Wills and Mental Capacity

If a person lacks capacity to make a new will, then nobody is allowed to make a new will for them without specific and express authority from the Court of Protection. Without this authority, any attempt to make a new will for a person that lacks testamentary capacity will not be successful.

Capacity to make a will is called ‘testamentary capacity’. A new will that is made with authority of the Court of Protection is called a ‘statutory will’. Please see this video for a more detailed explanation of the statutory will process [link to statutory will video].

If you want to discuss how an application for a statutory will might work, how long it may take, who needs to be involved, and how much it might cost, please get in touch with us. Whilst applications can take a number of months for the Court of Protection to deal with, in urgent situations is it possible to get a decision very quickly.

If you would like to contest the estate of a person that has died, please get in touch with our highly regarded contested estates team.

KEY CONTACTS
Holly Mieville-Hawkins
Holly Mieville-Hawkins
Senior Associate
TEAM
Charlotte Coombs
Charlotte Coombs
Senior Associate
Gemma Shepherd
Gemma Shepherd
Senior Associate
Lisa Benham
Lisa Benham
Associate
Fiona Allen
Fiona Allen
Senior Paralegal