When you become a parent, you’re going to start think about your child’s future – and how you can protect your kids. One critical aspect of protecting and providing for your children is having an estate plan. Through a comprehensive estate plan, you can secure their financial future – and ensure that you have the necessary paperwork in place to ensure that they are cared for physically and emotionally as well.
Blacksburg Law advises clients throughout California on all aspects of estate planning. We offer services that go beyond the basic to delve into what truly matters to our clients. Because we work on a flat-fee basis, we can devote the time and energy necessary to create an individualized estate plan that covers the likely situations that may arise. This includes first understanding what raising your children means to you and how best to support someone else taking on that role. We have exercise and homework that supports your choosing a suitable guardian and discussing your wishes and concerns with them.
We believe that estate planning shouldn’t just be about checking off documents on a list or filling in the blanks on a pre-printed form. We collaborate with our clients to help them achieve their estate planning goals – and help them understand what is possible with a trust-based or will-based estate plan. Reach out today to schedule a consultation with a member of our team.
What Is a Nomination of Guardian and How Is It Used?
As a general rule, parents of minor children will appoint a guardian in their last will and testament. The person or persons who are designated as guardians will take over care of any minor children in the event that their parents pass away.
However, there are many situations that may arise where someone needs to provide care for a child or children when their parents cannot do so. This may occur when a parent is incapacitated, or simply when they are out of town. A nomination of guardian serves as evidence of the parents’ intent, which may be important if the issue goes to court.
At Blacksburg Law, we take a different approach to estate planning. Our process involves many in-depth conversations about our clients’ wishes, hopes, and desires. We also get into the details of their finances and their responsibilities. Through these conversations, we learn enough about our clients’ lives that we can suggest and create documents that work for them.
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For example, many of our clients are naturalized citizens with families still living abroad. Once we understand their family dynamic, we can draft documents that meet their needs. If our clients want their family in India to have custody of their children if something should happen to them, we can specify that in their will. We can also draft a temporary nomination of guardian so that someone in the United States can care for their children until arrangements can be made for their family to come here to get the kids – or for the kids to travel to India. Because arranging passports and visas can take some time, it is vital that an estate plan covers these contingencies.
Our estate planning process focuses on empathy rather than fear. We still believe that it is important for our clients to understand why having these types of documents in place is so important. Without a nomination of guardian, your loved ones may have to go through a lengthy and expensive court process to gain legal custody of your children through a guardianship proceeding. Because this is time when kids should have as much stability and certainty as possible, we counsel our clients to consider these possibilities – and help them plan for it.
Ultimately, we believe that estate planning is like a road trip. The focus should be where you want to go and what you want to do when you get there. In this analogy, the documents are like your vehicle: you absolutely need it to make your road trip, but it should never be confused for the journey itself.
We write nomination of guardian documents that are customized to your unique situation. While boilerplate forms are available, we want to ensure that authority is in place based on your likely scenarios. We are able to do so because we place a premium on having deep conversations with our clients about their lives, what success looks like for them, and what matters the most to them.
Estate Planning Basics
A START-UP GUIDE TO ESTATE PLANNING
Download our Estate Planning Basics PDF Guide to get more information about what estate planning is, how it works, what you need to consider, and why Blacksburg Law is the right partner for you.
Planning for Your Future? We Can Help.
The thought of not being there for your kids can be scary. Fortunately, you can create a plan to protect them and ensure that they will be cared for by loved ones no matter what may happen. Our law firm can guide you through the process.
Blacksburg Law is dedicated to creating fully customized estate plans to clients throughout California. We know that to create an estate plan that reflects our clients’ interests and hopes, we have to get to know them on a deeper level. Our flat fee arrangements allow us to do this, without our clients having to worry about a massive bill.
If this type of estate planning appeals to you, reach out today at 415-508-5600 or fill out our online contact form. Our California estate planning lawyers will be happy to explain our process and how we can help you.
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