What if you can no longer care for your children due to death or incapacity? If you can’t take care of your minor children, the court must appoint legal guardians for those children. Anyone who wants the job can petition the court. Your kids can easily end up with people who probably have no business raising your kids or don’t share your same values. However, by legally naming guardians for your children beforehand, the court will appoint the people that you’ve chosen. Wouldn’t you rather choose who gets to raise your kids? Wouldn’t you rather lay down the rules and guidelines for your children’s guardians?
How to choose a guardian for your kids?
1. First, don’t worry about hurting anyone’s feelings! Some people don’t name guardians because they are afraid of hurting someone’s feelings. For example, if they don’t name a certain family member, they fear that family member will be upset. These are your kids we are talking about! Hurting someone’s feelings should be of secondary concern. Second, that family member usually won’t know they haven’t been named unless you choose to tell them.
2. Now list all the people you can imagine raising your kids. Of course, no one will be as good as you! By the same token, generally speaking no one is perfect. Therefore, don’t let that fact keep you from creating this important legal document! Some parents get stuck on this part, and as a result, end up doing nothing! So go ahead and list about three to five people or couples. If you can’t think of anyone, then work backwards – try making a list of people who should never raise your children, then start listing people who are better than those people you’ve just listed. Remember, you don’t want to leave this decision to a court.
3. At this point, start listing the most important things to you when it comes to raising your kids – is it the location where they are raised, the age of those raising your kids, their parenting style, their religion, marital status, their relationship to your kids, etc? List about three issues/values that are most important to you. See below for another helpful article.
4. Take your first list of people, and your second list, and now match them up. You will start to see a natural hierarchy. There should always be at least two guardians listed.
Make sure to discuss your nominations with your guardians. You want to make sure they are willing to serve. Remind them they are not obligated to serve in the event they cannot serve or don’t wish to serve because circumstances change. For more information about protecting your kids and your estate, call Robert Mansour at 661-414-7100 for a complimentary estate planning consultation. Also ask for your free Estate Planning audio CD.