Estate planning is an exercise in anticipating future events.
Your plan should explain what happens if you become incapacitated and how your accounts and property will be handled after your death. The more you prepare for what life might bring, the less you leave to chance and the more protection you provide for your loved ones.
But is there such a thing as being too prepared?
For parents of minor children, too much planning is generally preferable to not enough. The same can be said for people who are expecting a child, pursuing an adoption, or planning to have children in the future.
However, if you do not have children when you die and your estate plan refers to children who exist only in theory, those provisions could create unnecessary questions or complications.
The best approach is usually to acknowledge the possibility of future children without creating an overly complicated plan. Inclusive language, appropriate backup beneficiaries, regular reviews, and clear communication with trusted decision-makers can help you strike the right balance.
Should an Estate Plan Include Unborn or Future Children?
Yes, an estate plan can include children who may be born or adopted in the future.
Flexible language can help prevent a future child from being accidentally excluded. It can also allow you to state your general wishes regarding guardianship and the management of a child’s inheritance.
However, planning for future children does not eliminate the need to update your documents after a birth or adoption. Every child and family situation is different.
Advantages of Planning for Future Children
Including future children can:
- Reduce the risk of accidentally disinheriting a later-born or adopted child
- Establish general inheritance provisions for all children
- Express your guardianship preferences
- Provide instructions for managing a minor child’s inheritance
- Give your family a plan to follow if you die before updating your documents
Having a flexible plan is generally better than having no plan at all.
Potential Disadvantages
Planning too far into the future can also create problems.
If you are not expecting or actively planning to have children, elaborate provisions for hypothetical children may not reflect your present circumstances. Those provisions could also make it more difficult for your personal representative or trustee to determine how your property should be distributed.
Flexibility and simplicity are key.
Many Parents Do Not Have Estate Planning Documents
Recent findings on estate planning paint a concerning picture of how unprepared many Americans are for an unexpected death or incapacity.
According to the 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study from Caring.com, approximately 24 percent of surveyed Americans reported having a will. In other words, roughly three in four did not have a will specifying:
- Who should receive their money and property
- When beneficiaries should receive an inheritance
- Who should manage and distribute estate property
- Who should raise their minor children
- Who should make decisions during incapacity
The birth of a child was one of the most common reasons people without an estate plan said they would consider creating one. Still, many respondents with minor children did not have a plan.
Why Parents Need a Will
This lack of planning is particularly concerning for parents.
A will does more than distribute accounts and property. It also allows parents to nominate someone to care for their minor children if both parents die.
The Maryland Register of Wills explains that a will can be used to nominate a trusted person as guardian of minor children. Without a will, the Orphans’ Court may need to appoint a guardian without written guidance from the parents.
A court will make the final guardianship decision based on the child’s best interests. However, a nomination gives parents a voice in that process.
Estate planning can also address incapacity. Financial powers of attorney, advance directives, trusts, and other documents can authorize trusted people to manage affairs if an illness or injury prevents a parent from doing so.
Why Future Children Can Be Accidentally Disinherited
Many parents have not planned for their existing children, let alone children who have not yet been born or adopted.
Planning for future children represents the other side of the planning coin. It raises the possibility of being overprepared, but the concern is not entirely unwarranted.
Children can be accidentally omitted when parents create an estate plan and fail to update it as their family grows.
Heath Ledger’s Outdated Will
A prominent example involved actor Heath Ledger.
When Ledger died in 2008, his will had been written before the birth of his daughter, Matilda. It reportedly left his estate to his parents and siblings rather than to his daughter.
Ledger’s family ultimately chose to give the estate to Matilda, according to reporting from People. However, families cannot assume that relatives will voluntarily correct an outdated estate plan.
The situation illustrates the importance of reviewing your documents whenever your family changes.
Do Not Set and Forget Your Estate Plan
Some people treat estate planning as a task that only needs to be completed once.
However, a plan that reflected your life when it was signed may no longer reflect your family, property, relationships, or goals several years later.
An estate plan should be reviewed regularly and after significant events, including:
- A birth or adoption
- Marriage, divorce, or remarriage
- The death of a beneficiary
- A change in the preferred guardian
- A substantial change in property or income
- A move to another state
- A beneficiary developing a disability or special needs
Planning for future children provides a safety net. Updating the plan after a child joins the family allows you to replace general assumptions with decisions based on that child’s actual circumstances.
How Can You Include Future Children in an Estate Plan?
Parents who want to plan for future children should create a solid but flexible foundation.
The goal is not to predict every possible event. Instead, the plan should account for the possibility of additional children and provide clear instructions that can be adapted as life changes.
Use Inclusive Language in Your Documents
Broad estate planning provisions can include children who are born or adopted after the documents are signed.
For example, a plan might refer to “all my children, living or hereafter born or adopted.” Language like this is intended to include current and future children without naming each child individually.
Inclusive language can help prevent a future child from being accidentally omitted. It may also reduce the likelihood of family disputes over whether a later-born or adopted child was intended to inherit.
Inclusive Language Does Not Replace Future Updates
Broad language generally assumes that you want every child to be treated in the same way.
However, no two children are exactly alike. What is appropriate for one child may not be appropriate for another.
One child may have a disability, struggle with money management, require long-term care, or need additional protection from creditors. Another may be financially independent.
