Family Wealth Secrets Online Magazine

Document Your Last Wishes

In a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision on August 22, 2006, the Court upheld a lower court’s ruling granting visitation to a grandparent of a child whose parent was the child of the grandparent and had died. The substance of the case is not as important as what it teaches us about how important it is to make a clear record of our wishes for the care of our children if something happens to us and this is equally important whether one or both parents die.

In the referenced case, the mother died and the surviving father attempted to disallow visitation with the child’s grandparent, the deceased mother’s mother. Can you imagine if you died and your spouse didn’t allow your parent’s to see your kids? Maybe you can’t imagine that happening in your family, but when you have not specified your wishes all sorts of craziness can ensue during a time of grief. In this case, the dad claimed that he and his wife had discussed limiting access to the kids and now that mom has died there is no way to know what’s true and what’s not because she left no record.

Document your wishes so that there is no question about the best interests of your child in the event of your death.