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The Legal Dramatics Of Disinheritance

When contemplating a disinheritance, a testator should consider the financial and emotional ramifications of such an action.

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In the movies, the revelation of a last will’s provisions always seems grandiose. The scene inevitably includes a staid attorney reading the will to a grief-stricken family. Clients are surprised when they learn that such a gathering is really just fiction and it is more likely that you will be informed of a bequest by email.

Regardless of the form of transmission, there is always drama when a party is disinherited. A disinheritance is the deceased’s final message with no opportunity for the recipient to respond, to plead, or to make peace. Often questions linger as to what caused the exclusion, especially when the disinheritance is followed by the common qualifier, “for reasons known to them,” a phrase made famous in Joan Crawford’s last will.

The news is wrought with examples of disinheritance and the complicated familial relationships from which they arise. Quite often one is disinherited for making life decisions against parents’ wishes.  News outlets have reported that a retired Bihar judge issued a statement in Hindi disinheriting his only daughter for being “adamant upon tarnishing the reputation of myself and my family.” Apparently, the parents did not approve of the daughter’s attorney husband. In the case of iconic singer George Michael, excluded boyfriend Fadi Fawaz has taken to social media to argue his objections to the estate plan.

The law assumes that you wish to leave your estate to your family, often referred to as the “natural object of your bounty.” So strong is public policy against disinheritance that many states have legal mechanisms wherein certain family members can challenge the validity of the will, alleging undue influence, fraud, or lack of capacity. In many instances, a surviving spouse can execute an election against the deceased’s estate and receive a statutory share of assets, despite being disinherited.

A last will is intended to be the final directive as to the distribution of the deceased’s assets, however, this is not always the case. Will contests abound and the resulting settlements change the deceased’s intentions. When contemplating a disinheritance, a testator should consider the financial and emotional ramifications of such an action. An exclusion will affect not only the scorned relative, but the beneficiaries, often times siblings, who are left to battle each other. This is not a gift for anyone.

Cori A. Robinson is a solo practitioner having founded Cori A. Robinson PLLC, a New York and New Jersey law firm, in 2017. For more than a decade Cori has focused her law practice on trusts and estates and elder law including estate and Medicaid planning, probate and administration, estate litigation, and guardianships. She can be reached at cori@robinsonestatelaw.com. 

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