Disinheritance Guide CA: Avoid Disputes 2026

Short answer: Leaving someone off your will or trust is not the same as disinheriting them under California law. If your documents do not clearly address that person, or if something goes wrong and you end up without a valid will at all, California’s intestate succession statutes (Probate Code § 6400) decide who inherits based on a fixed family tree, not your wishes. Disinheriting someone the right way means naming them and stating your intent directly, in a document that is properly executed, not relying on silence.

Is leaving someone out of my will enough to disinherit them?

No. Omitting a name is not the same as excluding a person. A will that says nothing about a family member leaves room for that person, or a court, to argue the omission was accidental rather than deliberate. The safer approach is to name the person and state plainly that they are receiving nothing from your estate.

This matters most for spouses and children, the two categories of heirs California’s succession scheme is built around. Even a carefully drafted will can be read against you if it looks like whoever wrote it simply forgot someone, rather than intentionally left them out.

What happens if I do not have a valid will at all?

If you die without a valid will, California’s intestate succession law decides who inherits, not you. Under Probate Code § 6400, the estate passes according to a statutory formula regardless of what you actually wanted. For community and quasi-community property, your surviving spouse takes all of it, both their own half and your half, under Probate Code § 6401(a) and (b). For separate property, the spouse’s share depends on who else survives: all of it if there are no surviving children, parents, or siblings; half if there is one child (or that child’s line), or no children but a surviving parent or sibling line; one third if there are two or more children, under Probate Code § 6401(c).

If nothing passes to a spouse, or you were never married, the estate moves down a fixed line: children first, then grandchildren, then parents, then siblings, then outward from there, under Probate Code § 6402. Stepchildren who were never legally adopted and unmarried partners generally inherit nothing under this scheme, under Probate Code §§ 6401 and 6402. That cuts both ways. If the person you want out is a stepchild you never adopted or a partner you never married, intestacy may already exclude them. If it is a biological or adopted child, intestacy puts them right back in line unless a valid will or trust says otherwise.

Can I disinherit my spouse in California?

California is a community property state, and a surviving spouse already owns half of what the two of you built during marriage. That half was never yours to give away. What your estate plan can address is your own separate property and your half of the community property, and you can direct that your spouse receive none of it, but it takes explicit language to do that. A will that simply leaves everything to someone else, without addressing your spouse by name, invites a dispute over what you actually intended.

What about children I do not want to include?

The same rule applies to children as to anyone else. Naming a child and stating that the exclusion is intentional is far stronger than silence. If your will was written before that child was born or adopted and was never updated, an omission can look accidental rather than deliberate, which is the opposite of what you want. Review and update your will or trust any time your family changes, rather than assuming an old document still reflects your wishes.

Should I explain why I am disinheriting someone?

You are not required to explain yourself, but a short, factual statement in the document itself, confirming that the exclusion is deliberate, tends to head off arguments that it was a mistake. Save the details of your reasoning for a conversation with your attorney rather than an angry paragraph in the will. Some people also add a no-contest clause, which discourages a named beneficiary from challenging the document by putting what they would otherwise receive at risk. Whether that tool fits your plan depends on who else is named and what they stand to lose.

Does a trust work differently than a will for this?

A will only takes effect once a probate court validates it, and dying without one does not avoid probate either. An intestate estate above the small estate threshold still goes through the same court-supervised process. A properly funded revocable living trust is different: assets titled in the trust pass to the beneficiaries you name without going through probate at all. The same rule holds here too. Silence is not exclusion. If you want a trust to leave someone out, the trust document needs to say so directly.

Figures verified July 2026.

What to do next

If you are considering leaving a spouse, child, or anyone else out of your estate plan, do not rely on simply leaving their name off the page. Work with an estate planning attorney to draft a will or trust that states your intent directly, and update it whenever your family situation changes. A short conversation now is far cheaper than a will contest later.