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Under WESA, however, pre-marriage Wills
will remain valid, which means that a new
spouse will have to launch a legal challenge
in order to claim a share of their deceased
spouse’s estate. On the downside, a successful
Will challenge could ultimately cost the new
spouse a lot of money; on the upside, any
safeguards (i.e., trusts for minors or at-risk
heirs) and contingency planning in a premarriage Will will remain in place. Moreover,
a spouse who successfully challenges a premarriage Will may actually end up receiving
a greater share of their late spouse’s estate
than they would have received under an intestacy.
The new process also allows the court to
craft the best solution for the circumstances,
rather than forcing the heirs to accept the
inflexible formula that applies in the event of
an intestacy.
New provisions governing how assets are
divided in a common disaster
Under the old act, if spouses died simultaneously, the law presumed that the older person
died first. This meant that unless the older
spouse’s Will planne