Course · Interpersonal Skills
Wills and Succession
What happens to property at death: the estate and the personal representative, valid and invalid wills, revocation, gifts and their fate, intestacy, the limits on freedom to choose, and how an estate is administered.
Pay once, keep it forever · secure payment by Stripe
Everyone who owns anything will one day have it pass to someone else, and almost every family meets the law of succession at a time of loss. A lawyer who understands it can tell a client why a carefully drafted will may still leave a child with nothing, why a house held jointly ignores the will, why a late signature can undo years of planning, and what a court can do when a family says the result is unfair. This course follows an estate from death to distribution, in the common-law tradition and in plain terms, with the main civil-law contrasts marked where they help. It uses invented people and estates, and it is built around the questions a client asks.
The Curriculum
The map of succession: the estate, the personal representative, will, intestacy and forced shares, and the property that never enters the estate→
The estate and the personal representative, will, intestacy and forced shares, property outside the will, probate in outline and the freedom to choose who inherits. Practice: Inside or Outside the Estate, First Step and Spot the Succession Mistake.
Capacity, intention and formalities: who may make a will, what they must understand, how a will is signed and witnessed, and what happens when the formalities fail→
Capacity and the classic test, knowledge and approval, intention, writing, signature and witnesses, special kinds of will, and when the formalities fail. Practice: Capacity at the Bedside, Valid or Defective and Spot the Validity Mistake.
Defects and challenges: undue influence, fraud, forgery and mistake, the burden of proof, how a will is contested and no-contest clauses→
Who can challenge, undue influence, fraud and forgery, mistake, the burden of proof, how a contest runs and no-contest clauses. Practice: Influence or Undue Influence, What Fails and Spot the Challenge Mistake.
Revocation, alteration and revival: changing a will, codicils, dependent relative revocation, lost wills, mutual wills and contracts to make a will→
Revoking by will, by act and by law, lost wills, codicils and alterations, dependent relative revocation, revival, and mutual wills. Practice: Which Will Governs, Revoked or Not and Spot the Revocation Mistake.
Gifts and interpretation: specific, general, demonstrative and residuary gifts, ademption, lapse and abatement, class gifts, reading a will and rectification→
The four kinds of gift, ademption, lapse and abatement, class gifts, conditions, reading a will, outside evidence and rectification. Practice: Name the Gift, What Happened to the Gift and Spot the Gift Mistake.
Intestacy and the limits of freedom: the order of relatives, representation by branch or by head, simultaneous deaths, family provision, elective shares and forced heirship→
The order of relatives, the surviving spouse, per stirpes and per capita, simultaneous deaths, family provision, elective shares and forced heirship. Practice: Who Takes, Split the Estate and Spot the Intestacy Mistake.
Administering the estate: the personal representative’s duties and liability, debts and their order, tax in outline, distribution and accounts, disputes and estates across borders→
The personal representative’s duties and liability, the steps of administration, debts and their order, tax in outline, distribution and accounts, disputes and cross-border estates. Practice: What Should the Representative Do, Early or Late and Spot the Administration Mistake.
Capstone: Capstone: the estate of Margit Hale→
A will, a codicil with one witness, an unsigned draft and a note; a cottage that passes outside the will; a dead daughter’s gift; a second husband; and a flat abroad. Map, test, follow, weigh and plan.
What It Covers
“You will be able to say, for any estate, who takes what and why, what can go wrong with a will, who has a claim, and who must do the work.”
- Follows the property: a six-question order of thought (who and where, is there a will, what is outside the estate, who takes, who can claim more, who administers) that works on every problem in the course and the capstone.
- Starts with how assets are held, which is where most real estates go wrong: survivorship, named beneficiaries and trusts that defeat a will without anyone noticing.
- Marks the civil-law contrast in each module and links to the site’s Inheritance tool, which compares the rules of 82 countries.
- Honest about limits: succession law differs from place to place, so the course teaches structure and reasoning with invented cases and does not state any one country’s rules.
Included With All-Access · Or Buy It Alone
Introductory PriceChoose how you unlock Wills and Succession
Subscribe for every course and most tools, or buy just this one course on its own.
The one-time prices below are early, introductory rates for a brand-new catalog — expected to rise as we add more content. Buy now and it’s yours at today’s rate, forever.
Buying a course needs no account: you pay, and we email you a one-click sign-in. Subscriptions need a free account.
Look first, then buy. Free previews on every product page. Secure payment by Stripe. Pay once, keep it forever. Details
Or give this as a giftOther Scrolls in This Chamber
Across the Table$15 →Interests, walk-away numbers, offers, trades, pressure tactics and professional limits, with practice rooms and calculators.
Cooling the Room$15 →How conflict escalates, mapping a dispute, de-escalation, hard conversations, choosing a process, mediation, power, culture and ethics, with practice mediations.
The Client Conversation$15 →Trust, the first meeting, fees and scope, updates in plain words, advice and decisions, bad news, boundaries and ethics, with practice meetings.Part of a program
Step 10 of 10 in the Foundations of Law, Year 3
Remedies, regulation and the world beyond one country: administrative, international, cross-border, employment and immigration law. Each course is sold on its own; the whole program is $69 once and unlocks every course in it.
See the whole programModule 1 is free to try. Sign in, pass each module quiz and the course average, and your Certificate of Completion is emailed to you automatically. This course teaches method and technique with invented people and figures; it is general education, not legal advice, and professional rules differ from country to country.
Common questions
- Which legal system does it follow?
- It is written mainly in the common-law tradition (England and Wales, the United States, Canada, Australia and similar systems) in jurisdiction-neutral terms, with invented people and estates. Each module marks where civil-law systems differ, and the site’s Inheritance tool compares 82 countries.
- Is it useful for the bar exam or for qualifying exams?
- Yes. Wills, trusts and estates are tested in many bar and qualifying examinations, and the course teaches the structure the examiners expect: capacity, formalities, revocation, lapse and abatement, intestacy and administration. Check your own jurisdiction’s rules, which differ.
- Can I use it to write my own will?
- No. It is education, not advice, and the rules on making a valid will are strict and differ by place. A will that fails a formality can be void. See a qualified lawyer where you live.
- How is it different from my trusts or family law course?
- Those courses cover trusts as a tool and family rights between the living. This course covers what happens at death: who takes, how wills are made and fail, and how the estate is run. It points to the other courses where the subjects meet.
- Are the cases real?
- The people, estates and examples are invented. Where a landmark principle is mentioned it is named in general terms, and nothing here states the law of a particular country.
- How do I get the Certificate of Completion?
- Sign in, pass each module quiz and keep a course average of at least 75. The certificate is then issued and emailed to you automatically.
Teaching? Share this with your class
Free to use in class. The free parts open for everyone, no account needed.