My Children No Longer Speak to Me: Do I Have the Right to Deprive Them of Their Inheritance?

My Children No Longer Speak to Me: Do I Have the Right to Deprive Them of Their Inheritance?
Years of silence. Calls that go unanswered. A relationship that fades until nothing remains but an ache you can’t quite name.

Many parents know this quiet kind of heartbreak. And after a long stretch without news, a painful question sometimes surfaces: “If my child has cut me out of their life, can I cut them out of my inheritance?”

In France, the answer is more complex than it seems.

French inheritance law is built around one central idea: Certain heirs cannot be excluded.

Most notably:

children
spouses
and, in some situations, parents
For these heirs, the law automatically preserves a portion of the estate in their favor. This is la réserve héréditaire—the reserved portion.

Everything else is la quotité disponible, the disposable portion.

This part may be left to whomever you wish: a friend, a charity, a sibling, or another child. Through it, the law recognizes that emotional bonds don’t always follow bloodlines.