# Is there a legal document to cut a relative from any decisions/benefits from your life? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 2, 2020, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-legal-document-to-cut-a-relative-from-any-decisions-benefits-from-your-life/848790 "2020-03-02T15:23:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-legal-document-to-cut-a-relative-from-any-decisions-benefits-from-your-life/848790/21 "2020-03-03T03:53:44Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > What happens if somebody wants to disinherit people but isn’t really sure who they are? > > Let’s say there’s somebody who’s a single child, whose parents are dead, and who is unmarried and has no children. He’s writing up his will and wants to leave his estate to his local library or pet shelter or something like that. But he realizes that while he has no close family members, there must be some second cousin or whatever out there who is technically his closest living relative. How does he make sure that whoever this unknown person is, they don’t show up after he dies and claim they want everything he owned? Can he have a codicil in his will that specifically disinherits all of his distant relatives without identifying who they are? Yes. If I was drafting that person’s will, I would have the individual recite the knowledge he does have regarding his family (to prove that he is of sound mind). He would state that even if one of those individuals comes forward, he does not acknowledge them as a family member for the purposes of this will. After that, the individual declares that he disinherents all of them, living or dead, children or not, named or unnamed, known or unknown, nor does he wish that any state law of intestate succession apply to those people. He leaves everything to the local pet shelter. Of course, just to keep in mind, the only person in most (all?) states a person cannot completely disinherit is a spouse. If you have a will that says “I leave everything to Shadyside Pet Shelter” then everyone else can go fuck off so long as you are of sound mind. If long lost nephew comes along, then the will controls anyways. That is why the recitation of family history is a good thing to include in a will. It shows a judge that the person was of sufficient mind to articulate to his attorney his immediate family members, but is not at all necessary for a valid will. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-legal-document-to-cut-a-relative-from-any-decisions-benefits-from-your-life/848790/22 "2020-03-04T18:37:13Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > Looking at the forms I see on-line, it’s pretty easy to designate someone, but there’s no place to put “under no circumstances, Bob”. Now, I agree that for all practical purposes, it’s unlikely that Bob will be the only person left standing, but not out of the realm of possibility. I mean, if you show up in the hospital comatose and they can’t contact any of the people on your form, and there Bob is, your apparently loving and concerned kid, how are they supposed to know you’d rather the state take over than having decision making powers passed to Bob? I mean, you could write “But never Bob” down the side, and initial it, but I am not sure that would work. I don’t think there is any case law, but I would be shocked if any judge or any medical provider would look at a clear directive on a POA that says, in effect, “I don’t want Bob making any medical decisions for me” and then allow Bob to make medical decisions for that person. ETA: On some issues, the lack of case law supports your position because you can argue that the issue is so blooming fucking obvious that nobody decided to waste money by arguing the position in court, or even if a couple did, they certainly didn’t appeal the ass chewing they got from the judge and it does not reach a published appellate decision. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-legal-document-to-cut-a-relative-from-any-decisions-benefits-from-your-life/848790/23 "2020-03-04T19:19:22Z")
What about a document where you explicitly list out who you want to be considered as a relative and their hierarchy for all cases where you have not explicitly already stated it? For example, maybe you have a will, PoA, and MPoA, but you still want to ensure that only a certain group of people are considered your relatives in any situation you didn’t already consider. So maybe something like: > [@](#): > > "Unless otherwise specified, only the following people are to be considered as my relative in the following order in any legal matter where relatives are given special consideration: > > - My sister Jane > - My brother Joe > - My friend Jack > - My birth mother > … > > Any person not mentioned in the above list shall not be considered as a relative in any legal matter." Something like this would also allow you to change the default relative order if you wanted it different than what the state specifies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-legal-document-to-cut-a-relative-from-any-decisions-benefits-from-your-life/848790.md?page=1)