You need to be a parent to fully understand what it means to want to protect your children.
And as a parent of three young children myself, I can tell you that my wife and I would do anything to protect our kids. And that is why I created the KEAP™ your kids safe plan (KEAP™ is short for “Kids Emergency Action Plan”) for parents to make sure that if anything were to ever happen to them, that their kids would be safe, protected, and cared for during the most traumatic of times.
So let me ask you…
What would happen to your children if you and your spouse never made it home one night?
Most parents never take the time to think about this very important question.
They assume that they are young and invincible. Accidents might happen… but not to them.
We realize that this is an incredibly difficult and painful question to ponder, but it’s better that you take some time to consider this question now than worry about the alternative.
Unfortunately, for the vast majority of parents who have failed to plan, and even for some of those that have, there is no readily available set of legal instructions that will satisfy the police regarding your intentions with your children. What that means is that if something were to happen to you (say you got in a car wreck on your way home from a date night with your spouse), and you didn’t make it home, then the police would be dispatched to your home to make sure your kids were safe.
With no clear instructions about what should happen in this situation, and no clear guardian named to take care of your children, the police would call child protective services and your kids would be taken into foster care until a guardian was named by the court or someone stepped forward with the legal authority to take custody of your children.
A common example, for parents that DO have a plan in place, is they have named grandparents as the permanent guardians of their kids if something should happen to them. In many cases, the grandparents live out-of-state and are not immediately available to take custody of the children. So even in situations where parents have a plan in place, the plan still fails in the short-term because the parents have not named any temporary guardians.
How a KEAP™ can help protect your kids
With a KEAP™ in place, you can rest assured knowing that no matter what happens to you, your kids will be safe and protected. Here are just a few of the things that a KEAP™ will provide for your family:
- Legally binding documents that will name temporary, emergency guardians for your children in the event something happens to you. This will keep your kids out of the reach of child protective services and foster care.
- Legally binding documents that will name your permanent guardians who will take over the care of your children. These documents will also contain information regarding what the children will inherit, how those assets will be managed, and how the expenses for the kids will be paid for.
- Additional information for your guardians so that they will have a firm understanding of your values, how you want your children to be raised, where you want them to attend school, when (and how) they should receive their inheritance, religious upbringing, etc.
- Emergency ID cards that you can keep in your wallet so that the police know that you have minor children at home, and they also know who to immediately call to come pick up your children.
Clearly, choosing both emergency and permanent guardians for your children is one of the most important things that you, as a parent, can do to protect your children. This is where many parents get hung up… they don’t know who to pick.
Rest assured, click here to learn more about everything you need to know to choose a guardian for your children.
If you have any questions, or would like to schedule a planning session with our office, you may call us during normal business hours at (919) 460-5422 or fill out our contact form and a representative of our office will be in touch.