When a person dies, the individuals who have the closest relationships to them may assume they have a right of inheritance. Minnesota state law identifies specific people as heirs in cases where a person dies without an estate plan. However, the situation changes dramatically in cases where the deceased individual previously drafted estate planning paperwork. Wills and other estate planning documents can disinherit individuals and nominate others as beneficiaries of an estate.
Do family members disinherited by a will have the right to contest it due to a legal right of inheritance?
Only spouses have statutory protection
Competent adults who create estate plans generally have the right to decide what happens to their property. An individual who no longer talks with one of their adult children could choose to disinherit that child while leaving assets for their siblings. Those disappointed by their children might disinherit all of them and leave property for their grandchildren or charitable organizations instead.
Those actions are theoretically legal and do not necessarily warrant estate litigation. However, the matter is different if the person disinherited by the will is a spouse. Spouses have protection under state probate statutes. In a scenario where one spouse attempts to disinherit the other, the surviving spouse may have the option of requesting an elective share of the estate.
Occasionally, those left out of a will may be able to contest the document by convincing the courts that an outside party exerted undue influence, the document was outdated enough to render it inaccurate or the testator lacked capacity when drafting their documents. Sitting down to review a disappointing will with a lawyer can be beneficial for those who expected to inherit but are not among the beneficiaries named in a will.