California Attorney Says Michael Jackson Custody Battle a ‘Dire Wakeup Call’ for Unprepared Parents

San Diego, CA, July 21, 2009 --(PR.com)-- California estate attorney Rodney J. (“Rod”) Hatley is urging parents across the state to re-examine their own estate plans in light of the recent battle over Michael Jackson’s assets and guardianship of his children.

Rod Hatley is one of only 2 lawyers in the San Diego area recognized as a Personal Family Lawyer® and specially trained to work with parents to choose the right guardians for their children regardless of their income. The work of the Personal Family Lawyer® program has been featured on the Today show, Fox News, CNBC and radio programs across the country as they help make estate planning accessible and affordable for every family across the United States.

Hatley explains, “Whether you have $50 or $50 million dollars, if you have a child, you must put your guardianship decisions in writing. This includes naming someone to care for your children for the short-term until the permanent guardian (if they live out of state or can’t be available for some reason) can come and take charge of the situation”.

According to Hatley, estate planning isn’t “just for rich people” either. One particular site, http://www.sdkidsprotectionplan.com, allows parents to name guardians for their kids free of charge so parents no longer have any reason to not plan properly for their child’s future.

“None of us can predict how or when we will die or become injured,” says Hatley. “But we can all make the decision about who would raise our kids and not leave it up to a judge and an overcrowded court system to decide,” he adds.

The necessity of estate planning or naming guardians for kids typically falls by the wayside until high profile cases such as Michael Jackson’s death or Anna Nicole Smith’s death reminds parents that some form of legal planning must be done to ensure children do not wind up with a court appointed guardian, or worse, in the hands of the state foster system.

“Sadly, I’ve seen so many cases where kids end up in the care of the wrong people because their parents didn’t take five minutes to make their guardianship decisions known in writing,” laments Hatley. “Yet it’s so unfortunate because estate planning is affordable, and even free in the case of the sdkidsprotectionplan.com Web site, so there is no longer any excuse for parents not to get this taken care of for their children.”

For further information on San Diego estate planning attorney, Rod Hatley or guardianship issues for kids, please contact Rod at (888) 831-9110 or by email at rod@hatleylawgroup.com.

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