A Minnesota Estate Planning Attorney Explains Possible Ways to Disinherit a Child From Your Estate
I have had numerous clients ask about disinheriting a child from their estate. There are many reasons why you may want to disinherit a child, but you need to take careful steps to ensure your wishes are honored.
If your estate plan and related documents are properly and carefully drafted, it is highly unlikely that the court will disregard your wishes and award the excluded child an inheritance. As unlikely as it may be, there are certain situations where this child could end up receiving an inheritance depending upon a variety of factors.
To understand how a disinherited child could benefit, you must understand how assets pass after death. How a particular asset passes at death depends upon the type of asset and how it is titled. For example, a jointly titled asset will pass to the surviving joint owner regardless of what a will or a trust says. So, in the unlikely event that the disinherited child is a joint owner, that child will still inherit the asset because of how it's titled.
Similarly, if the child you want to disinherit is listed as a named beneficiary on a life insurance policy or retirement plan asset, such as an IRA or 401k, that child will still receive those benefits as the named beneficiary even if your will specifically left that child out. Another way such a "disinherited" child might receive a benefit is if all other named beneficiaries died before you.
So, assume you have three children and you wish to disinherit one of them. You draft the will to state that all of your assets should go to the other two, and if they are not alive, then to their descendants. If those other two children die before you and do not have any descendants, there may be a provision that in such a case your "heirs at law" are to take your entire estate and that would include the child you intended to disinherit. In order to disinherit a child, your estate plan must be carefully drafted to ensure he/she is left out of each part of the plan.
If you wish to disinherit a child, or anyone else, all of these issues can be addressed with proper and careful drafting by a qualified estate planning lawyer. You have the right to determine who is entitled to your assets after your death.
Contact an experienced and knowledgeable Minnesota estate planning attorney now to act on your wishes.