Disinheritance—the intentional exclusion of a family member, usually a child or spouse, from receiving part of your estate after your death—is more common than you might think. It is also easier than you might think to disinherit a loved one, with a couple of notable exceptions. However, it is not as simple as omitting someone’s name from your estate plan.
Depending on their relationship to you and the laws in your state, some people may have legal rights to a portion of your assets (e.g., money, investment accounts, and property) when you die, unless you take specific steps to prevent them from inheriting. Even then, the decision to disinherit someone can lead to disgruntled family members and legal challenges, so the situation must be approached with care, both legally and emotionally.
Disinheritance Laws: Who You Can (and Cannot) Disinherit
You are generally—but not entirely—free to dispose of your assets at your death however you see fit. This ability to include, as well as exclude, people from your estate plan is known as testamentary freedom.
Before delving into how to disinherit someone, let’s look at who might be disinherited and the legal protections they may have against disinheritance.
Spouses
Disinheriting a spouse is often the most legally complex scenario. Spouses have significant inheritance protections, regardless of what your estate plan says. For example:
- Elective share laws. In most states, a surviving spouse has the right to claim an elective share of the assets owned solely by you, thereby protecting them from total disinheritance. The amount that can be elected varies by state but may be around one-third to one-half of your separately owned property. Some states offer a larger share to surviving spouses as the length of the marriage increases.
- Community property states. If you live in a community property state (such as California, Texas, or Arizona), assets acquired during marriage are typically considered jointly owned, and your spouse automatically has a right to half of the community property. Disinheriting a spouse in these states may apply only to your separate property.
These laws make completely disinheriting a spouse challenging—though not entirely out of reach. With careful planning, strategies like prenuptial or postnuptial agreements can be used to waive a spouse’s inheritance rights, even in states with elective share or community property regimes. While these approaches require thoughtful drafting and mutual consent, they offer a path for clients whose estate planning goals call for greater control over the ultimate distribution of their assets.
Children
When it comes to disinheriting your children, you have fairly broad testamentary freedom. However, children are afforded some protections under applicable state law that may prevent complete disinheritance.
Many states have statutory allowances—such as the family allowance, exempt property allowance, and homestead allowance—that serve as built-in protections for minor or dependent children (the term dependent children may even include adult children in some states and in some circumstances). These allowances ensure that, even if a child is not named in a will or trust, they are guaranteed a minimum level of support from the estate.
In addition, if a parent passes away while still owing child support—whether from a court order or a divorce settlement—that obligation typically does not vanish with their death. In most cases, the unpaid support becomes a debt of the estate and must be addressed before assets are distributed to heirs or beneficiaries. This ensures that the child’s financial needs continue to be prioritized, even after the parent’s passing.
Siblings, Parents, and Others
Siblings, parents, and more distant relatives (such as cousins or nieces and nephews) have no automatic right to inherit unless you die without a will (intestate) and these people are next in line under your state’s inheritance laws. In most cases, this only happens if you have no surviving spouse or children.
Disinheriting these individuals is relatively straightforward, since they are unlikely to have legal grounds to challenge your estate plan. Still, to deliberately keep a parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, or other extended relative from inheriting your assets, you need to explicitly and unambiguously write this into your will or trust and designate the specific individuals or charities that you do want to inherit from you.
Others Who Might Expect Something
Sometimes, the person you want to disinherit is not a family member but a close friend, business partner, or caregiver who might expect to receive something. If you have promised them an inheritance in the past (verbally or otherwise) or suggested it in passing, they might try to contest your estate plan if they are not included. Their claims are unlikely to succeed in court, but explicitly excluding them in your estate plan documents can clarify your intentions and eliminate ambiguity and potential lawsuits.
What Happens If You Do Not Have an Estate Plan?
Dying without a will or trust means that your state’s laws determine who inherits your assets. These laws, known as intestacy rules, prioritize close family members in a specific order, typically the following:
- Spouse
- Children
- Grandchildren
- Parents
- Siblings
- More distant relatives
Surveys consistently show that only around one-quarter of Americans have an estate plan.[1] If you want to disinherit someone who would inherit under intestacy laws, you must have an estate plan. Absent a formal, written plan that states your intentions, the wrong person could receive a portion of your assets by default.
For example, say you are estranged from a sibling and die without a will. That sibling might inherit part of your money and property if you have no surviving spouse, children, grandchildren, or parents, even though you do not want them to inherit anything.
How to Disinherit Someone
Disinheriting someone requires a clear and unambiguous statement in your estate planning documents. Leaving their name out of your plan is not enough. The court could assume that an omitted name is unintentional and award them a share of your money and property, especially if the person is a close family member. To disinherit someone, you should take the following steps:
- Make your intent explicit. Your estate plan should explicitly state that you do not want a certain individual to receive any portion of your money and property. Use straightforward language. For example:
- “I am deliberately excluding [name] from receiving any portion of my estate.”
