Most people think of a Will as a money document. Who gets the house, who gets the savings, who gets what’s left. Ask a parent what happens to their children if both of them die, and quite often they haven’t thought about it at all.
Who Decides If You Haven’t?
That’s the part of a Will nobody warns you about. If you have children under 18 and you haven’t named a guardian, the decision about who raises them doesn’t sit with you anymore. It sits with a court. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, even close family friends can all believe they’re the obvious choice, and without anything written down, that disagreement can play out in a courtroom rather than around a kitchen table.
I’ve had conversations with parents who assumed it would simply be “sorted out” by the family. In reality, social services and the courts get involved if there’s no legal guardian named, and that process can take months. Months in which a child is placed wherever the court decides is safest in the short term, which isn’t always the home the parents would have chosen.
Naming A Guardian In Your Will
A Will lets you name a guardian, or more than one, in the order you’d want them considered. It lets you leave instructions, not just legal ones but practical ones: how you’d want your children raised, which school they should stay at, who should manage money set aside for their upbringing, and when they should get access to it.
You can also separate the person who raises your children from the person who manages their money. That matters more than people realise. The relative who’d be a brilliant parent isn’t always the one you’d trust with a lump sum, and a Will lets you split those roles cleanly instead of hoping it works out.
Helping Guardians Financially With Life Assurance
There’s another piece worth building into your Will: money for the guardians themselves, not just the children they’re raising. Bringing up someone else’s children for ten or fifteen years, sometimes longer, comes with real costs on top of everything else you’re asking of them. A tax-efficient way to help is life assurance written to pay out on the second death, with the proceeds going straight to the guardians as a tax-free lump sum. It gives them some financial breathing room through those years, and it recognises the size of the favour you’re asking.
None of this is a pleasant conversation to have. Nobody enjoys picturing a world where their children grow up without them. But that discomfort is exactly why so many parents put it off, and putting it off is what leaves the decision to a judge who’s never met your family.
If you’re a parent and your Will doesn’t name a guardian, that’s not a small gap. It’s the single biggest thing missing from the document.
For confidential advice on protecting your children’s future, contact:
01277 562 567 | ian.nicholson@bwep.uk | www.bwep.uk