Disinheriting occurs when a testator uses his or her will to cause a person who expects, or is otherwise entitled to receive, an inheritance to receive no inheritance, or a smaller inheritance than what the person expected or would have been entitled to receive had the testator died without a will.
By making a will, a testator chooses his or her beneficiaries, who are quite often different than those who would inherit the testator’s property as his or her heirs if the testator died intestate. Therefore, it is very common for testators to disinherit some or all of their heirs.