Omitted or Pretermitted Children Under Wills in Kansas
At a glance
| Will and child covered | No separate omitted-child will share; later marriage plus child by birth/adoption revokes will (§ 59-610). |
|---|---|
| Birth or adoption timing | Marriage and child by birth/adoption after will; intestacy definition includes posthumous and adopted children (§§ 59-610, 59-501(a)). |
| Naming and provision test | § 59-610 revocation turns on later marriage and child, without a naming or provision test. |
| Intentional omission | § 59-610 states revocation upon the combined event, without an intentional-omission exception. |
| Other-parent gifts | No other-parent devise condition in § 59-610; its stated trigger is marriage and a later child. |
| Outside gifts and advancements | No outside-transfer or advancement test in § 59-610's revocation condition. |
| Baseline statutory share | No will-share measure; if intestacy governs, spouse receives half and children/issue share half when both survive (§§ 59-504, 59-506). |
| Effect of gifts to existing children | No child-gift adjustment in § 59-610; intestacy uses equal child shares and representation for deceased child's issue (§ 59-506). |
| Property source and abatement | No omitted-child abatement formula in § 59-610; revocation removes that will, with intestacy applying if no operative will remains (§§ 59-504, 59-506). |
| Trust and nonprobate reach | § 59-610 speaks of revoking a will; § 59-601 addresses property disposed of by will. |
How the statute works
Kansas § 59-610 says: “If after making a will the testator marries and has a child, by birth or adoption, the will is thereby revoked.” The trigger combines later marriage and a child; the section does not calculate a reserved share for a child omitted from a still-operative will. The official Chapter 59 will-article index contains no separate omitted-child share provision. Under § 59-601, a person otherwise may dispose of property by will, subject to the Probate Code.
If no operative will remains, intestacy determines the child's share. Under §§ 59-504 and 59-506, a surviving spouse and children divide the estate by halves; without a spouse, the children and qualifying issue take it. Under § 59-501(a), the intestacy definition expressly includes posthumous and adopted children, while § 59-506 supplies equal child shares and representation for a deceased child's issue.
What trips people up
Birth or adoption alone is not the event stated in § 59-610: its sentence also requires marriage after the will. That differs from a statute that awards an omitted child a slice of an otherwise effective will.
Common questions
Does revoking a later will revive an earlier one? Under § 59-612, it does not automatically. The revocation must show intent to revive the earlier will, or the testator must duly republish it with the required witnesses.
Does the child's name have to be omitted for § 59-610 to operate? The section states its marriage-and-child trigger without making the will's naming or provision for the child a condition.
Statutes and sources
- Kan. Stat. Ann. §§ 59-501, 59-504, 59-506, 59-601, 59-610, and 59-612. Verbatim current text, official section URLs, and access dates appear in the source fields above.
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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