Omitted or Pretermitted Children Under Wills in Oklahoma
At a glance
| Will and child covered | Unmentioned afterborn child; any omitted child or issue of deceased child unless intentional (§§ 131–132). |
|---|---|
| Birth or adoption timing | § 131 covers birth after will, during testator's life or after death; § 132 covers omitted children without timing condition (§§ 131–132). |
| Naming and provision test | Afterborn route requires no settlement, no will provision, and no mention; broader route requires omission of provision (§§ 131–132). |
| Intentional omission | Broader omitted-child route excluded if omission appears intentional (§ 132). |
| Other-parent gifts | No other-parent devise condition in omitted-child eligibility text (§§ 131–132). |
| Outside gifts and advancements | Afterborn settlement defeats § 131; equal-proportion lifetime advancement bars share under §§ 131–133 (§§ 131, 134). |
| Baseline statutory share | Same portion of real and personal property as on intestacy (§§ 131–132). |
| Effect of gifts to existing children | No equalized will-gift pool; equal lifetime advancement bars recovery (§§ 132, 134). |
| Property source and abatement | Undisposed estate first; then devisees and legatees proportionately, with intent-based specific-gift exception (§ 133). |
| Trust and nonprobate reach | Settlement or advancement can defeat claim; payment rule concerns estate and will gifts (§§ 131, 133–134). |
Requirements one by one
Which child qualifies
Under 84 O.S. § 131, a child born after the will, during the testator's life or after death, qualifies if there was no settlement and the child was neither provided for nor mentioned in the will. Section 132 separately covers a child omitted from a will, or the issue of a deceased child, without the later-birth condition, unless the omission appears intentional. Both provisions use an intestate-share measure.
Payment source
Under 84 O.S. § 133, property not disposed of by the will comes first. If that is insufficient, devisees and legatees contribute in proportion to their will gifts. A specific devise or other provision can be exempted, with a different apportionment, when ordinary reduction would defeat the testator's obvious intention.
What trips people up
The lifetime-transfer rules are distinct. Under § 131, an afterborn child must lack a settlement. Under § 134, an omitted child or descendant who received an equal proportion of the estate as a lifetime advancement takes nothing under §§ 131–133. The statute does not treat every outside gift as an equal advancement.
Common questions
Does an existing child have to be born after the will? Section 132 covers a child omitted from the will without stating a birth-after-execution condition.
Can the issue of a deceased child claim? Yes, § 132 expressly includes the issue of a deceased child, subject to its intentional-omission condition.
Statutes and sources
- 84 O.S. §§ 131–134. 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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