Advice for families isn’t just those that are under one roof. Most of us don’t plan to bring up children on our own but unfortunately circumstances can change in family life and in the UK today there are 2 million single parents*. As much as this can bring emotional challenges one of the biggest cause of dispute is the money side.

We all have the same goal, together or not we all want wants best for our children’s emotional wellbeing and to financially support our children in all circumstances.

We can offer packages that would provide the financial support for your children’s upbringing if you were no longer around. If you pay maintenance to your former partner perhaps a life cover plan that would pay a monthly income benefit to your ex partner until your children reach adulthood would help support their upbringing. Perhaps a life cover plan to repay a mortgage allowing your children to inherit a property mortgage free or a lumpsum to help purchase a first home or fund education are all important considerations.

Protecting your income is an essential if you pay maintenance to your ex partner, unless you have savings to fall back on your own household and that of your children’s could be financially strained and fall into trouble quickly if you could not work. Income protection plans are aimed at covering circa 60% of your income if you were unable to work due to accident or sickness, if your employer does not offer a good work place package this is a cover definitely worth considering.

A tough topic to talk about but in reality, a child in the UK loses a parent every 22 minutes* and many of us bury our head in the sand and don’t take the correct precautions and make “the worst case scenario” preparations.

It is also a good idea to think about making a Will. In England & Wales, If the parents of a child are married when the child is born, or if they’ve jointly adopted a child, both have parental responsibility. They both keep parental responsibility if they later divorce. If one of the parents sadly dies, the children will go to the surviving parent. In the case of unmarried parents, the father can get parental responsibility for his child in 1 of 3 ways:

• jointly registering the birth of the child with the mother (from 1 December 2003)
• getting a parental responsibility agreement with the mother
• getting a parental responsibility order from a court

However, if both parents have passed away, or if the father doesn’t have parental responsibility the children could be temporarily taken in to care whilst the courts decide who should look after them.

This would obviously cause the children even more stress at what is already likely to be a very difficult time.  The way to avoid this is to make a Will nominating Guardians to look after the children in the event of your death.

Please visit https://www.gov.uk/parental-rights-responsibilities/who-has-parental-responsibility for more information on parental rights & responsibilities.

If you are separated but not yet divorced.

A Will should be written in view of the divorce going ahead as there is a possibility in law that, in the event of your death, your assets could pass back to your ex-partner.  Although you are separated, even if you split up with them years ago, in the eyes of the law your ex-partner may still be entitled to your Estate after your death.

We ask that you ask yourself the following questions:

• How would your family manage financially in the event of your death
• Could you still pay your maintenance payments if you were to become sick or have an accident?
• Would you want your children to inherit your property mortgage free?
• Would you need to reduce your working hours to look after your children if one of the children’s parents passed away?
• What are your plans to pay for your children’s education?
• Have you made a Will to protect your loved ones?
• Who do you want to care for your children, in the event of your death?

If any of the above is a concern to you