Can a parent lawfully disinherit a child?
North Carolina state law has no minimal provisions for children of a person who dies testate. A person may lawfully leave her entire estate to her spouse in her Will and not provide for any of her children, whether or not they were alive at the time she executed her Will. A child who is born to or adopted by the testator after the Will is made may be able to claim his or her intestate share if the Will otherwise provided for children who were alive at that time and the Will does not expressly acknowledge the purposeful exclusion of after-born or after-adopted children. Furthermore, North Carolina law no longer distinguishes among legitimate or illegitimate children for the purposes of inheritance rights from one’s mother. An illegitimate child’s father who has been adjudged to be the lawful father of the child or if the father has publicly acknowledged the child in a filed written instrument will be treated the same as a legitimate child of his or her father. For more information about
