I heard siblings have been successful at doing this. I am concerned because my older sister has not been a part of the family for 12 years now, and has treated us all badly. She has made no noise about this at all, I just heard this has happened before, and want to be prepared. My mom now has Alzheimer's, dx almost 3 years ago. Will was amended 10 years ago.
I was wondering my mother has dementia and my brother has come back in the picture (he recently left after he tried to take my mom's house put it in his name and didn't get a chance I stopped him but I wasn't able to stop him from cleaning her bank account out) Now as mentioned he has moved his way back into her life and again back to his old ways. I have power attourney (which I had been given back after he took it) and the will is back to where she has had it for over 50 years (everyone equally) (before he had me written out). If he gets her to change her will again, write me out of it, do I have legal rights to part of the estate like she had in the will previously. Or if he gets her to put the house in his name , (does it this time if I cant stopped it again) mean that I lose my share of it because its now his.
So usually they are left something small physical (family bible sort of thing) or small amt of money ($100). And in the will or codicil, it states something like "if anyone should contest this document, those that contest are to get $1.00". It's basically sending a warning to ex spouses, kids from earlier marriages, old business partners, etc. that the deceased anticipated that they would fight the will and prepared for this.
If there is any real $$$ in the estate, it will likely be worth it for the forgotten sibling to contest the will. Even if they do it for spite, as the assets of the estate get spent on dealing with this. and that could be what the forgotten wants.
I would think disinheriting a grown child from a Will could have major consequences such as that child could re-enter the family group and be a tremendous help to his/her aging parents in their later years... but said parents cannot re-write the Will to include that grown child because of later stages of Alzheimer's/Dementia. Thus, that grown child receives zero unless the other siblings share their inheritance. Or if that grown child is an only child, receive nothing. To play it safe the Will should have been written to include that grown child if certain measures had been reached. Just food for thought.