Family Matters in Estate Planning | Choosing A Guardian For Your Children

As a Michigan estate planning lawyer, one of the most important decisions I walk my clients through during the estate planning process is who to choose for guardians of their minor children.  This is a key decision if the children are orphaned.  You do not want them spending time in foster care or letting a judge who is not familiar with the family dynamics choose who will raise the children.

In Michigan, even if you are separated or divorced, the surviving biological parent will continue to be the legal guardian, assuming their is not a court order that the surviving parent is unfit. However, if their is no surviving biological parent, then the choice falls to you and must be made by appointing a guardian in your estate planning documents.

This decisions is one of the most difficult decisions for parents to make.  As a Michigan estate planning lawyer, this is one of the areas where my counsel aids in the decision making.  You won’t find this assistance in wills bought from office supply stores, Suze Ormand trust kits, Quicken Willmaker, or Legalzoom downloaded estate plans.  This is another area where estate planning is more than just preparing documents.

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