Survivor's benefits which will amount to $24K/yr.
With my retirement savings, life insurance, and social security benefits, I was also concerned about who would take care of my children when they were younger. Ideally the child should go to a residence that is able to accomodate another individual, and the child should be charged some pro rata amount for rent (based on square footage) along with some reasonable calculation for board.
What may actually happen is that the residence will be upgraded dramatically, and the other family members are "free riders" in this upgrade. In that case you could reverse the equation and have the remaining family pay rent to the child to service that portion of the mortgage for their occupancy. Again the board should reflect what is actually consumed by the child.
You can also look at it from the perspective of the child care provided to the child. 24 hour care for a nanny would be expensive so should the caring family member receive that salary (say $50K/yr. while a preschooler and less after child is in school).
My problem was that the most logical family at the time (my wife's brother) had his wife balk at the idea of being designated the guardian. My father-in-law also balked because of his and his wife's (mother-in-law) age. My wife's two sisters were both single and living in apartments at the time (one in the Ukraine). My brother was a non-starter. It was a stressful time for me, and I went ahead and designated my father-in-law anyway.
Now that my older daughter is 17 and very responsible. It is a simpler solution - the two girls will stay together with the older one being designated as guardian once she hits 18. I am glad that my sister-in-law was forthcoming to me at the time, but I still wonder about her unwillingness given that it would have been far from a financial hardship between the life insurance and assets ($1.5M) and S.S. (around $40K/yr.)
= new reply since forum marked as read