Many married couples believe that signing wills leaving everything to the surviving spouse or jointly titling all property is a good estate plan. Why You Need To Protect Your Children’s Inheritance However, you can protect your children’s inheritance with good estate planning. How would you feel if you knew that your children would never receive the financial legacy you built for them? As unthinkable as it sounds, children can be cut out of the family estate when a deceased spouse leaves everything outright to the surviving spouse (which is very common).