Anna Nicole Smith Update

According to Jay MacDonald , You can accidentally disinherit your heirs, biz.yahoo.com, Dec. 4, 2007, Anna Nicole Smith may have accidentally disinherited her daughter, Dannielynn, by failing to update her will:

Although children have no legal right to inheritance throughout most of the United States, many states do provide protection against accidental disinheritance. Because she was born after the execution of Anna Nicole's will, Dannielynn will likely be considered a pretermitted child that was accidentally disinherited, and thus will likely inherit the bulk of Anna Nicole's estate.

[Note, however, that the express disinheritance provision in her will may prevent Dannielynn from taking via intestate succession.  See the prior discussion on this blog.

Here are the 7 ways to disinherit your kids which Mr. MacDonald discusses:

1. Failure to update a will
2. Faulty will
3. Stepparent succession
4. Ademption
5. Misunderstanding survivorship
6. Mirror-image grant
7. Failure to prepare a will