Legal Guardianship

B

bekyboo44

Registered User
This is a bit of a morbid question, so apologies, but I wanted to know how one goes about appointing a legal guardian for a child. My husband and I are expecting our first child soon and it has occurred to me that we will have to appoint someone to raise our child should anything happen to us.

I'm guessing that I really need to speak to a lawyer, but I wondered if anyone had any experience of doing this in HK and if anyone could reccomend a lawyer/law firm to talk to about it?

Thanks!
 
bekyboo44, I don't think it's a morbid question, more like a smart precaution that I guess as parents we ought to give some thoughts to. After my baby was born, I did set up my will & trust in the US, however, I have not checked to see the validity here in HK (probably need to do that). I also talked to the person I wanted to appoint as guardian so that she knows what she needs to do upon our untimely demise and that she would know my wishes regarding my son's upbringing and that his needs would be provided for financially.

Sorry this doesn't directly answer your question in the context of how to do it in HK.
 
Beky,

I remember having this discussion with friends when our kids younger. Under HK law, paternal grandparents automatically become the guardians. You need to write a will if you'd like to appoint someone else.

You can speak to Speedy Sue
http://www.speedysue.com/en/eframe.htm
 
We've going to write up a will here in HK. We were told that the courts here wouldn't recognize our Canadian will. Also, something to think about is who would take care of your kids till their appointed gaurdian got here. In our case it could take a could of days depending on flights etc. The last thing we'd want is the Chinese authorities to make any decisions respecting our kids. We are going to give photocopies of the kids passports to their gaurdians. That way even if no one could find their passports, someone has their passport numbers and a new passport could be issued a little quicker. It probably makes sense to write a letter allowing their gaurdian to travel abroad with the kids too (what if you & hubby weren't dead, but were somehow out of commission). Hopefully a lawyer can give you (and me) some of the answere to those type of logistical things.
 
That's a good point- I think we plan to make one of my family members legal guardian and fortunetly my family live here, or at least some of them do!
I'm a permanent HK resident and as long as our guardian is here I suppose a will that HK will recognise is the most important thing.
However because my husband and I are not originally from HK, and not from the same country as each other I presume we are going to need a will that will be recognised in the countries we both come from. If that's possible to do here.
Have you spoken to a lawyer yet?
 
A will is a good guide but is not determinitive since it can always be contested and your chosen guardian may be challenged by another.

A lawyer can help draft a will that's more likely to be effective. PM me for some recommendations.
 
What if paternal grandparents are no longer around, does it automatically go to the maternal grandparents?
 
What I'm curious about is how you get your husband to agree to you changing it to the maternal grandparents? I'm thinking that this would cause alot of arguments in my house.
 
Hello ALL,

This is an issue I have been trying to deal with since our daughter was born. Being an expat living in HK with my husband and I holding different passports does make things very complicated legally and to be honest I am not sure any will would be 100% .... so here are my 2 cents:

1) I would make your wishes know and even document them to all grandparents and siblings .... that way no relative can dispute what you and your husband would have wanted

2) I would highly recommend making the executor of your estate (i.e. the person who controls the money you leave for your child) someone other than the guardian(s) ... this way you have a check and balance in place and no conflict of interest when it comes to your child's needs

3) Also consider the age of the guardian(s) you select ... grandparents may just be too old in 10, 15 years etc. We have a 1st choice and then 2 back ups as you never know. The one thing that was important to us was to have our daughter brought up by someone that could give her as close as possible the life we would.

If anyone reading this can answer a question that I have not been able to resolve is ... what happens in a crisis situation, say a car crash and your child survives or is at home, once the authorities discover the child is alone, do they :

-- take her in to their custody or HK version of child services?
-- is there anything we can do to ensure one of our consulates or at least close friends rather take our daughter until a relative can get to Hong Kong?
-- Also if we were say in Thailand on vacation, should we travel with any special paperwork?

I know these are horrible thoughts, but just want to make sure we have done everything we can, just in case.

Thanks for any input!
 
Hi Genro- not sure of specific answer to your questions....my Mum lives in HK so not something we have had to worry about. Your best bet would be to ask the relevant HK government dept.- immigration? social welfare dept? As well as the relevant consulate. Then you will know for sure what would happen.
 
Food for thought.

I am canadian, as is my husband, but was born and raised in hong kong, and holds a hong kong id card,so I am not really sure if he is considered a canadian when we are in hong kong, or if he is considered chinese. The children are canadian.

We have a canadian will and canadian guardians in place, but if we are travelling in hong kong and we were killed, would my husbands parents them automatically get guardianship? Horror! Not only are they too old (in their 70's and 80's), I would not want them to raise my children, they have very old fashioned ideas on child raising! Would there then be a big legal battle for out canadian guardians to get the children back into canada? I would think not so, as they hold canadian citizenship, but I am not sure. I never really thought about that until I read this thread.
 
I would speak to the Canadian consulate.

I believe if your husband holds a canadian passport and not a chinese one then he is considered canadian...even with a HKID card....was reading up on something similar today when applying for my sons permanent residency.

I am worried now because my son has the same passport as my husband, and not the same one as me. Which means he doesn't have the same passport as his guardian. I hope that doesn't mean he becomes the custody of my husbands home country and thus the custody of his paternal grandparents....!

A HK will should override this?
 
This is the first I've heard of paternal g/parents being the default guardians. As far as I can ascertain, there is no legal basis for this - can anyone provide one? It may just be family tradition.
 
Answer for Genro

In the wills we had drawn up in Hong Kong (by a group that specialise in expats' wills) we name not only permanent guardian(s) with a secondary back-up, but also a Temporary guardian and a secondary backup for the exact situation you describe.

The temporary guardian is someone in Hong Kong (so usually a close friend) who is nominated to take care of your child in an emergency capacity until the "real" guardian can arrive.

Hope that helps.
 
beckveldman - can you give me the name of the group that you mentioned that specializes in expat wills?
 
my husband is hk pr. is there any government department that will handle the legal guardianship. also, is it possible for the guardian to be from overseas, say Australia and temporary guardian to be local?

thanks.
 
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