Disinheritance is the gifting of property on death to persons who are not your immediate heirs to and excluding one or more immediate heirs from at least a portion of their share of your estate.

Your immediate heirs are those persons who would be entitled to inherit a share of your property upon your death if you had absolutely no estate plan (will, trust, etc.). For a single person with no children these persons would be parents, if they are still living, or siblings, if any. If there were no siblings then other relations would be looked at to determine legal heirs. For persons with children the immediate heirs are the children themselves. A spouse is also entitled to a share of an estate under Arizona law, though this entitlement varies depending on whether the couple has children together or not and whether either spouse has children from outside the marriage existing at death.

Disinheritance can occur for a number of reasons. A person may feel that a particular heir has received enough during the gifting person’s lifetime and that death gifts should go to others. A person may feel estranged from an heir, or otherwise alienated from them, and decide to either partially or wholly bypass them in their estate planning.

Disinheritance poses problems because it opens the door for an excluded heir to challenge the estate plan in court based on undue influence/duress, dementia, as well as other legal bases. It is important to understand a few points:

1. It’s your property. You have a right to give it to whoever you want.
2. No one is entitled to an inheritance if the person leaving the gift chooses to give it to someone else.
3. Heirs often feel entitled and become angry when they are excluded from what they see as “THEIR INHERITANCE.”

BECAUSE OF THIS DISINHERITANCE OFTEN PRODUCES LAWSUITS

For these reasons it is important to consult an attorney who can discern what is happening, and why.  At Arizona Mobile Attorneys we will advise you as to the best course of direction to take in order to avoid the disinheritance trap and to help place you in the best position to defend against such challenges should you decide to implement an estate plan that includes disinheritance.

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