Guardianship

Under certain circumstances, a court may act and appoint a person who will be tasked with making personal decisions for a person found to be incapable of making these decisions on their own. The appointed person is referred to as a “guardian.” The position they have taken on is referred to as a Read more . . .

Grappling with the thought that you might not be there to raise your children can be one of the most difficult and important things for you to process. The selection of a guardian for your children will help ensure that you trust the person who will care for your children and know that they will care for your children in the best way possible.

Without thinking about who will raise your children should you ever be unable to do so, you risk putting your children through guardianship proceedings.

A Minnesota Guardianship Attorney Explains What It Means to be a Guardian.

It’s that time of year when family is back together, maybe for the first time in months or years. In spending time with your Dad, you make the heart-wrenching discovery that he has become incapable of caring for himself. Perhaps he has difficulty remembering to eat or is unable to property dress himself. You know he needs help and you want to assist him, but how?

If Dad is unable to dress or feed himself and you are concerned that continuing to live alone poses a risk, you may need to seek a guardianship.

A Minnesota Guardianship Lawyer Explains the Role of a Court Visitor in Guardianship Proceedings

In order to assist with understanding how this may work, let’s use a hypothetical.

Your aging father has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He doesn’t have a Health Care Directive and he no longer has the capacity to sign one. You come to my office to work with an experienced Minnesota guardianship lawyer and we file the petition to have the court appoint you as his guardian. After we file the petition, the court will appoint a Court Visitor.
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Guardianships & Conservatorships and How to Avoid Them

If a person becomes mentally or physically incapacitated to a point where they can no longer make rational decisions about their person or their finances, their loved ones may consider a guardianship or a conservatorship whereby a guardian would make decisions concerning the physical person of the disabled individual, and conservators make decisions about the finances.

Many people are confused by advance directives. They are unsure what type of directives are out there, and whether they even need directives at all, especially if they are young. There are several types of advance directives. One is a living will, which communicates what type of life support and medical treatments, such as ventilators or a feeding tube, you wish to receive. Another type is called a health care power of attorney.
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In a previous post I wrote about how difficult it is for parents to choose guardians for their children; but most parents, even if they are unsure about who they want to serve as guardians, are positive in the knowledge of who they don’t want caring for their children. You hope that creating a nomination of guardians will ensure that your child ends up in loving and capable hands if anything should happen to you, but every once in a while a situation arises where someone unsuitable—or even dangerous—will petition for guardianship.  Luckily, there are steps you can take to prevent you children from falling into the wrong hands.

If you’ve already executed (or are planning to execute) a Nomination of Guardians then you’ve taken the first step. But beyond that, you can execute something called an Exclusion of Guardians (also known as an Anti-Nomination of Guardians).
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