If you are a mom or dad with children under the age of 18 at home, your number-one estate planning priority should be selecting and legally documenting both long and short-term guardians for your kids. Guardians are the people legally named to care for your children in the event something happens to you.

If you haven't named guardians for your kids yet, read on.  And if you've named guardians for your minor children in your will—even with the help of another lawyer—your kids could still be at risk of being taken into the care of strangers.

For instance, if you've named guardians for your kids in your will, what would happen if you became incapacitated and were no longer able to care for them? Did you know that your will only becomes operative in the event of your death, and it would do nothing to protect your children in the event of your incapacity?

Or perhaps the guardians you named in your will live far from your home, so it would take them several days to get there. If you haven't made legally-binding arrangements for the immediate care of your children, it's highly likely that they will be placed with the authorities until those guardians arrive.

And does anyone even know where you will is located and how to access it? How can they prove they are your children's legal guardians if they can't even find your estate plan?

These are just a few of the potential complications that can arise when naming legal guardians for your kids, whether in your will or as a stand-alone measure. And if just one of these contingencies were to occur, your children would more than likely be placed into the care of strangers. Sadly, we see this happen even to those parents who've worked with lawyers to name legal guardians for their children, and that's because most lawyers simply don't know what's necessary for planning and ensuring the well-being and care of minor children.

However, as your Personal Family Lawyer® firm, I have been trained by the author of the best-selling book, Wear Clean Underwear!: A Fast, Fun, Friendly, and Essential Guide to Legal Planning for Busy Parents, on legal planning for the unique needs of families with minor children. As a result of this training, we offer a comprehensive system known as the Kids Protection Plan®, which is included with every estate plan we prepare for families with young children.

The Kids Protection Plan® was created by a nationally recognized attorney, who is a mom herself, to make 100% certain that her kids would always remain in the loving care of people she knows and trusts and never be raised by anyone she didn't want. And now, you can put this same plan in place for your kids.

While you should meet with us to put the full Kids Protection Plan® in place as soon as possible, protecting your children is such a critical and urgent issue, we've created a totally free website, where you can visit to get your plan started right now.