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 Louisiana, the laws regarding inheritance for children are governed by the state's Civil Code and other relevant statutes. Louisiana is unique in that it follows a legal system based on French and Spanish civil law, rather than the English common law tradition that informs the legal systems of most other U.S. states. Under Louisiana law, children do have inheritance rights. When a parent dies intestate (without a will), their children are typically entitled to inherit their property, with the distribution governed by Louisiana's laws of intestate succession. If a parent dies with a will, the children may still have rights to an inheritance, especially if they are omitted or pretermitted heirs. A pretermitted heir in Louisiana is a child born or adopted after the execution of a will and not mentioned in it. According to Louisiana Civil Code, a pretermitted child may be entitled to a portion of the decedent's estate as if the decedent had died intestate, unless it appears that the omission was intentional or the child was otherwise provided for. It's important to note that Louisiana law also includes forced heirship provisions, which require that a portion of a decedent's estate is reserved for certain heirs, such as minor children or children with certain disabilities, regardless of the contents of a will.