Taxation & Estate Planning

Life As We Know It: Why am I reviewing the trailer to a new Katherine Heigl movie?

By Joel A. Schoenmeyer

Here is the trailer for an upcoming romantic comedy called Life As We Know It, starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel.

So why am I posting this here? Because the film revolves around two single people who are drawn together when they are named as co-guardians of the daughter of their mutual friends. Since this is a romantic comedy: life lessons are learned, flirting takes place, poop is smeared on someone's face. Call me unromantic, but I want to make a few points about the trailer and how it relates to guardianships:

1. If you die unexpectedly, people should not be surprised to learn that they are named as guardians of your minor children. TALK TO POTENTIAL GUARDIANS. ASK THEIR PERMISSION. (People actually do say "no.")

2. You are not required to choose your children's godparents as their guardians.

3. It may not always be a good idea to name co-guardians. (One note: there are actually two types of guardians, the guardian of the person and the guardian of the estate. These are two different roles -- one has to do with acting as the parent, and the other has to do with managing the ward's finances. You can choose two different people for these two jobs, and that's fine, but the trailer suggests that the two main characters share both jobs.)

4. It is an especially bad idea to name two people with no connection to each other as co-guardians. These people have to work together, and if they don't know each other -- or have a combative relationship (due to a hi-larious first date gone awry) -- that can make things difficult.

5. Don't require your guardians to live in your house. They're already doing you a solid by taking care of your kid(s). Make it easy on them -- let them have access to estate/trust funds to minimize the impact. (Let them put an addition on their house if needed, or even help them buy a new, bigger house.)

So, to review:

-ask potential guardians in advance if they will take the job

-choose appropriate individuals

-think about how acting as guardians will affect the lives of the people you choose

Full post as published by Death and Taxes Blog on June 02, 2010 (boomark / email).