- “I specifically direct that my son, [name], shall receive none of my property, whether real or personal.”
- Identify the individual clearly. Use the full legal name of the person you wish to disinherit to avoid any confusion with individuals who may have similar names. For further clarity, you can include their relationship to you, their date of birth, and other distinguishing information, such as their city and state of residence. For example:
- “I am intentionally omitting my son, Matthew James Walker, born March 2, 1988, currently residing in Seattle, Washington, from any share of my estate. He shall take nothing under this Will.”
- Keep it brief and neutral. Your estate plan is not the place to air grievances or explain your decision in detail. Most people do not realize that wills are public documents and the things they write in them live on in public view and might cause reputational harm. Even if you are trying to explain a disinheritance, making potentially false, damaging claims can expose your estate to legal risk.
- Writing something such as “I leave nothing to my daughter, Anna Smith, because she is a drug addict and a thief and has embezzled money from her employer” could expose your estate to a claim of testamentary libel—a defamatory statement made in a will that could damage someone’s reputation.
- Emotionally charged language could also inadvertently create grounds for a legal challenge based on duress or undue influence claims.
- Keep your language brief and neutral (e.g., “I make no provision for my daughter, Anna Smith, due to personal reasons known to both of us.”).
- Explain your thinking in an (optional) letter. If you feel compelled to explain your decision and have not already discussed it with the person you are disinheriting, consider writing a separate letter to them. Store the letter privately and instruct that it be shared only after your passing. This is not a legally binding document and should not be attached to your will or trust. By explaining your reasons for the disinheritance, you may help reduce the chances of a family member challenging your will or trust later on—especially claims that you lacked capacity or were influenced by someone else. A clear statement of intent can go a long way toward preventing misunderstandings and minimizing the risk of litigation.
Alternatives to Disinheritance
There is anecdotal evidence that more parents are not leaving their children inheritances to avoid entitlement and promote self-reliance. Some celebrities have publicly vowed to leave their kids little or nothing, and this trend may be trickling down to ordinary Americans.
One recent survey found that just 26 percent of Americans plan or expect to leave behind an inheritance.[2] Parents may want to spend the money on themselves in retirement, or they may be forced to spend it on healthcare and long-term care. They may also decide that their money is better spent on charitable giving, that it should go to someone who needs it more, or that they will embrace “gifting while living” and pass their hard-earned assets to their children now.
However, leaving an inheritance does not have to be all or nothing. If you are unsure about fully disinheriting someone or want to avoid potential conflict or legal challenges, consider these alternatives:
- Leave a smaller or symbolic inheritance. Instead of cutting someone out entirely, leave them a small token gift, such as a few hundred dollars or a family heirloom, to signal that you thought of them and did not accidentally omit them.
- Use a no-contest clause. A no-contest clause provides that anyone who challenges your will or trust loses their inheritance. You can combine this type of clause with a modest gift to discourage lawsuits since the beneficiary stands to lose something if they challenge your will or trust. Keep in mind that no-content clauses may not be recognized or enforceable under your state law.
- Create a trust. A spendthrift trust can help protect a financially irresponsible beneficiary from reckless spending and shield the inheritance from creditors. Similarly, a conditional or incentive trust allows you to set goals or milestones that must be met before funds are distributed. These tools offer a thoughtful way to provide for someone you may be hesitant to give money to outright, while still protecting their long-term well-being and interests.
- Add beneficiaries to accounts. Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and some types of bank accounts and deeds pass directly to your named beneficiaries (e., those other than the disinherited loved one) and bypass the need for a will and public probate process entirely. These distributed assets will only be known to the named beneficiary and the government for tax purposes, which could help keep the distribution private and prevent a will contest.
In addition to seeking a compromise to disinheritance where appropriate, make sure to review and update your estate plan regularly in case you have had a change of heart or circumstances.
Work with an Attorney to Avoid the Personal and Legal Challenges of Disinheritance
Disinheritance can be emotionally fraught and legally tricky. It is a deeply personal decision that should be approached with careful consideration and sound professional advice.
The law respects your right to choose how your assets are distributed. It also requires that those choices are expressed clearly and meet legal requirements. An estate planning attorney can help you draft documents that comply with state laws and anticipate challenges, include provisions to strengthen your plan, and explore options such as trusts that are harder to challenge and more private than wills.
For a plan that reflects your convictions and stands up in court, schedule a meeting with us.
[1] Victoria Lurie, 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study, Caring (Mar. 31, 2025),
https://www.caring.com/caregivers/estate-planning/wills-survey.
[2] As $90 Trillion "Great Wealth Transfer" Approaches, Just 1 in 4 Americans Expect to Leave an Inheritance, Nw. Mutual (Aug. 6, 2024),
https://news.northwesternmutual.com/2024-08-06-As-90-Trillion-Great-Wealth-Transfer-Approaches,-Just-1-in-4-Americans-Expect-to-Leave-an-Inheritance.