How To Disinherit Your Children

According to Florida law, the probate courts must follow the instructions in a legally valid will admitted to probate. Except for surviving spouses claiming an elective spousal share, disinherited family members cannot override the testator’s wishes except by proving that the will is legally invalid. This means that it is possible to disinherit your children, but there are right ways and wrong ways to do it. The wrong ways to disinherit your children are obvious. Do not disinherit your children in a fit of anger. It is easy to procrastinate updating your will, so when you die, your children might find that they are still disinherited, and they might spend the rest of their lives thinking that you never truly forgave them. As for the right way to disinherit your children, it depends why you are doing it. In every case, though, precisely drafted estate planning documents are key. For help drafting a will that disinherits family members or a trust instrument that provides for them outside of your probate estate, contact a Tampa estate planning lawyer.

Be Clear in the Language in Your Will

If you simply don’t write a will, you have little control over who inherits what. If you want to disinherit a relative without writing a will, your only hope is that closer relatives will outlive you, and the probate court, following the laws of intestate succession, will distribute your estate to them instead of to the relatives you want to disinherit. If you write a will, you should specifically mention which family members will inherit nothing, in addition to mentioning the beneficiary, family members or otherwise, who will inherit from your estate.

Disinheriting Your Children According to Their Own Wishes

One of the best circumstances in which you can disinherit your children is when you are sure that they do not want or need to inherit from you. This means, not only that your children are financially secure, but also that you have had honest conversations with them about finances and estate planning. Ask your children for their input about a beneficiary to receive their inheritance instead, but remember that you have the final say about the provisions of your will.

When an Inheritance Is Not What Your Children Need

In some cases, even when you want your children to benefit from your estate plan, naming them as beneficiaries of your will is not the best way to do it. If your children are not financially dependent and cannot become so in the future, or if their future financial independence is at risk, it is better to designate them as beneficiaries of a trust. This way, the trustee, who follows the instructions you wrote in the trust instrument, is in control of how the money is spent; if you don’t do this, your children could lose their entire inheritance through their own impulsive financial decisions or through someone else’s financial abuse.

Contact David Toback About Disinheriting People You Love

A Central Florida estate planning lawyer can help you if naming your children as beneficiaries of your will is not how you choose to show your love.  Contact David Toback in Tampa, Florida to set up a consultation.

Source:

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