Most married people plan to leave everything to their spouse, and if the spouse dies
first, then it all goes to the kids. Why is that a big mistake?
Many married people write a "simple will" that leaves everything to their spouse
or -if the spouse dies first-leaves everything to their kids. Unfortunately, such a will
can cause huge problems later. For example, say John and Mary have two kids. John dies,
leaving everything to Mary. Mary later marries Bob, a widower with three kids of his own.
Then Mary dies, leaving everything to Bob. All of John's assets now belong to Bob, a guy
he never met, and John's kids get nothing. And when Bob dies, Bob's own kids will inherit
his assets-which would now include everything that John and Mary had spent their whole
lives working for.