69% of parents have not named legal guardians for their children. Of the 31% who have, most have made one of 6 common mistakes. That means that if you have minors at home (or children who have special needs), it’s time to review your plan for their care, if and when something happens to you.
Then, consider taking the very first step that every parent must have in place (no matter whether you have $1 or $10 million), and name legal guardians for your children for the long-term here.
If you and your spouse/partner cannot agree on who would be the ideal guardian(s) for your kids, that’s something we can help with. We have special training from the Family Wealth Planning Institute on helping parents work through this critical decision. If you do nothing, the decision about who would raise your children (if something were to happen to you) would be left up to a judge to decide.
A judge who doesn’t know you, doesn’t know what’s important to you, and doesn’t know your children, will make all the decisions about who cares for the people who are most important to you in the world.
And, truth is … there may never be a perfect solution for you, but there is definitely a solution that is better than your children being raised by someone you didn’t choose. Perhaps you think the way so many parents do, “If we don’t anticipate it, it will never happen, right?” Then I guess that means you don’t need things like insurance or any other type of protection since bad things never happen to good people, right? And wouldn’t it be great if that were true.
Responsible parents protect their children, and that means you must think about the unthinkable.
Fortunately, there is a sensible approach to the selection of a guardian for your children that makes it a lot easier. And we can guide you through this most important of decisions.
