Contesting a will is an act taken by a person or party such as to object to the clauses of a will left by a person. A will may either be contested fully or partially in that only some clauses of it may be contested. The essence of a will contest is that a person or party feels that the legacy left by a person, whose will is being contested, has been wrongfully apportioned to those that the will states in its clauses, the beneficiaries.

A person or party may raise objections such as that while the person apportioned certain parts of his legacy to the addressed person(s) in the will, he did so under external influence, that he was under a lot of peer pressure, that he would not have had done so under neutral circumstances or that it is an example of fraud. The person or party therefore raises the objections that the act of apportioning by the person whose will is being contested must be declared null and void and that the legal or rightful owners must be allowed to lay claim to his legacy.

It is very important to note that according to the law, the person or party that takes the daring measure of contesting a will is at risk of losing all their fortune should the person or party fail in convincing the judge of the miscalculation on part of the person, whose will is being contested, in drawing up his will. However, in case the contest is successful, this clause is automatically eradicated.

The contest of a will therefore has two main parties to the conflict, one, those mentioned in the will, the beneficiaries, and second, those who object to the beneficiaries involvement and declare that they themselves are the deserving heirs, the would-be-beneficiaries.