Quote Originally Posted by jobeterob View Post
For $1000, she could have covered it all.

As soon as you have children, you need a will - it’s the only way to pass guardianship of your children.
@JRob,

In the states at least, putting wishes relating to guardianship of children has no legal effect aside from that, letting everyone know what you want.

To transfer guardianship upon death, it would have to be done ahead of time, such as finding a person who is trusted enough to possibly be appointed during the testator's [[the person executing the will) lifetime as a "co-guardian." Then, upon death, that person would then be the sole guardian.

I had the sad duty, although it was the right thing to do, of putting this in place for a client who had a terminal brain tumor. Upon the client's death, her best friend who was named as co-guardian then became the child's sole guardian. Although a couple relatives squawked about it when it was put in place, upon the lady's death there was nothing they could do to stop it as all objections were dealt with at the time the co-guardianship was put in place.