Have you read the term “pretermitted heir” anywhere in your Palm Beach will? Do you know what that means? You may want to hear what Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal had to say about pretermitted children.
Pretermitted Heir
- Suppose you make a will with a Delray Beach probate attorney at the age of 40 and leave everything to your two kids that you had with your ex-wife.
- You put the will in a safety deposit box and pretty much forget about it. At the age of 45 you remarry. Your new wife and you never make a new will.
- Now you have kids with that wife as well, and one day you die. The safety deposit box is opened to find a will that does not address your new wife or kids.
- Those kids and your new wife are pretermitted heirs specifically a pretermitted spouse and pretermitted kids until a new will is executed.
- If a new will is executed it will be assumed an omission was an intentional act of inheritance.
- But again, if you are already dead revision is not possible.
- An unfortunate scenario is where a person partly amends their will through something called a codicil but (unintentionally) does not address the new (previously) pretermitted heirs because it was not a relevant part of the codicil. The court will usually hold that the heirs were disinherited by the fact that the new codicil is dated after they came into being.
- Florida has a pretermitted heir statute that allows the heir to collect as they would under intestacy succession.
- The rights of pretermitted heirs differ from state to state so always make sure you are aware of the law in whatever state the estate is probated.
- Do you know what you will have to prove to be awarded an inheritance as a pretermitted heir in Florida?
- Have you checked out Fla. Stat. 732.302?
- You may also want to check out the case of Estate of Maher v. Iglikova.
Estate of Maher v. Iglikova. 138 So. 3d 484 (Fla. 3d DCA 2014).
- The Mother of a child who was born before the decedent executed his will filed a petition to determine if her son was a beneficiary of the estate. At the time of birth it was uncertain if the child belonged to the decedent and after the will was executed paternity was established. The trial court found that the child was a pretermitted heir but the appeals court overruled that finding.
- Do you agree?
Check out their reasoning by clicking here for a free copy of the case!