How an Omitted Child Receives a Share
Parents do not always update their wills after a new child arrives. Life gets busy. Arizona has laws protecting children born or adopted after the will was signed. These laws make sure a child is not accidentally left with nothing. This protection applies to children born or adopted after the will's execution, sometimes called a pretermitted child.
If a testator fails to provide by will for a child who is born or adopted after the testator executes the will, the omitted child receives a share in the estate.
A.R.S. § 14-2302(A)The size of that share depends on the family's circumstances when the will was signed. If the parent had no children at that time, the omitted child generally receives an intestate share. That is what they would have inherited if there were no will at all. If the parent already had children and left them property in the will, the omitted child shares proportionally with the existing children.
When the Protection Does Not Apply
This statute recognizes that sometimes the omission is intentional. There are two key exceptions. This protection applies only when the omission was accidental:
First, if the will itself shows that the parent deliberately left the child out. Second, if the parent provided for the child through transfers outside the will, such as a trust, life insurance, or other financial arrangement. The intent that those transfers replace a will provision must be clear.
If at the time the testator executed the will the testator fails to provide by will for a living child solely because the testator believes the child to be dead, the child is entitled to share in the estate as if the child were an omitted after-born or after-adopted child.
A.R.S. § 14-2302(E)Arizona also extends this protection to a living child the parent mistakenly believed to be dead when the will was signed. That child is treated the same as an after-born child. Note that the omitted spouse statute provides a similar protection for spouses left out of premarital wills.
For growing families, this statute is a practical reminder that wills should be reviewed after every major life event. A living trust with clear instructions for future children can address these situations before they become a legal question.