Who would care for your children should you become incapacitated in an accident or die unexpectedly from an illness or accident? Would your children live with their grandparents? If so, which set of grandparents? Where would they go to school? These are questions that you likely don’t want to consider right now because talking about death is never easy.
However, planning now for the unthinkable is an important part of being a parent. You need to protect your minor children and young adult children as much as possible for the day when you are no longer here to do so yourself. The compassionate and experienced team at Mitchell & Faix will be able to answer your questions and guide you through the process of estate planning.
What Should be Included When Planning for a Minor Child?
When you are putting together a plan for your minor child, the following should be included:
- Temporary guardianship: someone who can immediately take care of your children in an emergency so they do not wind up in the hands of an agency
- Permanent guardianship: someone who will become the child’s legal guardian should you die before they turn 18
- Instructions for the guardians: written instructions should be provided to temporary and permanent guardians so they know exactly how you want your children raised
How to Choose a Guardian?
Choosing a guardian is not an easy thing. However, not choosing a guardian will not make the situation better if something happens to you. You will likely take many things into consideration when reviewing your options, include the following:
- The age of your children and the age of the potential guardian
- The potential guardian’s religious beliefs, values, and own parenting styles
- The stage of life your potential guardians are in (married, divorced, widowed, retired, working, young children of their own)
- Where the potential guardian lives
- The relationship the potential guardian has with your children (they don’t need to be a blood relative but there should be some sort of relationship)
- Willingness of the potential guardian (speak with them before making it legal)
Setting up a Trust to hold the assets you leave to a minor child at your death.
- Your estate plan will need to contain a trust, or trusts, to hold the assets you leave to your minor children.
- You will name the person(s) to be the trustee over the child’s assets, what the money can be used for, and how long the money is to stay in trust. These are all items that an estate planning attorney can guide you through when you are doing an estate plan.
- You will coordinate the beneficiaries on assets such as life insurance and retirement plans at the direction of your estate planning attorney to make sure your plan works.
What Should be Included When Planning for a Young Adult?
As your children grow, you teach them new things related to their age. When they are 16, 17, you teach them how to drive. You teach them how to answer questions in an interview for a first job. When they reach 18 it is time to discuss how they can protect themselves and their finances. This includes encouraging them to create a will and other legal documents.
Your young adult child should work with a qualified estate planning attorney to put together a thorough plan. It should include:
- A Durable Power of Attorney: Names an attorney-in-fact who will be able to take care of their financial matters if they are unable to do so themselves.
- Last will and testament: Your young adult child can create a last will and testament that is simple. Many young people enjoy engaging in risky activities, including skydiving, mountain climbing, and traveling the world. A simple will outlines what’s to happen to their finances should they die in an accident.
- Medical Power of Attorney: Names someone who can make their medical decisions for them if they are unable to do so themselves.
- Living will: This document outlines the use of life-sustaining equipment and measures in the event they become terminally ill and unable to communicate.
- HIPAA Release: This document will allow certain people to talk to health care professionals and get medical information.
