Except in limited circumstances, children generally do not have a right to inherit anything (real property or personal property) from their parents. Laws do vary from state to state and in some states, for example, the head of a household may be prohibited from leaving the family homestead to anyone other than a surviving spouse or minor child if such person is alive.

And most states have laws that protect children (and sometimes grandchildren) against accidental inheritance in certain limited circumstances. These laws usually apply when a child is born after a parent’s will is executed, and because the will leaves property to the child’s siblings, it appears that the parent did not intend to disinherit the new child. In this circumstance the child who was not mentioned in the will may be eligible to inherit a portion of the estate like the child’s siblings. Such an omitted child is also known as a pretermitted child or a pretermitted heir.

In states with pretermitted child laws, the laws are usually located in the state’s statutes—often in the estates code or probate code.

In North Carolina, as in many states, children do not have an automatic right to inherit from their parents. However, North Carolina law does provide protections for certain children who may have been unintentionally omitted from a will. Specifically, under North Carolina General Statutes (N.C.G.S.) § 31-5.5, a child born or adopted after the execution of a parent's will, who is not provided for in the will and who is not mentioned or provided for by any settlement, may have the right to a share of the estate. This share is typically the portion of the estate they would have received if the parent had died intestate (without a will). The statute is designed to ensure that children who are inadvertently left out of a will, known as pretermitted children, are not completely disinherited. However, if it can be shown that the omission was intentional or that the child was provided for outside of the will, the statute may not apply. It's important to note that these protections do not extend to children who were alive and known to the parent at the time the will was made, unless they fit the criteria of a pretermitted child as defined by the statute.