Senate Bill 3341 is a remedy in search of a problem. Under the proposed legislation, in an undue influence will contest, if the beneficiary of a will had been a caregiver of the decedent at a “qualified housing facility,” as defined in the statute, the trial court must automatically find the relationship between the caregiver and the testator to be a confidential relationship. This alleviates the need for demonstrating the existence of such relationship to prove undue influence since the additional requirement of suspicious circumstances is very slight, and, indeed, may even be unnecessary under the proposed statute. With this finding by the court, the burden of proof that there was no undue influence upon the testator would switch to the caregiver as beneficiary.

New Jersey has a robust and comprehensive body of common law that deals with the caregiver as beneficiary amid allegations of undue influence. If a confidential relationship is found and suspicious circumstances, the presumption obtains. See Haynes v. First National State Bank, 87 N.J. 163 (1981); Pascale v. Pascale, 113 N.J. 20 (1988); In re Livingston’s Will, 5 N.J. 65 (1950); and In re Raynolds’ Estate, 132 N.J.Eq. 141 (Prerog. Ct. 1942), aff’d o.b. 133 N.J. Eq. 344 (E. & A. 1943).

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