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 North Dakota, as in many states, children do not have an automatic right to inherit from their parents, except under certain circumstances. North Dakota law provides protections for pretermitted or omitted children. According to North Dakota Century Code (NDCC) Section 30.1-06-03, if a child is born or adopted after the execution of a will and the will does not provide for that child, the omitted child may still receive a share of the estate. This share is typically equal to what the child would have received if the decedent had died intestate (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). However, if the will made a provision for all children born or adopted after the will was made, or if the decedent left most of the estate to the other parent of the omitted child, the protections for the omitted child may not apply. It's important to note that these laws are designed to address situations where a parent unintentionally fails to provide for a child in their will, not situations where the parent has made a conscious decision to disinherit a child.