How Do I Prevent My Child’s Spouse from Inheriting My Estate?
Sep 24, 2025 | Written by: | Share
A common and sometimes sensitive question that our office receives is how to leave one’s estate to a child while preventing the child’s spouse from receiving any portion of the inheritance. Fortunately, with careful and properly executed estate planning, there are several strategies that can help you achieve this goal.
1. Create or Update Your Will
Your will is the foundation of your estate plan. With properly drafted language, you can:
- Clearly specify your intended beneficiaries, such as your child(ren).
- Include clauses that expressly exclude certain individuals (e.g., a child’s spouse).
- Add provisions designed to survive potential legal challenges to your wishes.
It's important to review and update your will periodically -- especially after major life events like marriages, divorces, or births -- to ensure it continues to reflect your intentions.
2. Utilize Trusts
Trusts offer greater control over how and when your assets are distributed. Depending on your goals, you may consider:
- Revocable trusts, which allow flexibility during your lifetime but become irrevocable upon death.
- Irrevocable trusts, which provide more protection from creditors and legal disputes.
In both cases, the trust's governing language can specify who is to receive the assets and who is explicitly excluded.
3. Protect Your Child’s Inheritance in Case of Divorce
Even if your child inherits assets directly, those assets could become subject to division in a divorce if they are co-mingled with marital property (e.g., deposited into a joint account or used to purchase jointly owned property).
To help protect against this:
- Establish a trust that keeps the inheritance separate from marital assets.
- Encourage your child to maintain inherited assets in separate accounts and avoid co-mingling.
4. Review Beneficiary Designations Carefully
Ensure that all assets that pass outside your will or trust—such as life insurance policies, IRAs, 401(k)s, and other retirement or financial accounts—are distributed according to the beneficiary designations on file, not your will.
To prevent unintended outcomes:
- Ensure your child’s spouse is not listed, even as a contingent or secondary beneficiary, unless you intentionally want that.
- Periodically review all beneficiary forms, especially after major life changes.
Get Legal Guidance That Aligns with Your Wishes
New Jersey estate laws are complex and constantly evolving. Our experienced estate planning attorneys can help craft a customized, legally enforceable plan that protects your intentions, avoids unintended beneficiaries, and minimizes the risk of future disputes.
Kimberly L. Forino, Esq. concentrates her practice primarily in the areas of business and transactional law, insurance defense, municipal law, land use, employment law, and general litigation.
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Any statements made herein are solely for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon or construed as legal advice.