Reply to selecting a legal guardian for kids, grandparents not the best choice

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Current financial status of potential guardian should have nothing to do with the decision.  This is literally why life insurance exists.  Term life insurance is super cheap.  My BIL and SIL will get more than $1M plus fully funded 529s for our kids's college education.  If your husband's sister is responsible and would be a good guardian for your kids, then her "lack of means" should have zero to do with that decision (unless you think she is irresponsible and would squander the money somehow - but that's a separate issue from current financial situation).

I think you should get the will and guardian all lined up and just give the grandparents a heads-up.  Don't make a big deal about it. My dad (who is very financially astute) was the executor of our will for a long time, but we recently changed it to my brother.  I just explained it was time to move all responsibilities in our will to people in our generation.  He was totally understanding of that.

We picked my husband's brother and his wife to be our kids' guardian.  They are great and we feel 100% comfortable with that.  We are not their kids' guardian - she has a sister who lives nearby so it wouldn't entail uprooting their kids if something happened to them.  But my husband and I are the named guardians for my cousin's kids - her immediate family are all a bit nutty so she wanted someone a bit more stable.  So I think extended family (or even friends) can be good options depending on all the dynamics.

Good luck.[/quote]

Agreed.

The Lawyer we worked with to set up the will helped us think out how the trust fund would work and how to take the trust into our child's adult life. He pointed out that we probably would not want DS to have access to all the funds when they turned 18 and helped us think out how to handle those issues. He also discussed the importance of making sure that the Guardians have some access to funds in case something devastating happens to the Guardians, like the death of the primary bread winners.

We both carry $1 Million in insurance, which might be a bit low, plus the insurance that comes with our jobs. We also have our 401Ks, DSs 529 Plan, and Social Security to help DSs Guardians raise him. Our biggest problem is that our family does not live close to one another, my siblings live in 3 different states, and DS will have to move if something happens to us. We choose a sibling who lives close to my husbands family so that DS would be able to see both sides of the family on a regular basis.

The Lawyer also told us that the Will has to be the version that we have and cannot come from his office so the copy we took from the office is the only one that matters. [/quote]

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