Case File: the two words that disinherited half a family

A married couple came to us to review their Wills. They had done what most people think is the responsible thing - made Wills together, leaving everything to each other and then to their children. They thought it was sorted. It wasn't.

Both had been married before. Between them they had six children - three each, none together. Their mirror Wills left everything to the surviving partner, and then, on the second death, "to my children".

Those three words did something the couple never intended. In a Will, "my children" means your own children - not stepchildren, unless you spell it out. So whichever of them died second, their Will would pass everything to their own three children, and leave the other three with nothing. Half the family disinherited - not by malice, but by a phrase that sounded too obvious to question.

What the case teaches

The document was perfectly valid. It was also the opposite of what they wanted - and nobody would have discovered that until the second death, when it was far too late to put right. It surfaced only because someone who does this for a living read the Wills and asked the question the couple were never asked: are these all of your children?

Key takeaways

• "My children" does not include stepchildren unless the Will says so
• A valid Will and a correct Will are not the same thing
• Blended families need drafting that names its beneficiaries deliberately

If your family has changed since your Will was written - marriage, divorce, children, stepchildren - a review by a STEP-qualified estate planner will catch what plain words quietly do not.