living trusts or Wills

[Hillbun52]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Mo.
Are you required to include all of your children and step children in the estate?
If you don't,can they break it?

 

[FlyingRon]

People aren't obliged to an inheritance. You don't need to mention everybody.
Those who aren't either explicitly named or named as a class ("all my surviving children") are excluded.

 

[TrustUser]

from my research, my opinion is

1) for a will, all children should be named. then if the will is gonna distribute any assets, it specifically names those people who are receiving stuff.

2) for a trust, you specifically name your beneficiaries, and how you want to distribute the trust assets to them. you then very simply exclude everyone else with a phrase like "no one has been forgotten. anyone not mentioned as a beneficiary is not a beneficiary."

and if you want to be especially careful, you can say something like "and this includes my son john, who receives nothing."

 

[TrustUser]

here is the wording that i use in my trust -

Any person not named in the beneficiary list above, was not mistakenly omitted. They were intentionally omitted. This includes all other possible legal heirs. It is the intent of the Grantor to deny the legitimacy of any claim on any assets of This Trust Estate, by anyone other than the above listed beneficiaries.