A disinherited child and the forced share (legitieme portie)

A will can disinherit a child. That child is then not an heir for a share of the estate. The forced share (legitieme portie) does not disappear with that. Disinheriting does not take the forced share away. In the file the child therefore does not disappear from the list of persons involved. The role of heir is switched off, or it stands as disinherited, with the will as the source. Beside that it remains visible that a forced share (legitieme portie) can be invoked. That second rule is not a share of the estate.

The forced share is not automatically an entry with an amount. It is invoked by the person concerned, in writing, within the lapse period of five years after the death under art. 4:85 BW. In the file of a disinherited child those facts lie beside the disinheritance. First the will that disinherits. Then, if it exists, the letter that invokes the forced share. Without that letter the child is disinherited and the forced share has not yet been invoked. The program does not quietly turn the disinheritance into an invocation.

An example makes the fraction readable, without an amount in euros. Take a partner and two children. A child's intestate share is then one third. The forced share (legitieme portie) is half of that, so one sixth of the estate mass. In the file that fraction can stand as an explanation beside the person entitled to the forced share: one sixth of the estate mass, not one sixth of a random list of possessions. It is an example of the measure. It is not a concluded claim.

The estate mass includes gifts and debts. A gift that counts belongs as an entry with a source. A debt that affects the estate mass belongs with the liabilities, also with a source. What is not known stays open. Ervazo does not fully carry out the imputation of gifts. The program does not of its own accord deduct gifts from the forced share and does not itself determine which gift counts and to what degree. A simplified fraction in the file is therefore not a final amount.

The disinherited child remains a separate person involved, with the disinheritance and, where it exists, the invocation as facts of their own. Not a footnote to the surviving spouse or registered partner. No automatic share of the estate. Ervazo orders those facts and does not calculate by way of advice. The fraction of one sixth remains an explanation beside the estate mass, not a payout. The civil-law notary, the court or the Dutch Tax Administration (Belastingdienst) decides the specific case. The estate mass and the fraction remain a calculation aid until that decision exists.