The Trust Advantage
Estate planning attorneys who work with parents in estrangement situations frequently recommend structuring the estate through a revocable living trust rather than — or in addition to — a standard will. A will becomes a public document when it enters probate, which means your estranged child will have access to it and the opportunity to appear in court to challenge it. A properly drafted and funded trust, by contrast, is a private document. If correctly structured, the trustee can administer the estate without court involvement, keeping the process out of the public record and significantly reducing the opportunities for a disinherited child to create obstacles for other beneficiaries. The privacy of a trust-based estate plan is a genuine practical advantage in situations involving family conflict.
The legal question — can you disinherit your estranged children — has a relatively clear answer. The more difficult question is whether you should. This is deeply personal, and no answer is universally right. Different parents in genuinely similar situations arrive at genuinely different conclusions, and all of those conclusions can be reasonable and defensible given the specific circumstances involved.
