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A situation fraught with considerable danger, IMO. You do not say whether the atty working on the will is the executor. I would suspect not. By making decisions based upon the new-but-not-executed will, the executor is or would be placing him/herself in a very precarious position of potentially being liable should the original heirs be excluded from inheriting the estate and decide to seek redress. Should they allege and prevail in a case based upon elder abuse, most states provide for treble damages. And I should say, that most of laws I know of relating to elder abuse are VERY specific and VERY “curt”...they are not 2100 page Pelosi documents. They are short and directly to the point.

I am not a lawyer, though I *do* have some estate experience. The above is what I can confidently opine, and no more.

Incidentally, there are attorneys and there are estate attorneys. A “family lawyer” who may have helped draft a fairly simple will long ago is distinctly not qualified to make this kind of decision. In my opinion. The fact that he/she is advising the executor to “assume the new will was executed” is, again, in my opinion, proof positive that they are not qualified to act as an estate attorney. What they are perhaps casually advising the executor to do is really frickin’ dangerous, from the legal liability standpoint.

Very sticky situation. Not only dangerous from the standpoint of the personal liability of the executor, but the vulnerability of the estate to lengthy legal challenge which is screaming expensive and could deplete the estate by well into five figures with ease. And if the estate is cash-poor, it could force the sale of certain assets under court supervision which might be fine, but would place a significant piece of overhead upon the sale transaction.

I do not know what I would do to handle this situation. My non-lawyer opinon would be to get this mediation ASAP. You (or your friend) had better get an experienced ESTATE attorney involved and get your/their checkbook ready.