Parental authority and guardianship are not the same

Parental authority is the power during life. Guardianship is care for a minor after a parent's death, when guardianship is at issue. Those two words are not synonyms. A note that someone had parental authority during life does not make that person a guardian after death. The life file may say who was asked to look after the children later. That note is a reminder of a conversation. It is not the appointment. The appointment stands in a will, or it follows from a decision of the court.

When a life file is converted into an estate you bring the note along, but you do not change the label. The person remains the person who was asked, not the appointed guardian, until a will or a court decision says so. Put the source with it: a conversation on a date, or a note without a date. A note without a date is weaker, and you write that with it. You do not strike the note, because it shows what was discussed. You also do not promote it into a deed. Ervazo does not turn a note in a life file into an appointment of a guardian.

Parental authority during life can lie with one parent or with two. That fact comes from a document about parental authority, not from the guardianship. After a death the surviving parent can keep parental authority. A guardian under a will is then not automatically needed, and you also appoint nobody on the basis of an old note. Whether that situation arises you let follow from the papers: who was still alive, and what the document says about parental authority. The file does not guess that from the composition of the household. A person who helped in the house did not thereby have parental authority and does not thereby have guardianship.

Keep to two rules in the file. Those two rules stay separate. Parental authority is a fact during life, with a source. Guardianship is an appointment for after death, from a will or from a decision of the court. The note of who was asked remains a note. Ervazo makes no will and no court order.