Disinheriting a child requires estate planning

Some Nevada residents do not want to leave an inheritance to one of their children. A number of reasons why a parent would want to exclude a child from a will or trust exist such as personal, tax or business reasons, and the only way to guarantee that this wish is carried out is through estate planning. Without a trust or will, the state will determine the distribution of an individual’s assets according to the laws of intestacy, and a child may receive an inheritance.

Simply omitting a child in a will and/or trust is not enough, however. That child must be specifically named in the document and that it is the individual’s intention to disinherit that child. Otherwise, a child could make a claim to a portion of the estate after the parent’s death by saying that it was an oversight, and his or her parent never intended to leave the child out of the will.

A child who is disinherited in a trust is not entitled to any information regarding its contents. The only people the trustee is obligated to are the beneficiaries of the trust. The ability to challenge being left out of a trust is also more difficult than it is with a will.

Depending on the reason a Nevada parent has for disinheriting a child, other estate planning avenues may be used to provide for the child. Exploring these options with an experienced estate planning attorney can provide an individual with a way to achieve his or her goals. Furthermore, if the documents are not properly drafted and executed, a person’s specific intentions may not be carried out as desired.

Source: thespectrum.com, “Putting children in estate distribution plan“, Scott Halvorsen, Aug. 14, 2015