Who Controls Your Kids’ Money If You Pass Away? | Indiana Guardianship Explained

What responsibilities would the guardians of your estate have over your kids? Hi, I'm Guy DeMartino. I am a Northwest Indiana estate planning and probate lawyer and today I would like to explain to you an answer to that question for somebody recently asked me that question. So when we look at guardianships, there are two parts to the guardianship. Guardianship over the person, guardianship over the estate. And the question had to do with what will the guardian and what would be the responsibilities for the guardian over the estate of your children. And so when we talk about the estate of your children, we're talking about money, we're talking about responsibility for money and things. For instance, if they got a bequest, if they were a beneficiary of the life insurance and you got a court to be able to go ahead and release some of that money, they will be responsible for the care and uptake monetarily of your kids. So for instance, if the kids are going to receive a death benefit from social security or a social security disability benefit, then the guardian over the estate will have to account for those monies. How much money did they receive in? How much money went out? What did the money go for? Were there any big expenditures? If there were big expenditures, did you go to the court and ask the court for approval for those expenditures, for those types of things? So the guardian of the estate is more like the comptroller, more like the accountant, the one who's going to take care of the finances for the child. Now the guardian over the person can be the same person as the guardian over the estate, but this answer primarily has to do with the responsibilities of the guardian over the estate of the ward or the child. If you have any questions, you can always reach out to me. I am Guy DeMartino. Have yourself a great day.