Guardianship
What would happen to your
children if you died?
Are you a parent to minor children? If so, have you
considered what should happen to your children in the
event of you and your partner’s death while the children
are still minors? If not then you ought to consider making
a Will and appointing guardians to take over the care
of your minor children in the event of your death. The
alternative is to leave your children’s guardianship in the
hands of the Court. What is the guardian’s financial position like? Will they
have the means necessary to care for your children?
Any financial burden on them can be alleviated by
leaving a sum of money in trust to your children, as this
may be made available to the guardians to assist with
the children’s maintenance, education and other benefit.
Duties of Guardians You may appoint multiple guardians. You may even
appoint different guardians for different children,
however this would be unusual and would lead to the
children being split up.
Guardians will take on parental responsibility for the
children, and will take on the same duties of a parent:
• Deciding where the children live
• Providing them with a home
• Deciding on their medical treatment
• Day to day care of the children
• Deciding on the children’s education.
What to consider?
Number of Guardians
You should consider how many guardians it is reasonable
to appoint. Often a couple will want to involve both sets
of grandparents or siblings equally, but this can lead
to a situation where there are too many guardians to
properly manage the children’s upbringing – especially
where not all of the guardians can agree on what it best
for the children.
It’s important to carefully consider who should act as
your children’s guardian. While many parents would
choose their own parents to take guardianship you
should consider how practical this is. If your parents are
elderly is it likely that they will be physically capable of
caring for your minor children? Where you don’t want either side of the family to feel
excluded the best solution is to appoint one side as
the first guardians, and include the others as substitute
guardians.
You should also consider whether the children already
have a relationship with your proposed guardian(s). Do
they live close by or will the children need to move far
away, and if they do need to move how will they cope
with being uprooted like this? Acting as a guardian for your children does not have
to cause financial hardship. If a sum of money or share
of your estate is held on trust for your children until they
reach their majority the trustees of your estate have
powers to advance money to the guardians to assist
them with the care of the children.
Financial Provision
The Society of Will Writers
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