Becoming a Parent

The days got shorter and the future got longer. Much of what a family plans, it plans for this.

The arrival of a child. Day-to-day time and autonomy contract sharply while meaning and experience expand, and the two changes are not felt on the same timescale.

How we work

What changes

A child changes the plan in three places, and each is simpler to settle in the first year than in the fifth.

Who would raise them

A will is the usual place to nominate a guardian for a minor child, and a second in case the first cannot serve. A court makes the appointment, and without a nomination it decides alone.

What would replace your income

Life and disability cover is sized to the years a child is at home, and to what the household would need without one income, not to a round number.

What they receive, and when

A child can own assets but cannot manage them. A trust can decide who manages them and at what ages a child receives them, and a §529 plan lets education savings grow free of federal tax when they are spent on qualified education.

What it strains, what it draws on

A child tends to strain confidence, money and the circles you had before, and it opens new people and new experiences to draw on.

Becominga ParentStrainsSelf-EfficacyOptimismFinancial SecurityCommunity ConnectionDraws onCapabilitySocial NetworkAutonomyNovelty

Strains: the parts of a life this Transition tends to draw down. Draws on: the parts it can strengthen, and that help carry it. Both come from the Human Wealth ontology.

How the ontology maps Transitions

Who works on it

The work is shared across these Services, alongside the attorney who drafts the will and the trust. Your counsel stays; we keep the plan in one piece.

Common questions

A will nominates the guardian. A trust can decide how anything the child inherits is managed, and at what ages it is handed over. Which of them a family needs is a question for your attorney, and we bring the plan to that conversation.

Start with a conversation.

You do not need a balance sheet or a date. Tell us what is changing, and we will tell you plainly whether we are the right office for it.

All transitions