Wa `alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
Dear brother in Islam, thank you for the great confidence you place in us; we implore Almighty Allah to help us serve His cause and render our work for His Sake. May Allah reward you abundantly for your interest in knowing the teachings of Islam.
Guardianship for the property of a minor is a responsibility that the guardian should take great care of and fear Allah greatly for. A guardian of a minor's property and money should administer this property and money for the benefit and interest of the minor.
In his response to your question, Dr. Monzer Kahf, a prominent economist and counselor, states,
A minor shares inheritance from the time of being in the womb of his or her mother. There is more than one hadith about that, and this is the unanimous opinion of the four schools of fiqh.
The guardian for the property and money of a minor is first the minor's father, whether the property and money comes from gifts or inheritance from other persons. If the minor's father is not available, then his father's father becomes the guardian. A guardian may also be the appointee of the father in the latter's last will. A property and money guardian can be the minor's mother or any other female or male.
All guardians on property and money are subject to limitations in the use of the minor's property and money to the minor's benefit. If the guardian is in need, he or she may take a wage of the equivalent for the service he or she provides to the minor; otherwise, a guardian is not permitted to make any donation (or enter in any contract that does not benefit the minor) on behalf of the minor; even the payment of zakah out of the minor's property is controversial on the ground that financially it is a pure giving.
Guardians of a minor's property and money are subject to control and check by courts, and they can be removed and charged compensation by court procedures for mishandling. Of course, financial guardianship is different from care provision. Care provision of a minor must be assigned to the minor's mother as a first priority, then to the closest female relative on her side (e.g. her mother) then to the closest female relative on the father's side (e.g. the father's mother) and so on.
