2007 Minnesota Statutes

524.2-302 OMITTED CHILDREN.
(a) Except as provided in paragraph (b), if a testator's will fails to provide for any of the
testator's children born or adopted after the execution of the will, the omitted after-born or
after-adopted child receives a share in the estate as follows:
(1) If the testator had no child living when the will was executed, an omitted after-born or
after-adopted child receives a share in the estate equal in value to that which the child would
have received had the testator died intestate, unless the will devised all or substantially all the
estate to the other parent of the omitted child and that other parent survives the testator and is
entitled to take under the will.
(2) If the testator had one or more children living when the will was executed, and the will
devised property or an interest in property to one or more of the then-living children, an omitted
after-born or after-adopted child is entitled to share in the testator's estate as follows:
(i) The portion of the testator's estate in which the omitted after-born or after-adopted child is
entitled to share is limited to devises made to the testator's then-living children under the will.
(ii) The omitted after-born or after-adopted child is entitled to receive the share of the
testator's estate, as limited in subclause (i), that the child would have received had the testator
included all omitted after-born and after-adopted children with the children to whom devises were
made under the will and had given an equal share of the estate to each child.
(iii) To the extent feasible, the interest granted an omitted after-born or after-adopted child
under this section must be of the same character, whether equitable or legal, present or future, as
that devised to the testator's then-living children under the will.
(iv) In satisfying a share provided by this paragraph, devises to the testator's children who
were living when the will was executed abate ratably. In abating the devises of the then-living
children, the court shall preserve to the maximum extent possible the character of the testamentary
plan adopted by the testator.
(b) Neither paragraph (a), clause (1) or (2), nor paragraph (c), applies if:
(1) it appears from the will that the omission was intentional; or
(2) the testator provided for the omitted after-born or after-adopted child by transfer outside
the will and the intent that the transfer be in lieu of a testamentary provision is shown by the
testator's statements or is reasonably inferred from the amount of the transfer or other evidence.
(c) If at the time of execution of the will the testator fails to provide in the will for a living
child solely because the testator believes the child to be dead, the child receives a share in the estate
equal in value to that which the child would have received had the testator died intestate, unless
the will devised all or substantially all of the estate to the other parent of the child the testator
believes to be dead and the other parent survives the testator and is entitled to take under the will.
(d) If a deceased omitted child would have been entitled to a share under this section if
the omitted child had not predeceased the testator and the deceased omitted child leaves issue
who survive the testator, the issue who represent the deceased omitted child are entitled to take
the deceased omitted child's share.
(e) In satisfying a share provided by paragraph (a), clause (1), or (c), devises made by the
will abate under section 524.3-902.
History: 1985 c 250 s 22; 1986 c 444; 1994 c 472 s 30; 2005 c 26 s 6