Parents want to guarantee and secure their children’s future and prepare them for life’s unexpected events more than anyone else. These events may include economic crisis, pandemic, and death in the family. As much as possible, you don’t want them to suffer from substantial pain, loss, and financial burden.
This article explains the different ways to protect your children from life’s unexpected events.
1. Draft A Will Or Trust
Drafting a will or trust can help you safeguard your children’s future and prepare them for life’s unexpected events, including death.
- Drafting A Will
A will outlines all the things you want to do with your properties, money, belongings, investments, and other assets when you pass away into this world. This legal contract includes the name of your children and other beneficiaries and the specified asset you want them to receive. Moreover, a will also specifies the executor or the person you want to carry out your will.
The court will decide for your children without a valid will under the state laws. There’s a possibility of your children getting less than you want them to inherit from you. Your children may also have misunderstandings and conflicts. So, drafting a will is advisable to set legal and clear terms on how you want your wealth will be divided among your beneficiaries.
- Drafting A Trust
A great alternative to drafting a will is creating a living trust. This fiduciary arrangement provides a trustee (person in charge) the power to manage your assets for your children until they reach legal age. Unlike a will that undergoes probate before enforcement, a trust eliminates this extra chore.
A living trust provides you with better control of your assets even if you become incapacitated. You can avoid the court from intervening in your family’s wealth and privacy brought about by probate, which is a public process.
2. Teach Them About Life
As early as now, teach your children the basic things they need to know. Early preparation makes your children more self-reliant and confident to face any problems or untoward circumstances.
Here are some important things in life you might want to teach your children:
- Budgeting
Include your young children in creating your weekly budget plan. For instance, you can start by listing down the menu for the week and setting a budget for each day’s meals. You can also ask them to create a budget plan for your next family trip.
- Saving
Children should learn the importance of saving money to have something to use when an emergency arises. Open a kiddie bank account for them and show their progress by updating and allowing them to keep their passbooks for motivation.
- Paying Bills
Teach your children the importance and various ways to pay bills. For example, explain how automatic payment works and its difference from manual payments. Explain that they can save more money with auto bill pay because they avoid late fees and service disconnection.
- Filling Out And Signing Forms
Teach your children how to properly fill out forms such as bank forms and government forms. Explain the importance of reading forms and contracts first before affixing their signatures.
- Healthy Lifestyle
Your children must embrace a healthy lifestyle. Teach them to practice proper handwashing, brushing their teeth at least twice a day, sleeping on time, getting enough exercise, and eating nutritious foods. That means they should be confident enough to visit this dentist in ballston spa on a regular basis to keep up with their dental health. If your children are health-conscious, they can protect themselves from common ailments and health crises.
3. Get A Life Insurance
Life insurance is a valuable investment to protect children financially when their parents die. The key features of a life insurance policy include a death benefit and cash value or investment component that accumulate over time.
If you don’t have life insurance yet, check out the offerings from several companies and compare them. There are many different life insurance policies you can choose from such as the following:
- Term Life Insurance
This life insurance provides coverage for a specific term (usually 10 to 30 years) without any cash value included.
- Whole Life Insurance
This permanent life insurance provides the insurance holder’s lifetime coverage with a guaranteed tax-deferred cash value component. Hence, gains don’t have imposed taxes.
- Universal Life Insurance
This permanent life insurance is similar to whole life insurance, except that the premiums are more flexible. The policyholder can increase or decrease the premiums depending on life’s circumstances.
Conclusion
Parents can protect their children from unexpected events through careful planning. Drafting a will, getting a life insurance policy, and teaching your children can help them prepare financially and psychologically. Furthermore, don’t forget about preparing your children physically, socially, and spiritually for them to become more mature and successful in handling life’s unexpected events.
