death

If you have minor children, choosing a guardian to care for them should you die unexpectedly is one of the most important estate planning decisions you must make. It’s also one of the most difficult. So difficult, in fact, that avoiding it is one of the most common reasons people put off drafting an estate plan.

If you’re hesitant to name a guardian for your children, consider the alternative: A court will name one, without any prior guidance from you. So it’s important to choose a guardian now, while you still have a say in the matter.

Here are four tips to guide you in making your selection:

1. Take inventory. Make a list of potential guardians — people you trust to love and care for your children. Don’t limit yourself to immediate family members. Extended family members and friends may also be good choices if they have a close relationship with your children and share your values.

2. Make value judgments. Consider the values that are important to you, such as religious and moral beliefs, parenting philosophy, educational values, and social values. Determine which people on your list share these values most closely.

Bear in mind that you’re not likely to find a perfect match, so you’ll need to prioritize your values. For example, is it more important to you that your guardian share your religious beliefs or that he or she share your parenting philosophy? Can educational values take a back seat to social values?

3. Consider age. The age of the guardian as well as the ages of your children are factors to consider. If your children are very young, a grandparent or other older person may not have the energy to keep up with them. And remember, if a guardian becomes necessary it means that something has happened to you. Choosing a younger guardian reduces the risk that your kids will go through the trauma of losing another loved one.

4. Don’t dismiss the possibility of separate guardians. If you have more than one child, it’s generally best for all concerned to keep the siblings together. But sometimes it’s preferable to split them up. This may be the case if you have children from different marriages, if your children are far apart in age or if they have special needs that are better served by separate guardians.

After you narrow your list of potential guardians to a primary choice and one or two alternates, discuss your plans with them. You can’t force someone to act as your children’s guardian, so it’s critical to talk with all the candidates to make sure they understand what’s expected of them and that they’re willing to take on the responsibility. If your children are old enough, get their input as well. Contact us with any questions regarding choosing a guardian.

Choosing the right executor — sometimes known as a “personal representative” — is critical to the smooth administration of an estate. Yet many people treat this decision as an afterthought. Given an executor’s many responsibilities and complex tasks, it pays to put some thought into the selection.

Job description

An executor’s duties may include:

Collecting, protecting and taking inventory of the estate’s assets,
Filing the estate’s tax returns and paying its taxes,
Handling creditors’ claims and the estate’s claims against others,
Making investment decisions,
Distributing property to beneficiaries, and
Liquidating assets if necessary.

You don’t necessarily have to choose a professional executor or someone with legal or financial expertise. Often, lay people can handle the job, hiring professionals as needed (at the estate’s expense) to handle matters beyond their expertise.

Candidate considerations

Many people choose a family member or close friend for the job, but this can be a mistake for two reasons. First, a person who’s close to you may be too grief-stricken to function effectively. Second, if your executor stands to gain from the will, he or she may have a conflict of interest — real or perceived — which can lead to will contests or other disputes by disgruntled family members.

If either of these issues is a concern, consider choosing an independent outsider as executor. Some people appoint co-executors — one trusted friend who knows the family and understands its dynamics, and one independent executor with business, financial or legal expertise.

Designate a backup

Regardless of whom you choose, be sure to designate at least one backup executor to serve in the event that your first choice dies or becomes incapacitated before it’s time to settle your estate — or turns down the job. Contact us for answers to your questions about choosing the right executor at 205-345-9898.

Tag Archives: death

A Difficult Decision: Choosing a Guardian for your Children

Hastily choosing an executor can lead to problems after your death