Omitted or Pretermitted Children Under Wills in Iowa

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Covered child and timing

Section 633.267(1) measures birth or adoption from the last will and expressly includes a child born after the testator's death. For postdeath conception or embryo implantation, § 633.267(2)(a) requires a genetic parent-child relationship, the specified signed authorization or will bequest of genetic material, and birth within two years after death. Subsection (2)(b) gives a child whose share is reduced by such a birth one year from that birth to challenge the later child's share.

Amount and property source

The omitted child's § 633.267(1) share is valued as if the testator died intestate, after accounting for the applicable surviving spouse's share under § 633.211 or § 633.212(1)–(3). Under § 633.219(1), the remaining intestate estate passes to issue per stirpes. Under § 633.436(1), satisfaction of a later child's share abates undevised property first, then nonspouse residue, other nonspouse nonspecific gifts, nonspouse specific gifts, and finally gifts to a surviving spouse taking under the will.

Revocable trust

Under § 633A.3106(1), a later-born or later-adopted child omitted from a revocable trust receives an intestate-value trust share, measured from trust execution or its last amendment. Unlike the will rule, intentional omission may appear in either the trust terms or the decedent's will. Subsection (2) ties postdeath-born trust coverage to eligibility under § 633.267.

What trips people up

The spouse comparison changes with the family: § 633.211 governs when all surviving issue are also the spouse's issue, while § 633.212 governs when some are not. The will-share rule in § 633.267(1) turns on whether intentional omission appears from the will; an outside benefit is not listed as a separate exception there.

Common questions

Can a will specify a different abatement order? Yes. Under § 633.437(1), an explicit contrary order in the will, trust, or other testamentary instrument controls.

Can a court change the statutory order when the will is silent? Under § 633.437(2), a fiduciary or distributee may apply after notice; the court needs clear and convincing grounds that the default order would defeat the will's plan or a devise's purpose.

Statutes and sources

• Iowa Code §§ 633.211, 633.212, 633.219, 633.267, 633.436, 633.437, and 633A.3106. Verbatim current text, official chapter URLs, and access dates appear in the source fields above.