Cases where you may need to make a claim against the estate include those where:

• You have been left out of a Will altogether; or
• In the circumstances you should have received a bigger share of the estate; or
• You should have been left a particular asset; or
• There are some unreasonable conditions to be met before you get your inheritance.

You need to challenge the validity of a Will if the Will was made in suspicious circumstances. Examples of this include cases where:

• The person making the Will did not understand what they were doing; or
• The person making the Will was put under pressure to make the Will the way they did.

You may be named as the executor in a Will and find that the beneficiaries are fighting between themselves, or there are people who are claiming part of the estate even though they are not named as beneficiaries. You may also be the next of kin of someone who died without any Will and the estate comes under challenge.

You risk losing your inheritance if you are named as a beneficiary in a Will and:

• The Will is under challenge; or
• A claim is being made against the estate.