Your young adult child is approaching graduation and will soon leave the
home—congratulations! But as he or she enters adulthood, it is important
that you consider and plan for the possibility that your child might suffer
an illness or injury resulting in incapacitation or death. Young adults
often feel invincible, but accidents and health crises happen every day,
and a good estate plan has provisions for both death and incapacity, and
strives to make legal and financial affairs easier during difficult times.
A past president of the American College Health Association reported that
the primary sources of death and incapacity in college students are vehicular
injuries, suicide, cancer, and homicide. An 18 year-old is protected under
the federal HIPAA law, which means that medical professionals will require
a release signed by the child—or worse, a court order—before
sharing information or records with a parent. Waiting until an incapacitating
medical event occurs is too late; if your child wants you to be able to
access his or her medical records or speak freely with his or her medical
providers, your child should sign a HIPAA release saying so. Additionally,
they should consider making a Health Care Power of Attorney, a Living
Will, and a general financial Power of Attorney. Together, these documents
can ensure that if your child becomes incapacitated, even temporarily,
your child’s financial and medical decisions can be made by those
persons the child trusts the most, with minimal—and usually no—court
involvement.
If your young adult child does not have children, then in most cases the
parents will receive the child’s property upon death. This is because
most college students do not have a Will. That’s where a proper
estate plan, including a Will, can make a difference. It will allow your
young adult child to decide who will inherit from them, for example. More
importantly, it can give them an understanding of the gravity of setting
out on their own and how their adult decisions will affect their future.
This can help start them on the right path for decisive and future-focused
life preparation. So what’s preventing you from taking the first
step? Call Walker Lambe and mention this blog to get your child’s
plan started today.
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