The Great Wealth Transfer and the Coming Wave of Probate Litigation: Contested Estates, Fiduciary Claims, and Heirs’ Property Disputes Through 2040

The largest generational wealth transfer in history, $78 to $124 trillion, is about to collide with an aging donor population, rising dementia rates, and a documented estate planning gap, and the collision lands in surrogate and probate courts. Boomer mortality crosses its tipping point around 2030, and the capacity contests, undue influence claims, fiduciary breach actions, and inherited property disputes that follow will dominate dockets through 2040. Trial and estate attorneys are already taking these cases, often working from instincts formed before the current case law. This program maps the doctrine that decides them: the Cunningham four-part capacity test, the…