Disinheriting an heir is the process of cutting them out of the estate plan. This is typically done with a disinheritance clause, though some people do simply leave that person out – though this is a risk, as they may challenge the decision in court.
But why would they choose to do this? As you’re working on creating your estate plan, you may want to think about the reasons that people disinherit their heirs and try to determine if any of these reasons apply in your case.
They had a falling-out
In some cases, parents and children have simply had a falling out. Maybe they don’t agree with each other’s lifestyle choices. They may be so distant that they no longer even speak or see each other on the holidays.
The child struggles with addiction
In other cases, a parent may cut a child out of the will because they know that child struggles with drug addiction, gambling addiction or something of this nature. They believe that their inheritance would simply be used to fuel this addiction, and they don’t want to do that for multiple reasons.
The child is already well off
Not all cases where someone gets disinherited are negative. In some cases, one child gets left out of the will because they are exceedingly well off and their siblings are not. In a case like that, the parent is simply trying to give the money to the children who will benefit from it the most.
If you do want to disinherit someone, it’s important to know exactly what steps to take to do so, especially if you want to avoid an estate dispute in the future.