Inclusive language provides a safeguard, but you should still update your plan after every birth or adoption.
Consider Trust Provisions for Future Children
Parents can use a revocable living trust or a testamentary trust within a will to manage an inheritance for future children.
A trust allows a trustee to manage money and property on a child’s behalf. The document can explain when and how distributions should be made.
For example, a trust may permit distributions for:
- Education
- Healthcare
- Housing
- General support
- Starting a business
- Purchasing a first home
The trust can also delay a child’s direct control of the inheritance until the child reaches specified ages or milestones.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau provides an overview of revocable living trusts, including the roles of the person creating the trust, the trustee, and the beneficiaries.
Give the Trustee Enough Flexibility
Giving a trustee discretion can help address uncertainties about a future child’s circumstances and needs.
However, placing significant authority in one person also creates risk. The trustee should be trustworthy, financially responsible, and able to make fair decisions.
The trust should provide useful guidance without trying to predict every possible detail of a child’s future.
You should also name at least one successor trustee in case the first person cannot or will not serve.
Express Your Guardianship Wishes
Guardianship planning for future children is different from naming a guardian for a specific child.
Instead, you are establishing a general preference for any minor children you may have when the guardianship is needed. Your documents may state that the person nominated for an existing child should also be considered for future children.
Speak With Potential Guardians First
Before making this nomination, talk to the people you are considering.
Ask whether they would be willing and able to care for an additional child. A person who is prepared to raise one child may not be able to take responsibility for several.
You may understandably want your children to remain together. However, children can have different medical, developmental, educational, or emotional needs. In some circumstances, different guardians may be better equipped to care for them.
These details may be impossible to anticipate before a child is born or adopted.
A Guardian Nomination Is Not Guaranteed
Naming a guardian does not guarantee that the person will be appointed.
The court will make the final decision based on the child’s best interests and the circumstances that exist at that time. The preferred guardian’s age, health, location, relationship with the child, and ability to provide care may all matter.
This is another reason to review guardianship choices after each child joins the family and as the proposed guardians’ circumstances change.
Avoid Excessive Complexity
A thorough estate plan should address foreseeable events, but greater complexity does not always create greater protection.
Numerous “if this, then that” scenarios can make a plan difficult for a personal representative or trustee to interpret. Excessive contingencies can also contribute to delays, higher administration costs, and disputes about your intentions.
Focus on the most likely possibilities:
- You have one or more children
- You have no children
- A child is still a minor
- A child needs inheritance protection
- A selected guardian or trustee cannot serve
Clear backup instructions are usually more useful than attempting to predict every possible family configuration.
Plan for What Happens If You Die Without Children
An estate plan that refers to future children should also explain what happens if you never have or adopt a child.
The outcome will depend on how the documents are written.
If You Name Contingent Beneficiaries
If your will or trust refers to “my children” or “my descendants,” but you have no descendants at your death, the property can pass to named contingent beneficiaries.
A contingent beneficiary is the person or organization selected to inherit if the primary beneficiary does not exist, has died, or cannot receive the property.
Possible contingent beneficiaries include:
- A spouse or partner
- Parents
- Siblings
- Nieces or nephews
- Friends
- Charitable organizations
Naming contingent beneficiaries gives your personal representative or trustee clear instructions.
If the Plan Includes Multiple Alternative Scenarios
If you create elaborate alternative distribution plans, your personal representative or trustee will need to determine which scenario applies.
The more complicated the alternatives become, the greater the possibility of uncertainty or disagreement.
The documents should state a clear final distribution if none of the child-related provisions apply.
If You Do Not Name Contingent Beneficiaries
If you do not name backup beneficiaries and your estate planning documents do not provide another valid distribution, some or all of your property may pass under your state’s intestacy laws.
Intestacy laws identify the relatives who inherit when property is not otherwise distributed through a valid estate plan. In Maryland, the result may depend on whether the person is survived by a spouse, registered domestic partner, children, parents, siblings, or more distant relatives.
You can review a general explanation of Maryland intestacy law through the People’s Law Library.
Relying on intestacy may produce a result that does not match your intentions.
Balance Future Possibilities With Your Present Needs
When including unborn or future children in an estate plan, the goal should be clarity, flexibility, and simplicity.
Do not become consumed by the details of dividing property among hypothetical children. Focus on creating a plan that:
- Recognizes the possibility of future children
- Protects any current children
- States your guardianship preferences
- Provides a practical method for managing inheritances
- Names contingent beneficiaries if you remain childless
- Can be updated as your family changes
The most important step is putting a plan in place and reviewing it when life changes.
We Can Help You Plan for a Growing Family
An estate planning attorney can help you balance what the future might hold with the needs of your life today.
McDonald Law Firm assists individuals and families with creating flexible plans for current children, future children, guardianship, incapacity, and inheritance protection.
Attorney André O. McDonald serves clients in Howard County, Montgomery County, and the District of Columbia with estate planning, special needs planning, Medicaid planning, and related matters.
To schedule a consultation, call:
- Howard County: 443-741-1088
- Montgomery County: 301-941-7809
- District of Columbia: 202-640-2133
DISCLAIMER: THE INFORMATION POSTED ON THIS BLOG IS INTENDED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED TO CONVEY LEGAL, INSURANCE, OR TAX ADVICE.
