How do afterborn heir laws protect a child born after a parent makes a will?

In the context of inheritance law, "afterborn heir" statutes are a legal mechanism used in many jurisdictions within the United States to protect children who are born after a parent has already executed their will.1

These statutes function by granting an afterborn child a portion of the parent's estate equivalent to what they would have received through intestate succession—the legal distribution of assets when no valid will exists. Essentially, the law assumes that the parent would have intended to provide for the child had they been born at the time the will was drafted.1

However, this protection is not absolute. The child's right to this share can be overridden if the parent’s contrary intention is explicitly stated within the will itself. By providing this default protection, these statutes help ensure that children are not unintentionally disinherited due to the timing of their birth relative to their parent's estate planning.1