Omitted or Pretermitted Children Under Wills in Vermont
At a glance
| Will and child covered | Afterborn child without provision; any child or deceased child's descendants omitted by mistake or accident (§§ 332–333). |
|---|---|
| Birth or adoption timing | § 332 specifies birth after will-making; § 333 covers omission without a birth-timing condition. |
| Naming and provision test | Afterborn child must lack provision; mistaken or accidental omission covers child or deceased child's descendants (§§ 332–333). |
| Intentional omission | Afterborn share fails if contrary intent is apparent from will; § 333 requires mistake or accident. |
| Other-parent gifts | §§ 332–334 state no other-parent devise exception. |
| Outside gifts and advancements | §§ 332–334 state no outside-gift or advancement test for these shares. |
| Baseline statutory share | Same estate share as if testator died intestate (§§ 332–333). |
| Effect of gifts to existing children | §§ 332–334 state no separate existing-child gift-pool adjustment. |
| Property source and abatement | Undisposed property first; then proportional devisee/legatee contribution, subject to court protection of specific gifts (§ 334). |
| Trust and nonprobate reach | These provisions assign a share of the testator's estate and address property disposed of by will (§§ 332–334). |
Requirements one by one
Birth or omission
Under § 332, a child “born after the making of a will” and left without provision takes an intestate-equivalent share, unless the will apparently intended otherwise. Section 333 separately reaches any child, or descendants of a deceased child, when omission “was made by mistake or accident.” Its text does not require a later birth.
Source of the share
Section 334 uses estate property not disposed of by will first. If that is insufficient, devisees and legatees contribute in proportion to what they receive. A court may instead protect a specific gift when proportional contribution would defeat the testator's obvious intention for it.
What trips people up
The two eligibility routes ask different questions: § 332 focuses on birth after will-making and intent apparent from the will; § 333 asks whether a child's or deceased child's descendants' omission was a mistake or accident. The court's § 334 power changes allocation among gifts, not the intestate-equivalent starting share.
Common questions
Can descendants of a child who died receive a share? Yes, if their omission from the will appears mistaken or accidental under § 333.
Must every devisee contribute if the undisposed estate is insufficient? Section 334 starts with proportional contribution but lets a court exempt a specific gift to preserve an obvious intention in the will.
Statutes and sources
- 14 V.S.A. §§ 332–334. Verbatim official text, 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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