Naming a Guardian for Your Children: Six Common Mistakes

If you have named guardians for their kids, you may have made one of these six common mistakes:

You may have named a couple to act as guardians, but you have not indicated what should happen if the couple broke up or one of the spouses died. This means your kids could end up in the care of someone you did not choose.

You may not have named enough alternates to serve if your first choice cannot serve.

You may have considered financial resources of potential guardians when deciding who should raise your children. Your guardians do not have to also be financial decision-makers for your kids; your guardians are the people who will be in charge of your kids' emotional, spiritual and physical well-being – not necessarily their money. It's your responsibility to leave enough money behind to take care of your kids, either through savings or life insurance. You can name someone other than your guardians to take care of that money if the best-choice guardians are not good with money.

You may have not provided for someone to take care of the money you are leaving behind. That means your money could go outright to your kids at 18 – unprotected.

You probably named only long-term care guardians and did not make any arrangements for the short-term care of your kids if you were in an accident. This means your kids could be taken out of your home and into the care of strangers until the authorities could figure out what to do.

You probably did not exclude anyone who might challenge your decisions or who you know you would never want raising your kids.

The good news: Avoiding these mistakes is easy when you have the right guidance.