Who Would Care For Your Children If You Got Sick With COVID-19?
Who Would Care For Your Children If You Got Sick
With COVID-19?
The
pandemic is causing us to consider a lot of things that we may not have before,
even if maybe we should have.
It
brings to mind something a colleague of mine shared recently. One unremarkable
weekend, she left her small children with a babysitter and headed out to enjoy
dinner at a restaurant with her husband. But as she sat there, a thought crept
into her head that she couldn’t let go.
What
would happen to her kids, she thought, if she and her husband got into a car
accident on the way home?
And
even though my colleague is an estate planning lawyer herself, and she had a
will at home naming guardians for her kids, she didn’t have a definite and
clear answer that provided the comfort she wanted. Her will was in a vault, and
her named legal guardians lived thousands of miles away. It was that thought that spurred her to take
action, not only for her own family, but to create tools and resources for
others as well.
If
you do your research, one thing you’ll discover is that even naming a legal
guardian in your will is often not enough to keep your kids out of the care of
strangers, or someone you wouldn’t want, if something happens to you.
Chances of COVID-19 Infection in
the Family
If
you are young and healthy, it might be hard to imagine that you won’t be there
to care for your kids. But if the COVID-19 pandemic is showing us anything,
it’s that even a healthy person can contract a serious illness that leaves them
incapacitated and unable to care for their children.
If
there is more than one adult in the house, that may alleviate some of your
worry. While naming legal guardians for your kids may feel especially urgent
for a single parent, parents with partners aren’t off the hook. You should take
precautions though, especially since there are high infection rates among
people who live in the same household.
A
professor at the University of Florida has found a more than 19% chance that
someone else in the household of a person infected with COVID-19 will also
contract the disease. Researchers estimate the average incubation time is about four
days and could be infectious for up to two weeks. That means it’s not outside
the realm of possibility that you and your partner could both contract the
illness, possibly at the same time.
An Easy Way to Find Guardians
for Your Children
Even
if you never contract COVID-19, you are, of course, still human, and vulnerable
to accidents and other dangers that could separate you from your kids—either
temporarily or permanently.
I
am encouraging you to take action if you haven’t already, and I’m going to show
you a very easy (and free!) tool to use to get you started.
Go to this website right now and name guardians for your children in a legal document, and then have it reviewed by us. When we review your legal
document (or, your will if you already have one), we can discuss who would care
for your children in the immediate term if something happens to you, even on a
short-term basis.
And,
if you are having a difficult time deciding who to name as legal guardians for
your children, we can even help you make the right decisions.
Officially
answering the question of who will care for your kids if you can’t—even for a
short time—is one of the best things you can do right now. It is a real,
concrete way you can protect your kids during this scary period of time. We’ve
made it as easy as possible for you to get it done quickly, so you can have
peace of mind that your kids’ future is secure no matter what happens.
If
you need help with the process, please do give us a call, and we’ll be glad to
walk you through it.
This article is a service of Amy Clemmons
Brown, an Arkansas licensed attorney. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure
you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself
and the people you love. That's why we
offer a Family Wealth Planning Session,™ during which you will get more
financially organized than you’ve ever been before, and make all the best
choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to
schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out
how to get this $750 session at no charge.
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