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: The Once and Future Lawyer

Once again a celebrity death emphasizes the need for estate planning

By 4L

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It's no wonder that estate planning/wills/trusts is such a lucrative practice for lawyers interested in it. While I can't speak to Australian law, I would think that its premises regarding "unborn heirs" is consistently the same as in New York or any other state for that matter. See Ledger's Will Leaves Nothing to Daughter. As I have already written about this before in the context of the late Anna Nicole Smith (see here and here), I see no need to comment further on the subject other than to make one point about the whole unborn heirs problem and how legislatures across the country addressed it many moons ago.

Thus, the AP report that "Heath Ledger's will leaves nothing to his former girlfriend and their 2-year-old daughter because it was never updated after they became part of his life" is deceptively misleading. His daughter should be able to get a certain statutory percentage of her father's estate since she was born after the will was made. While the fact that "the family would make sure the actor's former girlfriend, actress Michelle Williams, and that their 2-year-old daughter, Matilda Rose, would be provided for" is all well and good, the law will certainly step in to protect his daughter if need be. The non-married mother of the daughter, however, is probably SOL.

The bottom line? Get/update a will if you're married, buy a house, or have a kid. I'm sure there are plenty of lawyers who can help you out at a reasonable cost.