When working with clients who have minor children, we spend a lot of time discussing the kids: their individual personalities, the values the clients are trying to instill, and concerns for their future. We do our best to craft an estate plan that will secure the children’s financial future. This usually involves planning both from a financial perspective (making sure there is enough money for future expenses, especially if something happened to the clients), with the help of the clients’ financial advisors, and from a legal standpoint (ensuring the children will have access to any money when and how the clients judge best).
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Our Relationships Series previously has covered the unique estate planning challenges faced by blended families and by same-sex and other unmarried couples. Today we will address another group that is in dire need of proper planning: families with children under the age of 18.
Continue Reading...While even the simplest guardianship is an expensive, lengthy, and public undertaking, a contested guardianship can be much worse. A contested guardianship is a case in which there are multiple interested persons (usually family members) with different ideas of what is best for the incapacitated person (the “ward”). As you might imagine, contests like this can drive up the financial and emotional cost of the proceeding, delay results, and air a family’s “dirty laundry” in open court.
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