Omitted or Pretermitted Children Under Wills in District of Columbia
At a glance
| Will and child covered | No general omitted-child share stated in current will/probate provisions; § 20-701 mentions pretermitted child without a rule. |
|---|---|
| Birth or adoption timing | No omitted-child timing test stated; posthumous child has intestate inheritance right (§ 19-314). |
| Naming and provision test | No statutory will naming/provision test for an omitted-child share identified (§§ 18-301, 20-701). |
| Intentional omission | No omitted-child intent exception specified in cited will/probate provisions (§§ 18-301, 20-701). |
| Other-parent gifts | No omitted-child other-parent devise condition specified (§§ 18-301, 20-701). |
| Outside gifts and advancements | No omission-specific outside-gift test; § 19-319 adjusts intestate shares for advancements. |
| Baseline statutory share | No omitted-child amount stated; intestacy governs property not devised or bequeathed (§ 19-301). |
| Effect of gifts to existing children | No omitted-child gift-pool adjustment specified in cited scheme (§§ 18-301, 20-701). |
| Property source and abatement | No omitted-child abatement formula stated; representative follows will or intestacy as applicable (§§ 19-301, 20-701). |
| Trust and nonprobate reach | Cited will provision concerns disposition by will; cited probate duty addresses will or intestacy (§§ 18-301, 20-701). |
Without a stated omitted-child share
Under § 18-301, a person may dispose of eligible property by will. Under § 19-301, property not devised or bequeathed passes through intestate succession. These provisions do not turn every omission of a child into partial intestacy or specify a share from will gifts. The reference in § 20-701 preserves a representative's duty concerning a pretermitted child “as described elsewhere in this title,” but that sentence does not identify a child, amount, or funding order.
What trips people up
The posthumous-child rule in § 19-314 concerns inheritance from an intestate. Likewise, § 19-319 adjusts intestate shares for a lifetime advancement. Neither provision states an omitted-child claim against property already disposed of by will. A particular will, other law, and the facts still require separate analysis.
Common questions
Does the reference to a pretermitted child in the probate code calculate a share? Section 20-701 preserves a distribution duty subject to rights described elsewhere; it gives no amount or eligibility test itself.
What if the will leaves some property undisposed of? Under § 19-301, real estate not devised and surplus personal estate not bequeathed pass under the intestacy chapter.
Statutes and sources
- D.C. Code §§ 18-301, 19-301, 19-314, 19-319, and 20-701. Verbatim current text and canonical official reader URLs appear in the source fields above.
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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