Many parents know they should name a guardian for their children but have not actually put that decision in writing. According to a 2025 Pew Research study, only 32% of Americans have a will or living trust. Americans with children under age 18 make up the largest group without wills or other estate planning documents.
That finding is important for estate planning attorneys because young parents often approach the process with a limited understanding of what an estate plan should cover. Many assume they do not have enough assets to justify a plan, or that planning can wait until they are older. Sadly, many couples with young children delay meeting with an attorney until they’ve settled on the “best choice” for guardian to appoint in their planning. Don’t let the “perfect” choice prevent naming a good choice for guardian. When parents do make an appointment, the conversation often starts with guardianship. They want to make sure someone they trust will raise their children if something happened to both of them.
That is a great reason to begin the planning process, but it is not the only issue that needs to be addressed.
A guardian nomination is an important part of a complete estate plan. It answers who should care for the child. It does not, by itself, answer who should manage the child’s property, how beneficiary designations should be coordinated, who has authority during a parent’s incapacity, or when and how assets should be distributed for the child’s benefit.
Caring for the Child Versus Managing the Money
One distinction that deserves more attention is the difference between the guardian of the person and the fiduciary responsible for property. The person best suited to raise a child may not be the same person best suited to manage life insurance proceeds, retirement benefits, investment accounts, or real property.
State laws vary on the specifics, but allow a parent to nominate a guardian for a minor child by will or other signed writing, often with the ability to place limits on the guardian’s authority. That nomination is important, but it is not a substitute for trust planning, conservatorship planning, or beneficiary designation review. A court may still need to confirm or appoint the Guardian and any other appropriate fiduciary, so the estate plan should make the parents’ intentions as clear as possible.
Young Families May Have More at Stake Than They Realize
A young family may think they don’t have an estate that’s large enough to need planning. However, this notion fails to consider the important assets they do own that need to be properly coordinated and planned. These assets often include checking and savings accounts, brokerage accounts, term life insurance, employer-provided benefits, retirement accounts, home equity, 529 plans, and payable-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts.
Some of those assets pass outside probate by contract or beneficiary designation. That can be efficient when the designations are coordinated with the overall plan but can create problems when they are not. If a minor child is named directly as beneficiary, a court-appointed guardian or conservator may be needed to collect and manage the funds on the minor child’s behalf.
How Trust Planning Fits In
A revocable living trust or testamentary trust established in a will gives parents more control over how assets are managed for their children. Rather than allowing assets to pass outright to a minor, or to a custodianship that terminates at the applicable statutory age, a trust can provide continuing administration under standards selected by the parents.
The trust names an initial trustee and successor trustees, can authorize distributions for the child’s health, education, maintenance, and support, and keep the financial side of the plan under continuing fiduciary oversight. It can also separate the guardian role from the financial role. One family member may be the right choice to raise the children, while another may be better suited to manage the money. A well-drafted plan can account for both.
Retirement Accounts Need Separate Attention
Retirement assets have their own rules, and those rules have become more complex in recent years. Under the SECURE Act and the final required minimum distribution regulations, a minor child of the account owner may qualify as an eligible designated beneficiary until age 21. Once that child reaches age 21, the 10-year rule applies, meaning the account generally must be distributed in full within 10 years.
When a trust is named as beneficiary of a retirement account, the attorney must also consider whether the trust qualifies as a see-through trust and whether a conduit or accumulation design better serves the family’s goals. These decisions can have meaningful income tax consequences and should be coordinated with the beneficiary designations and the rest of the estate plan.
Incapacity Planning Matters Too
A plan for a young family should also address incapacity. If a parent is alive but unable to act, someone may need authority to handle financial matters, make health care decisions, and step in for the children if both parents are unavailable.
Durable powers of attorney, health care directives, and HIPAA authorizations may all be relevant. In practice, these documents may be needed long before any question of death arises. A simple will that names guardians does not address these issues by itself.
A Common Scenario
Consider a married couple with two young children. They ask for “simple wills” because they mainly want to name the children’s aunt as guardian. They also have term life insurance, 401(k) accounts, a jointly owned home, and modest savings.
If the attorney only prepares wills naming the aunt as guardian, the plan may leave important gaps. The aunt may be the right caregiver, but the plan still needs to address who manages the insurance proceeds, whether retirement assets should pass outright or in trust, how funds may be used for the children, what happens if the aunt cannot serve, and who has authority if a parent becomes incapacitated.
For young families, naming a guardian is often where the estate planning conversation starts, but it should not be where the conversation ends. A complete plan coordinates the guardian nomination with fiduciary appointments, trust design, beneficiary designations, retirement account planning, and incapacity documents.
That coordination is what turns a parent’s intent into a plan that can be successfully administered when the family needs it.
If you have minor children and have not yet put a full plan in place or if you named guardians years ago and have not revisited the rest of your planning, now is a good time to speak to me. The goal is not just to name the right people, but to give them the right authority when the time comes.