5 Louisiana Inheritance Rules That Surprise Families From Every Other State
In Louisiana, your children can inherit a house they aren’t allowed to use yet.
That’s normal, but it catches families from other states off guard.
Here are the Louisiana inheritance rules that surprise families from most other states.
Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Louisiana’s inheritance laws are subject to change.
1. Forced Heirship for Children
Many states give children little or no guaranteed share of a parent’s estate.
Louisiana reserves part of a parent’s estate, called the forced portion, for certain children, even when the will leaves them nothing.
A forced heir is a child who’s 23 or younger when a parent dies.
A child of any age also qualifies if a mental incapacity or physical infirmity leaves them permanently unable to care for themselves or manage their estate.
The age cutoff sits in the Louisiana Constitution, not just in the Civil Code.
A parent with one forced heir can give away up to three-fourths of their property.
With two or more forced heirs, a parent can give away up to half.
A 2026 law adds one narrow exception.
Since Aug. 1, 2026, an adult forced heir who is permanently unable to care for themselves or manage their estate has a forced portion of one dollar.
The exception applies only above a $50 million net worth threshold set in the law.
When a Parent Can Disinherit a Forced Heir
Louisiana lets a parent disinherit a forced heir only for a cause the Civil Code lists.
Those causes include trying to take a parent’s life, and cruel treatment or a crime against a parent.
Another is going two years without contact after adulthood, without just cause, unless the child was on active U.S. military duty.
The disinheritance also has to be made in a will form, expressly and for a just cause, or it is null.
2. Surviving Spouse’s Usufruct
Children in Louisiana can inherit title to property they aren’t allowed to use.
That happens with a surviving spouse’s usufruct, which is a right to use property that belongs to someone else, for a limited time.
When the person who died is survived by children or other descendants, the surviving spouse gets a usufruct over that person’s half of the community property.
Those children are naked owners, which means they hold title while the surviving spouse gets the use of the property.
The usufruct ends when the spouse dies or remarries, whichever comes first.
A will can change this arrangement, since the usufruct covers only what the will doesn’t leave to someone else.
Without a will, and with no children or other descendants, the surviving spouse takes the former community property outright.
Psst! How much do you know about inheritance in Louisiana? Flip each card and see how many you get right.
3. Succession Instead of Probate
Other states call it probate, but Louisiana calls the process a succession.
The court order that recognizes an heir as an owner, and that third parties can rely on, is called a judgment of possession.
An estate valued at $125,000 or less can qualify as a small succession.
Heirs of a qualifying estate can often sign an affidavit and record it in the conveyance records instead of opening a court case.
Under the Code of Civil Procedure, an heir who doesn’t sign must either be unlocatable after reasonable diligence or have been mailed 30 days’ notice and not objected.
4. Two Kinds of Wills
Minnesota, for example, accepts a written will signed by the person making it and by two witnesses.
A will made under Louisiana law has no witnesses-only form.
There are only two forms, which the Civil Code calls testaments.
An olographic testament is written out by hand from start to finish, dated and signed by you, with no witnesses and no notary.
A notarial testament is written and dated, then signed in front of a notary and two witnesses.
A will that was valid where it was signed can generally still be probated in Louisiana.
A 2025 law that took effect Aug. 1, 2025, relaxed several formalities.
Now a signature can appear anywhere in the document, as long as it identifies the person who made it.
A notarial testament’s signer no longer has to declare that it’s their testament for it to be valid.
5. Marital Portion
Many states protect a surviving spouse, but Louisiana’s version depends on wealth.
The marital portion lets a surviving spouse claim part of an estate when the deceased spouse died rich in comparison with the survivor.
The marital portion is one-fourth of the succession, owned outright only when the deceased left no children.
With three or fewer children, the spouse gets the same fraction in usufruct for life, and with more than three, the spouse takes a child’s share in usufruct.
The portion can’t exceed $1 million.
A separated spouse can still claim it, as long as they can show the separation wasn’t their fault.
Community Property at Death
In Louisiana, a married person’s will can generally reach only that person’s half of the community property.
Each spouse owns half of it, during the marriage and not just after a death.
Nine states are community property states, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and Louisiana is one of them.
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