Estate Planning For Parents With Minor Kids

The following is an overview of what will happen when parents of minor children pass away, and what they can do to protect themselves, their children, and their assets.
It is not often when parents with minor children pass away, but when it does, it can be a legal nightmare. If the parents have no legal program in place, then typically other family members must scramble to hire lawyers, petition courts to appoint guardians (known in as "tutors") for the minor children, and deal with frozen accounts and other frozen assets. If multiple people want to raise kids, then there will likely be a multi-year court battle where it will ultimately be up to a judge to determine who has the parental rights over your kids.
And then, if the parents with minor children had no legal program in place, a judge must oversee and approve every expenditure of your estate for your kids until they are 18 (the age of majority in ), and then, on your child's 18th birthday, a pile of money will be dumped in their lap with no supervision.
Parents with minor children can avoid these concerns by putting the right legal programs in place. Parents can designate who will raise their children, handle the children's inheritance, and the parents can prolong when the children can get their hands on the inheritance. Parents can even arrange their legal affairs to keep everything out of the courts and give the right people immediate access after death to accounts so there is little disruption to children's financial needs.
All parents with minor kids need to have all of the "incapacity legal plans" in place, so that if the parents become incapacitated (due to illness, injury, or otherwise), other trusted family or friends can immediately step in to make important financial or medicaid decisions for you.
This post is for informational purposes only and does not provide legal advice. Please do not act or refrain from acting based on anything you read on this site. Using this site or communicating with Rabalais Estate Planning, LLC, through this site does not form an attorney/client relationship.
Paul Rabalais
Estate Planning Attorney
www.RabalaisEstatePlanning.com
Phone: [phone]