can I leave life insurance to 3 children equally and leave all property to only two of them in my will

yes. you have options here. (1). depending upon the size of your estate, you may want to transfer ownership of the ins. policy as well as the designated beneficiary to an irrevocable trust for the benefit of the three children. this also helps asset protect the ins. proceeds form creditors of your children; or (2). simply designate the three children on the primary beneficiary line. In either case, you then provide in the Will for the two children you want to receive other property however you desire. you do not have to specify a disinherited child under Georgia law.

This answer is not intended to provide you with legal advice regarding your specific situation, and it is not intended to create any attorney-client relationship.

Since your children are all adults, you should be able to completely disinherit any or all of them if you so desire. You can also certainly provide for unequal benefits between the three. However, your children, if they all survive you (and your surviving spouse, if you have one at your death), will be your heirs under Georgia law if you are maintaining your primary residence in Georgia at the time you pass away. As an heir, a child who was receiving less than the other children under your Will would have a potential incentive to complain about the Will and try to prevent it from being admitted to probate and given effect. Any time you want to do something like this, you should also think about ways to minimize the chance that the heir who is going to receive less than other beneficiaries will (1) challenge the plan and (2) succeed if he or she does challenge. At a bare minimum, based on your stated distribution plan (life insurance split equally between three children but other property divided between only two of the children), this means that you should consider clearly stating in your Will that you have intentionally failed to provide any benefits for the disfavored child in the Will. However, there are other ways to deal with the possibility of a challenge.

For example, you could use a revocable trust, created by you for your own benefit during your lifetime. If you have transferred your assets to the revocable trust prior to your death, then those assets would not need to pass under a Will (although I recommend that you use a Will which co-ordinates with the revocable trust, so that you have a safety net in case an asset was not transferred to the trust during your lifetime). This is a technique which can be helpful where a parent wants to provide unequal benefits to children, and which has very few potentially negative consequences.

Other types of transfers or techniques can be used to move your assets to your children, but most other possibilities have more potentially negative consequences, and they may not be appropriate for you.

I have the impression that you are either trying to prepare a Will yourself or that you are trying to minimize the time spent with a drafting attorney. I would suggest that you find a good estate planning attorney, and that you meet with that attorney to discuss your situation and your intent with regard to your assets and your family members. A good attorney should be able to help you develop a plan which accomplishes what you want to accomplish in an effective and efficient manner, and can help you see issues and potential problems which you may not see on your own. In a case where you intend to make provisions which result in unequal distributions to your children, the help of a good lawyer can be invaluable to the success of your plans.