Philip Seymour Hoffman’s will was filed in court yesterday, and has already gotten a lot of press. He did some unusual things – most poignantly, he did not create trust funds for his children. But he also did not update his will after his younger two kids were born, nor did he make provisions for the possibility that he might have more kids. So they are in a bit of legal limbo, as this article shows.
How can you avoid this problem? Make sure you update your will – and your beneficiary designations – every 5 years or so, or at least whenever there is an important life event, like the birth of a child!