Has anyone made someone a legal guardian of their children in event of death?

[Helpmeiiam]

Morbid for a Saturday morning I know. But it's been playing on my mind for sometime, I'm not religious so we haven't had a christening for 5 yo DS so no godparents.
I'm an older mum and so all our families are much older, if me and DH both died going to grandparents wouldn't be right as they are too old (plus I wouldn't want him bought up the same way I was!)
Uncles would be ruled out too for similar reasons. I have a lovely friend who are just lovely parents and carry the same values as us. They have children but have said they would foster or adopt too so I'm pretty certain they would be happy to accept if I asked them to be legal guardians in even of our deaths.

Has anyone done this? Does it need to be in a will?

Yes we did when we wrote our wills. I asked my sister and her husband if they would be ok if we put them down and they said yes, as long as you don't have any more than the two you've got 😆

We've set one up to include finances in trust with the solicitor acting as trustee (managing the money and access of money by guardian).

No suitable family, so a family friend. Children can end up in care where arrangements aren't set out and defined.

Yes in my will

If something happened to dh and I then dd big sister (older by 25yrs) will be her guardian

Yes we had wills done when the children were tiny. Now at that depressing stage of life when we need to redo them and include powers of attorney for our own health and finances!

Important to note that getting married renders a will null and void so if you have children, make the will and then later get married you will need to redo it.

Yes I have just done my will and named 2 friends (asked DC first) so that if one can't/dies the other will be an option. Obviously you need to talk to them first about finances and how you would enable your DC's care financially as well.

Yes, we have asked a couple that are very close friends of ours (like you there are no suitable family members) and put it in our wills.

I also often wonder this.
For those who have agreements for their children to go to sister/friend etc, what arrangement do you have to finance this?
I suspect the friend/sister/family might need a bigger house to accommodate the additional children, then there is the usual expense of children-clothes, food etc.
Would you set up some kind of monthly allowance?

DH died when DD was 7. I appointed my brother and sister in law as guardians and my brother as executive of my will. They were fantastic and had me lay out what wishes I would have for DD going forward if anything happened.
DD is now 20 so will altered.
It gave me huge peace of mind having it in place.

Please have a look at my post about this.
It was included in the whole thing within my will.

My dad's two brothers left their children to each other in their wills.

The couple that did it first actually phoned and said, "we want to leave you something in our will" I think the answer was "It's the kids isn't it?"

All the children were close in age so it seemed to make sense.

Yes! I'm a girl guide and am consequently prepared! They're going to PILs if anything happens to us.

Yes, my Mum and BIL. We had a chat with them beforehand to make sure they'd be happy with the arrangement. We also, made it clear that neither of them had to have DD live with them and they were free to make the decision where the best home within the family or our friends was for her.

We did it in our wills when DS was a few months old. In the event of anything happening to us he goes to DH's sister.