As a New York Estate Lawyer with more than 25 years of experience litigating NY estates on behalf of New Yorkers I can tell you some of the most difficult cases are New York will contests. Not only are NY will contests extraordinarily both time and labor intensive but they are also some of the most distasteful, emotionally charged cases any NY estate lawyer will ever handle. Not to mention feelings of betrayal experienced by family members who come to learn the parent they thought loved them and had looked upon them favorably and generously, actually disinherited them. This level of emotional incongruity within the family often leaves the family permanently fractured. However this nightmare can grow exponentially worse when the family learns that their disinheritance was not actually done by the hand of their parent but rather a very elaborate ruse implemented by an unscrupulous opportunist. There is no shortage of individuals who are willing to exert their undue influence over the frailty of another whose mind may be cognitively compromised from dementia or some other affliction.
If you think elaborate schemes to defraud New York Estates with unwitting NY estate lawyers who often either do not know any better or actually help precipitate the offense is an anomaly, you would be mistaken. And if you think undue influence cannot be exerted over your family member think again. In fact even the smartest of attorneys fall victim to elaborate schemes to defraud their family’s wealth near the end of their lives.
As NY estate lawyers with more experience than any other firm setting aside attorney drafted NY wills as the product of undue influence I can tell you that the greatest opportunity for theft of wealth happens at or near the end of the lives of our loved ones.
When contesting a New York attorney drafted will one of the issues courts often consider is whether there existed a prior estate plan before the alleged undue influence occurred. If so did the prior NY estate plan substantially differ from the subsequent plan where the undue influence is alleged. Another factor Courts will consider is the relationship of the current beneficiaries to the decedent. In the landmark case In Re Kaufman’s Will, 11 A.D. 2d 759 (1st Dept. 1960), it was stated that where in a will contest there were special circumstances between the decedent’s relationship with a “stranger to the blood” someone who was not related, a full examination in relationship to the issues of testamentary capacity and undue influence are warranted. This means that courts in New York give enhanced scrutiny to contested NY estates where the beneficiary had a close relationship with the decedent, often in a position of power, such as a home health aide for example, and were not family members.
Estate of Jackale Williams
In a recent will contest, the contested estate involved a retired attorney, Jackale Williams, who had been suffering from dementia is before the court. After the death of her husband in 2015, Mrs. Williams redrafted her will naming her cousin her Executor, primary beneficiary and healthcare proxy. While Williams had no children of her own, her closest living relative and best friend was her cousin Claudia, the beneficiary of her estate. That all began to change in 2024 when Claudia was diagnosed with dementia. At this point red flags went up when Jackale’s housekeeper, Sylvia Ponzo, moved in and began isolating Williams from her friends and family. Thereafter, Sylvia Ponzo became Jackale’s power of attorney and brought her to her own attorney who proceeded to place Ms. Williams’s home into a revocable living trust naming herself, Sylvia Ponzo its beneficiary. Upon Jackale’s death it was later learned that Ponzo used her durable power of attorney to transfer an additional $2 million dollars from the decedent’s retirement account to herself.
While the Surrogate’s Court has yet to issue a decision in the above-mentioned case, I can tell you as an experienced NY estate lawyer this case has all the signs of undue influence. When there is a stranger to the blood who obtains a confidential relationship (power of attorney) over an impaired individual and then proceeds to isolate that person while engaging in a pattern of self-dealing courts will usually look upon their case with critical skepticism. That’s not to say courts will automatically upend the wrongdoing, but at least it gives potential objectants some viable avenues of attack. Furthermore, pursuant to Matter of Bender, it was found that where a confidential relationship existed between the parties, the burden was on the alleged wrongdoer to “establish that it did not acquire decedent’s property by fraud, undue influence or coercion.” An experienced NY estate lawyer can tell you that such a fact pattern will shift the burden of proof off of the party objecting to the wrongdoer’s actions, placing that burden of proof squarely on the wrongdoer to prove that their involvement with the decedent and their affairs were legitimate and free of undue influence.
As an experienced NY estate lawyer I can tell you this fact pattern is not only not uncommon, but becoming normalized. We are all too familiar with individuals of questionable character eliciting unscrupulous attorneys to draw up durable powers of attorney to seize assets from the elderly and infirmed. Unfortunately more often than not, the perpetrators get away with it because the theft of assets occurs through the transfer of property into trusts before the decedent even dies. This makes it difficult to recover stolen assets because the theft is only discovered after the decedent’s passing. Additionally trusts tend to be clandestine vehicles with limited court oversight.
If you think a family member may have been taken advantage of by an opportunistic relative or friend it never hurts to ask the opinion of an experienced NY will contest lawyer to see if it amounts to undue influence or fraud. Feel free to call the NYC will contest lawyers at The Law Offices of Jason W. Stern & Associates for a free consultation at (718) 261-2444. Our NYC estate lawyers have over 70 years of combined NY estate law experience drafting and probating the wills for families like yours in the counties of Queens, New York, Kings, Bronx, Westchester, Rockland, Richmond, Nassau, Orange, and Dutchess.