Do You Need to Update Your Will When You Have More Kids?

Leslie signed her Will five years ago when she had one child. Then she had twins. Now she’s got three kids, and she’s wondering: does her Will still work, or does she need to change it?

It’s a question I get all the time. And the answer is… it depends.

Why Your Old Will Might Still Work

Good estate planning attorneys use solid forms that account for future kids. For example, my own Will doesn’t just name my children; it includes any child “born or adopted after the date of this Will.” That way, if my family grows, the Will automatically grows with it.

So if your Will has that kind of language, you may not need to run back to your attorney every time there’s a new baby.

But Here’s the Catch: Pretermitted Children

If your Will doesn’t include that future-children language, your afterborn child could be considered what the law calls a pretermitted child. 

Most states assume you didn’t mean to accidentally leave out your new child. That means the law steps in and gives them a share of your estate, the share they would have inherited under the laws of intestate succession if you had died without a Will.

And that can create some unintended (and messy) results:

• Your spouse’s share might shrink.

• Your older children might get less or even nothing.

• The distribution you carefully planned could be completely reshuffled.

Why State Law Matters More Than You Think

Here’s where it gets wild: the exact same Will could produce totally different outcomes depending on where you live.

• Tennessee (Leslie’s state): Afterborn kids could claim a share and reduce what’s left for the people named in the Will.

• New York: If you already had one child at the time you wrote your Will and didn’t provide for them, later-born kids could be out of luck.

Same Will, two completely different results.

Celebrity Examples

• Heath Ledger signed his Will before his daughter Matilda was born. Under New York law, she could have been entitled to his entire probate estate. His family chose not to fight and gave everything to her.

• Anna Nicole Smith had a Will that said she was intentionally leaving out any future children. But when her son (the only beneficiary named in the Will) died before her, her infant daughter inherited everything through the laws of intestate succession anyway.

DNA Surprises: A Modern Twist

With commercial DNA tests everywhere, people are discovering biological parents they never knew about.

Take a recent case in Oklahoma. In 2018, a woman’s DNA test revealed that she had a half-sibling through her father, Mr. Georges, who had died back in 1997. She contacted this new half-sibling, James Felts, with the news. James responded by filing a petition in 2020 to reopen Mr. Georges’ long-closed estate, seeking to claim his share as a pretermitted child.

But the court said no. James had waited too long—the statute of limitations had passed. 

So… Do You Need to Update Your Will?

If your Will was drafted with solid language that covers future kids, and no one in your family needs special planning, you might be fine.

But if your Will doesn’t mention afterborn children, or your new child has unique needs, you should probably revisit it.

Because the last thing you want is for state law (or a DNA test result) to write your family’s story for you.

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