By Debra Verni
It is that time of year when parents pack up their college bound child and drop them off at college. When making a “to do” list of what our children need to be prepared for college the last thing on a parent’s mind is estate planning or advance directives.
Have you thought about the fact that now that your child is 18, you can no longer make decisions for them, as they are an “adult” in the eyes of the law?
Although we all know, “adulting” is overrated, just the same, your child is an adult and you can no longer make financial or health care decisions for them.
Why is this important to know? When my son went away to college, I made sure he executed a health care proxy that appointed me as his agent. I gave a copy of his health care proxy to student health services and after a few trips to the ER at the local hospital; they had it on file as well. Without a health care proxy on file, health care providers did not have anyone to contact if my son could not make medical decisions for himself. The health care proxy gave me the ability to make health care decisions for him if he could not make decisions for himself.
Now that we have the heath care proxy covered, what about a power of attorney? Why would you want one for your child/young adult? A power of attorney allows you to step into the shoes of your child. With a valid power of attorney, you will have access to all of their accounts if something goes wrong, you can communicate with the Financial Aid Office and have access to Medical records as well as any other financial information.
I know it sounds like “helicopter parenting”, but when the school does not receive the checks from the student loans or the rent is not paid they are ready to boot your child out of college, you have the power to make phone calls to find out what is going on.
I know it is a lot to think about when all you want is for your child to be safe and excel at school, but if your child has these documents in place, you have everything covered. It is an awful feeling to be hundreds of miles from your child when something goes wrong and you have no power to help them. The good news is that health care proxies and powers of attorney do not have an expiration date. My son has been out of school for several years and his documents are still valid.
He recently had surgery and when he came out of surgery he told me, they asked if he had a Will. I said a living will. He said yes. I assured him that he was covered as his documents have been in place since he was 18. So when you are packing up for back to school, remember to pack copies of your children’s advance directives and if your child has not executed advance directives then you should get them in place before they go back for the spring semester.