As I noticed this is your first post with us I wanted to stop by to say hello and welcome you to the forum, Pebbles.

I'm sorry to hear that you feel that your ex-husband's friend could be persuading him to change his mind when it comes to what was already agreed in regards to his will.

Hopefully, others who have encountered a similar situation will come along shortly to offer advice but until they do you might want to consider seeing someone with a legal background who could advise. With this in mind, there is a page from our website I wanted to share with you that links to legal guidance services and where you can find your nearest provider.

I hope this helps.

With best wishes to you and your family,

Renata, Cancer Chat Moderator

From another perspective, and it may not be one you want so I'll apologise in advance. Has he been with this woman for the 20 years your sister has kept his will? I guess so as she was written into it then. If so, that's a long time. Maybe he considers her his 'wife' after all that time? Maybe he feels after 20 years he should make sure she's looked after. That's a lot of years to give to someone, so maybe he feels he's doing the right thing. Is it possible to talk to him in a subtle way?

Hiya,

I assume your ex husband has now passed away and that is why you know about the change to his will? 

Being faced with the news that he was going to die, he may have prompted his partner to obtain his will so he could revise it? But to answer your question, you can contest a will if you believe co ercion was involved but I'm told that not many contestations succeed. This is so that people have the confidence that the law protects the deceased person's wishes made when they were alive. The solicitor who made the will, would have been satisfied your ex husband was of sound mind when he took his instructions. I know that legacies can cause I'll feeling, especially when blood relatives are left out in favour of friends/partners but it may be that he felt she had done a lot for him in their time together and he wanted to reward that. Obviously I don't know the full situation and you may strongly feel something is amiss. It will be costly to challenge but most solicitors will give you a free consultation, it might be worth just finding out. 

Best wishes Jane 

The laws are pretty strict to make sure vulnerable people aren't in a position to be emotionally blackmailed into making changes to their estate. So the solicitor dealing with it would have had a strict code of ethics to follow.

As others have said, maybe it was done of his own free will. Not many people think of wills until they're faced with such an awful prognosis as your ex husband. Maybe he just re evaluated the contents within. You as an ex wife will have little or no say in the matter. It will be his son that will have to deal with any contested part of the will.

you as an ex will have no real power to claim anything unless you have a legal document stating some of his assets were paid by yourself. That's not always down to finances as I'm pretty sure, if say, he bought the house whilst with yourself, whilst you took a break from employment to bring up your kid/s, that is also taken into consideration. But yeah, it's all complicated as it's kinda null and void if you accepted a divorce settlement and got all your entitlements.

This is all rather a simplistic explanation, and only a solicitor can give you the answers you truly seek.

i would go to the police and tell them what has happened, or go to a lawyer and see were u stand, and go see ur ex husband and find out what the hell that freind been up to. i pray ur get this sorted. God bless

How long has your ex husband been with his woman friend?  If she has invested a lot of years in to a relationship with your husband, perhaps she felt that she should now be his priority.  I apologise if this is not what you want to hear, but you and your ex husband  have been apart for a lot of years and whilst it is great that you have remained good friends, frankly I think that his woman friend has a right to be his main prioroty, especially if they have been together for a lot of years. 

I'm afraid the law will assume your financial affairs were resolved when you divorced. Ad long as he had the mental czapacity to change his will he had a right to change it.