Florida Statute 732.302
“Pretermitted children”
What it means
A child born or adopted after a will was made — and left out of it — takes the share an intestate child would have received. The statute assumes the omission was oversight, not intent: the will simply predates the child.
It does not apply if the child already received an equivalent share by advancement during life, if the will shows the omission was intentional, or if the testator had children when signing and devised substantially all of the estate to the omitted child's other parent, who survives and takes under the will. A child alive when the will was signed is not pretermitted — Florida lets a will leave that child out on purpose.
- Covers only a child born or adopted after the will's execution — a child alive at signing has no claim under this section.
- The remedy is the child's intestate share, taken from the other devises under §733.805.
- No claim if the child already received an equivalent advancement of the testator's property.
- No claim if the will shows the omission was intentional.
- No claim if the testator had children when the will was made and devised substantially all of the estate to the child's other parent, who survives and takes under the will.
How it plays out
Two versions of this file come through our door. The clean one: a will signed before a child was born and never updated — the child takes an intestate share, and the other beneficiaries contribute. The painful one: a child alive when the will was signed and simply left out — this statute does nothing for them, and we say so plainly. Florida lets a parent disinherit an existing child; it only refuses to assume a parent meant to disinherit a child who didn't exist yet.
Where this shows up
Pages on this site where § 732.302 does real work:
Questions people ask
