decedent’s car and receives nothing instead, the beneficiary will be angry. The beneficiary won’t understand that the car listed in the will is not the same as the car left in the estate. As a result, the beneficiary may sue for the property.

The Concern for the Executor

For the most part, beneficiary belligerence starts with careless estate planning from the decedent. Additionally, failure to update the will on the part of the decedent contributes to the belligerence. As discussed in the article How to Avoid Abatement and Ademption, most people with common estates know little about the consequence of abatement or ademption and fail to plan properly. The result is beneficiaries becoming belligerent over reduced or eliminated bequests.

However, if the belligerence is from abatement or ademption, the executor has little concern. If the decedent didn’t provide instructions in the will to handle abatement or ademption, the probate court decides abatement or ademption taking the matter away from the executor. In this instance, the executor receives protection from liability. Moreover, unless the executor did mishandle the assets of the estate, the executor has little to worry about concerning a lawsuit. In either case, the beneficiary would surely lose if abatement or ademption was necessary. 

In the end, anyone planning an estate must plan carefully and keep the estate plan updated. Otherwise, unintended consequences occur that hurt the intended beneficiaries.

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