You can disinherit a child in Louisiana, but if the child is a “forced heir,” you have to do it on the state’s terms: name one of eight specific just causes listed in the Civil Code and spell out the facts in a valid will. Get the grounds wrong, or describe them too vaguely, and the disinheritance fails even if everything you say is true.
Is Your Child Actually a Forced Heir?
Start here, because the answer changes everything. Louisiana only protects two categories of descendants under Civil Code Article 1493:
- Children who have not yet turned 24 at the time of your death.
- Children of any age who, because of mental incapacity or physical infirmity, are permanently unable to care for themselves or manage their own affairs at your death. This also reaches children with an inherited, incurable condition documented medically as likely to leave them incapable in the future.
If your child is 24 or older and has no qualifying disability, they are not a forced heir. You can leave them out of your will with no explanation, no just cause, and no risk that a court will reinstate their share. The rest of this article is about the harder case: cutting out a child who does qualify as a forced heir.
The Eight Just Causes You Can Use
Civil Code Article 1621 sets out exactly eight grounds. No other reason works, however justified it feels, and the conduct must have happened before you sign the will containing the disinheritance.
- The child struck you or attempted to strike you. A verbal threat alone is not enough.
- The child engaged in cruel treatment, a crime, or serious harm toward you. This reaches patterns of cruelty beyond physical violence.
- The child attempted to take your life.
- The child accused you, without any reasonable basis, of a crime punishable by life imprisonment or death.
- The child used violence or coercion to interfere with your ability to make or change a will.
- The child married as a minor without your consent.
- The child was convicted of a crime carrying a possible sentence of life imprisonment or death.
- After reaching adulthood and knowing how to reach you, the child went two full years without communicating with you and had no good reason for the silence. Active military duty during that period is a complete defense.
The two-year silence ground is the one parents ask about most and also the easiest to challenge. Courts look closely at whether the child really knew how to contact you and whether the silence was genuinely unjustified.
One timing wrinkle works in your favor. Under Article 1623, it doesn’t matter whether the child was a forced heir when the act occurred. What matters is that the act happened before you signed the will and that the child qualifies as a forced heir at your death.3Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Article 1623 – Timing of Action; No Defense Conduct from years ago can still support disinheritance today.
What Your Will Must Say
Article 1624 requires you to state, in the will itself, the specific reason, facts, or circumstances that make up the just cause. “My son knows what he did” will not survive a challenge. You need to identify the ground from Article 1621 and describe what happened with enough detail that a court can evaluate it: dates, locations, what was said, what was done.4Justia Law. Louisiana Civil Code Article 1624 – Mention of Cause for Disinherison; Burden of Proof; Reconciliation
The will itself also has to satisfy Louisiana’s formal requirements. Two types are commonly used:
- An olographic will is entirely written, dated, and signed in your own hand. No witnesses or notary are required. Your signature can appear anywhere in the document.5Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Article 1575 – Olographic Testament; Requirements of Form
- A notarial will is prepared in writing, dated, signed by you, and executed before a notary public in the presence of two witnesses.
The olographic form is simpler, but a notarial will is generally harder to attack, because the notary and witnesses can speak to your mental state and intent when the document was signed. For a disinheritance that someone has a real financial reason to challenge, the extra formality is usually worth it.
What the Child Has to Prove to Undo It
Louisiana’s rules tilt in favor of the parent. Under Article 1624, the reasons you state in the will are presumed true. If your will says your daughter struck you on a particular date, the court begins with the assumption that she did.
The disinherited child carries the burden of rebutting that presumption by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning they must show it is more likely than not that the stated cause didn’t happen or doesn’t meet the legal standard. And the child’s own testimony, standing alone, is not enough. They need corroboration: witness statements, records, documents, or something comparable.4Justia Law. Louisiana Civil Code Article 1624 – Mention of Cause for Disinherison; Burden of Proof; Reconciliation
A child can also defeat a disinheritance by proving reconciliation after the conduct you cited. If you genuinely patched things up with your child after the incident described in your will, the clause may not survive. That makes reconciliation one of the most common and most effective grounds for a challenge.
Other attack routes include arguing that the will fails to describe the cause with enough specificity (which voids the clause under Article 1624), that the cause occurred after the will was signed (which violates Article 1621), or that you lacked testamentary capacity or were unduly influenced when you executed the will.
If any of these challenges succeeds, the disinheritance clause falls away but the rest of the will typically remains valid. The child reclaims their forced portion, and whatever was going to pass to other beneficiaries shrinks accordingly.
Making the Disinheritance Hold Up
The practical work of disinheriting a forced heir happens outside the will as much as inside it:
- Write the clause with specificity. Name the child, identify the just cause by describing the actual events, and include dates and details. The more concrete your account, the stronger the presumption you create.
- Preserve corroborating evidence in a file your executor can find. Police reports, medical records, court documents, text messages, letters, and witness contact information all help the people defending your will after your death.
- Think carefully about reconciliation. If you cite an event and then genuinely reconcile, the clause is at risk. If the estrangement continues, keeping a dated record of that continued separation helps rebut a later claim of reconciliation.
- Use a notarial will when the stakes justify it. The notary and two witnesses make capacity and coercion challenges harder.
- Update the will when circumstances change. New conduct deserves a new recitation of facts, and reconciliation after the original cause may call for a new document altogether.
If you drafted a Louisiana will years ago, note that the legislature repealed former Article 1577, which previously governed notarial will formalities, through Acts 2025, No. 30. Current notarial will requirements now sit under Article 1576.6Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Article 1577 – Repealed It is worth having an attorney confirm an older document still meets the current rules.
When You Don’t Need to Disinherit at All
Full disinheritance isn’t always necessary. When a forced heir does exist, Louisiana divides your estate into a “forced portion” that must pass to forced heirs and a “disposable portion” you can direct however you want. With one forced heir, the forced portion is one-quarter and the disposable portion is three-quarters. With two or more forced heirs, the forced portion is one-half.7Justia Law. Louisiana Civil Code Article 1495 – Amount of Forced Portion and Disposable Portion
That math means you can often reduce a forced heir’s share dramatically without ever invoking a just cause. If you have one forced heir, directing the full three-quarter disposable portion to other beneficiaries leaves the child with only the minimum one-quarter. Lifetime gifts and irrevocable trusts can also shift assets out of the estate, though Louisiana allows forced heirs to claw back certain lifetime transfers that exceed the disposable portion, so these moves need to be structured carefully.
Because the disinheritance rules are strict and the consequences of a failed attempt are permanent, this is an area where a Louisiana estate planning attorney earns their fee. The question isn’t only whether you have grounds. It is whether formal disinheritance, strategic use of the disposable portion, or lifetime planning best fits what you are actually trying to accomplish.