If you have not yet made an estate plan then becoming a parent gives you an extra incentive to get it done. While you will already have your hands full with your newborn baby, creating an estate plan can help you ensure they will always be cared for.

Things you might want to include in your plan include:

Naming a guardian for your child

Hopefully, you and your child will get to spend many happy years together. But if something were to happen that took you away from this world before they reached 18 you would surely want to know they were in safe hands. A guardian can provide this safe pair of hands, taking on legal responsibility when parents die.

Leaving your child an inheritance

You likely want to leave some of your worldly possessions to your child when you pass. Naming them in your will or in another estate planning tool can do this. If you have further children, make sure you add them to the list of beneficiaries too, otherwise, child number one might (who you did include) might inherit it all.

Money to help a guardian raise your kids 

If the guardian needs to step up then it would be a great help for them and your kids if you had put some money aside for this. You could use a trust to pass it to the guardian, with a trustee supervising the distribution, or give it to them directly.  You could also section off some money specifically for college education or the like.

Learning more about the estate planning basics can give you the confidence to put a plan in place sooner rather than later.