Inheritance Law2026-08-28

Can I Disinherit My Child – and What Are They Still Entitled To?

You can disinherit a child by will, but a compulsory-portion claim almost always remains. I explain what is genuinely possible in law and where the limits lie.

You are thinking about passing over one of your children in your will. Perhaps the relationship has broken down. Perhaps another child has been the one caring for you. Or your reasons are entirely personal. Many clients put the same question to me: “Can I simply arrange things that way?” The answer is that you can disinherit a child without difficulty. What you generally cannot do, though, is leave that child with nothing at all.

In short

You can exclude your child from succession by making a will. Legally this is straightforward and needs no justification. What it does not achieve is a complete exclusion from any financial share in your estate. As your descendant, your child in principle retains a compulsory-portion claim (Pflichtteil) equal to half the value of their statutory share. Only in narrowly defined exceptional cases can the compulsory portion itself be taken away – for instance where the child has committed a serious criminal offence against you. For that, your will must set out an express justification.

How I can help you

Checking whether, and how, a disinheritance needs to be worded to take effect in your will
Calculating the compulsory portion your child would be entitled to under the arrangement you have in mind
Assessing whether, in your particular case, the strict conditions for depriving a child of the compulsory portion are met at all
Structuring alternatives such as compulsory-portion penalty clauses, lifetime gifts, or compulsory-portion waiver agreements
Representing you where someone has disinherited you and you wish to enforce your own compulsory portion

The disinheritance itself: simpler than you might think

In legal terms, to disinherit someone means excluding a relative who would otherwise inherit, your spouse or your civil partner, from statutory succession by way of a will. You do not have to appoint anyone else to take that share. It can be done without any particular formality. You may simply leave the disinherited child out of your will altogether. In that case they no longer inherit under the statutory rules, because you have conclusively determined who the other heirs are. Alternatively, you may state expressly: “My son/my daughter … is excluded from succession.” No justification is required. Your wishes as the testator are enough.

The one thing that matters is that the will as a whole is valid. Under section 2247(1) of the German Civil Code (BGB), you must either write and sign it in your own hand or have it recorded by a notary. There must be no doubt as to your capacity to make a will. You should state the place and date, but under section 2247(2) BGB these are not conditions of validity. Their absence therefore does not render the will invalid, though it can make interpretation more difficult if a dispute arises. Defects in the handwriting or signature requirement are the most common reason why an exclusion that was clearly intended can later be challenged.

The compulsory portion: what remains regardless

This is the crucial point that many clients underestimate. If you exclude a descendant from succession by a disposition upon death, that descendant may claim the compulsory portion from the heirs. The compulsory portion amounts to half the value of the statutory share. The same applies to your parents and your spouse if you disinherit them as well.

In practical terms, this means you first work out the share your child would have received under the statutory rules of succession had there been no will. Half of that value is owed to them as a monetary claim against the appointed heirs. The compulsory portion is not a right to any particular asset from the estate, such as the property. It is purely a claim for payment. The heirs must satisfy it in money, if necessary by selling estate assets.

Nor does appointing an heir with “strings attached” automatically leave the disinherited child with less than an outright disinheritance would. If you appoint a person entitled to a compulsory portion as an heir but at the same time restrict them by way of an executor, a reversionary succession, or a partition directive, they can disclaim the inheritance. The same is true if you burden them with a legacy. They then claim the compulsory portion instead. A “half” inheritance loaded with conditions is therefore often no clever compromise. It leads to the same result as an open disinheritance.

Limitation: the clock runs, even if no one acts

The compulsory-portion claim is subject to the standard limitation period of three years. That period begins at the end of the year in which the claim arose. In addition, your child must have gained knowledge of the death and of their disinheritance, or must have failed to gain that knowledge only through gross negligence. So if your child learns of the death and the disinheritance in March 2026, the limitation period expires at the end of 2029. For the heirs, the lesson is this: do not count on a disinherited child “forgetting” the claim. In families that have fallen out, it is precisely the disinherited child who often asserts the claim while there is still time.

