Blended family inheritance disputes have no default fair solution

When a parent in a blended family dies, the surviving stepparent and biological children from a prior marriage have directly conflicting financial interests, and intestacy laws handle this terribly. If the deceased left everything to the surviving spouse, the biological children from the first marriage may receive nothing when the stepparent later remarries or writes them out. If the deceased split assets, the surviving spouse may not have enough to maintain their home. So what? Roughly 40% of US marriages involve at least one partner with children from a prior relationship, meaning millions of families face this structural conflict. So what? These disputes destroy family relationships permanently, with siblings and step-siblings litigating against each other for years. So what? The person who died wanted to take care of everyone but the legal system forces a zero-sum outcome. This persists because estate law defaults (intestacy statutes) were written for nuclear families, most attorneys use template wills that don't address blended-family dynamics, and the emotional complexity means couples avoid the conversation entirely.