Should I Disinherit My Child?

Though it may be difficult to admit, you may believe that is best for you to remove your child as a beneficiary of your estate plan. Rest assured, we sympathize with the set of circumstances that drove you to this thought. Read on to discover whether it is possible to disinherit your child and how one of the seasoned Butler County estate planning & probate attorneys at Heritage Elder Law & Estate Planning, LLC can point you in the right direction.

Under what set of circumstances might I disinherit my child from my estate plan?

Our firm understands that a parent-child relationship is not black and white; along with the fact that there may be a unique set of circumstances that have made you consider disinheriting your child from your estate plan. Examples of such circumstances include, but are not limited to, the following:

• You may not want your one child to be more financially successful than your other children.
• You may not want your child with special needs to lose their government benefits.
• You may not want to reward your irresponsible child with an inheritance.
• You may not want to reward your estranged child with an inheritance.

Why should I reconsider disinheriting my child from my estate plan?

To reiterate, a parent-child relationship is not black and white. Meaning, your relationship with your child may evolve for the better later on. And you may regret excluding them from your estate plan when it is already too late.

For example, just because your child is financially successful now does not necessarily mean that they will maintain this stability for the rest of their life. Though it is negative to think about, your child may undergo a divorce, contract a serious health concern, or otherwise undergo an event that diminishes their financial safety net. So their inheritance may be the one thing to get them through this difficult time.

In addition, it is not necessary to cut out your child with special needs from your estate plan entirely. Rather, you may consider establishing a special needs trust for them, so that they may receive their inheritance without jeopardizing their benefits from local, state, and federal agencies.

Lastly, your irresponsible child may mature and your estranged child may come back around. So it may be a safer bet, and overall a nicer gesture, to put aside a smaller inheritance for them. And it may be easy to add to this inheritance later on.

The bottom line is that if you wish to modify your estate plan, you must have one of the competent Butler County estate planning attorneys in your corner. Call or send a message to Heritage Elder Law & Estate Planning, LLC today. We look forward to hearing from you.