Except in limited circumstances, children generally do not have a right to inherit anything (real property or personal property) from their parents. Laws do vary from state to state and in some states, for example, the head of a household may be prohibited from leaving the family homestead to anyone other than a surviving spouse or minor child if such person is alive.

And most states have laws that protect children (and sometimes grandchildren) against accidental inheritance in certain limited circumstances. These laws usually apply when a child is born after a parent’s will is executed, and because the will leaves property to the child’s siblings, it appears that the parent did not intend to disinherit the new child. In this circumstance the child who was not mentioned in the will may be eligible to inherit a portion of the estate like the child’s siblings. Such an omitted child is also known as a pretermitted child or a pretermitted heir.

In states with pretermitted child laws, the laws are usually located in the state’s statutes—often in the estates code or probate code.

In Ohio, children do not have an automatic right to inherit from their parents unless specified by a will or estate plan. However, Ohio law does provide protections for children who may have been unintentionally omitted from a will. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2107.34, if a child is born or adopted after the execution of a will and the will does not provide for any children of the testator, that child may have the right to a share of the estate. This share is typically equal to what the child would have received if the parent had died without a will, unless it can be shown that the omission was intentional or the child was provided for outside of the will (e.g., through a trust). This statute is designed to protect what are known as 'pretermitted heirs'—children who were not mentioned in a will because they were not born or adopted at the time the will was made. It's important to note that these protections do not apply if the will explicitly disinherits the child or otherwise indicates an intention not to provide for that child.