What You Need to Know About
Guardians & a System to Choose the Right One
1. What Is a Guardian?
If one parent dies, and there’s a surviving parent, then the surviving parent raises the children. That goes for unmarried parents and divorce couples too. If you’re divorced or never married, and there’s a surviving parent, the surviving parent raises the children even if the parent that died named someone else as the guardian in their Will. However, if both parents die, then the person(s) you name as the guardian in the Will raise the children.
2. Who Can Be a Guardian?
You can name a single person, more than one person, married couple, or people that are not married to be the guardian or guardians of your minor children.
3. What Does a Guardian do?
Generally, the guardian will be responsible for doing everything that you would have done until the children are 18 years old. Ideally, the guardian that you choose will share similar beliefs and philosophies. For example the guardian will handle the following:
a. Provide a home
b. The necessities for daily living
c. Love and affection
d. Make decisions about health
e. Make decisions about education
f. Make decisions and influence your children on religion, politics, and morality
g. If the guardian is also the trustee, then Guardian will manage any inheritance that is left to the children
4. System for Choosing the Right Guardian
Now that you understand what a guardian is, who can be a guardian, and what a guardian does, below is a system for choosing the best person. Don’t sacrifice the good for the perfect. You’re not likely get everything that you want. However, there are several factors to consider, and I created the system below in an effort to help you make a good decision. My system gives you three options but you can have more or less—it’s up to you. Put the name of each person in the option category and rate them on a scale of 1 to 3 for each of the characteristics. One being the lowest, and three being the highest. Once you total the scores, the person with the highest score is the best person for the job.
| System for Choosing Right Guardian | |||
| Characteristic | Option 1
Scale 1-3
|
Option 2
Scale 1-3
|
Option 3
Scale 1-3
|
| Trustworthy
|
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| Lives in your area | |||
| Relationship stability | |||
| Financial stability | |||
| Young enough
|
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| Healthy enough
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| Similar Ideas on morality | |||
| Similar Ideas on religion | |||
| Similar Ideas on politics | |||
| Similar parenting style | |||
| Your child like the person | |||
| Willing to do Job
|
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Total Score |
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