You may have just recently heard the news out of Australia about the nation’s richest female, Gina Reinhart and her legal battle with her children over her choice to disinherit them from the household fortune. Ms. Reinhart is the heir to her dad’s iron ore service estimated to be worth about $18 billion.

The information of the situation are somewhat complex, but the story highlights an all too common circumstance where a moms and dad wishes to disinherit his/her children.
This inheritance problem is more common than you may think. There is no state law that requires a moms and dad to leave an inheritance to an adult kid, though there are some exceptions for minor kids. There are any variety of reasons that a parent may pick to disinherit a child, however household conflicts and a moms and dad’s belief that the kid will not be able to properly manage the wealth are extremely common reasons.

Ms. Reinhart is not alone in her status as a rich or popular individual who desires to disinherit her children. Take, for example, actress Joan Crawford. The topic of the movie Mommy Dearest famously cut two of her 4 adopted kids out of her estate, while leaving the 2 others about $70,000 each. Another star, Tony Curtis, selected not to leave anything to any of his five children, including his child actress Jamie Lee Curtis.
After Michael Jackson’s death, it was revealed that he made no arrangement for his father or any of his bros and sisters in his last Will. While he did name his kids and his mom as a beneficiary of a trust he established, everyone else in his household was disinherited.