Depriving a child of the compulsory portion: the drastic, rare exception

Even the compulsory portion can be taken away in narrowly limited cases. This requires considerably more than a mere disinheritance. It succeeds only where the child has been guilty of serious misconduct towards you or those close to you. The grounds that may come into play are, in particular:

Your child makes an attempt on the life of you, your spouse, another descendant, or a person similarly close to you
Your child commits a felony or a serious wilful offence against one of those persons
Your child maliciously breaches the statutory duty to maintain you
A court sentences your child to at least one year’s imprisonment without suspension for a wilful criminal offence, or commits them to a psychiatric institution, so that allowing them a share in your estate would be unreasonable for you

A broken relationship, years of no contact, or personal slights are not, in themselves, enough. This is the most common misconception I have to correct in advice sessions. The deprivation must also be expressly declared in the will, together with the specific ground. If a dispute arises, the heirs must prove that ground.

An example from practice

A client wishes to disinherit his daughter because she has had no contact with him for years. Instead, he wants to appoint his son as sole heir. It emerges in our discussion that a mere break in contact is not sufficient to deprive her of the compulsory portion. I therefore draw up a will that effectively excludes the daughter from succession. She nonetheless retains her compulsory portion, equal to half her statutory share. To avoid disputes over the valuation of the estate, which includes a let property among other assets, I add clear provisions on how value is to be determined. I also discuss with the client whether it makes sense to set aside a reserve for the later compulsory-portion payment, so that the son is not forced into a distress sale.

Common mistakes

Assuming that disinheritance automatically means “the child gets nothing”. In fact the compulsory portion regularly remains
Confusing disinheritance with deprivation of the compulsory portion. The will then contains vague accusations that do not stand up to the strict statutory requirements
Planning the estate without treating the compulsory-portion claim as a cash liability that falls due. The heirs are then left short of liquidity, for example where the estate consists mainly of a property
Relying on lifetime gifts to reduce the compulsory portion for good, without checking the rules on supplementary compulsory-portion claims where gifts are involved
Formally appointing the disinherited child as a co-heir subject to burdensome conditions, on the assumption that this leaves them with less than the compulsory portion

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to give reasons for the disinheritance in my will?

No. For a simple disinheritance, that is, exclusion from statutory succession, no justification is required. Your wishes as the testator are enough, provided the will is validly made. You only need to give reasons if you additionally want to deprive the child of the compulsory portion.

Can I at least buy out my child’s compulsory portion by agreement?

Yes, that is possible. But it works only during your lifetime and in notarial form, as a compulsory-portion waiver agreement. Your child must consent voluntarily, often in return for a settlement payment. Without such a notarial agreement, the statutory compulsory-portion claim remains in place after your death.

What happens if I simply do not mention my child in my will?

If you appoint other people as heirs in your will and do not mention your child, the child is thereby effectively excluded from succession. They do not become an heir. Their compulsory-portion claim, however, is unaffected. Leaving them out operates like an express disinheritance, but it does not remove the compulsory portion.

Does my child’s compulsory-portion claim automatically become time-barred after three years?

The limitation period is, as a rule, three years. But it does not begin until the end of the year in which your child actually gained knowledge of the death and of their disinheritance. If they learn of it only late, the start of the period is pushed back accordingly.

Yes, this is a common structuring option. You appoint your child with a smaller share than their statutory entitlement. If that share falls below the compulsory-portion quota, however, your child can claim the difference as a supplementary compulsory portion. So this does not release you from the obligation entirely.

Your next step

A disinheritance with no clear plan for the compulsory portion almost always leads to disputes among the heirs, often at the very moment when no one is any longer in a position to prevent them. Are you thinking of disinheriting a child? Or have you just found out that you yourself have been disinherited? In an initial consultation I will work out with you what is genuinely possible in law, how large a compulsory-portion claim would be, and which arrangement suits your situation – a will, a compulsory-portion penalty clause, or a waiver agreement. You can find out more about my work in inheritance law at /en/topics/inheritance-law. Just get in touch, and I will review your case personally.

This article provides general information and is no substitute for legal advice in an individual case. Last updated: 2026-08-28.

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