With the arrival of April and May come social media feeds filled with prom pictures and graduation announcements  Young people across the country are about to reach a key milestone: high school graduation. If you have a child about to turn 18 and readying to accept  their diploma, now is the time to prepare them for life after leaving the nest.

Graduating high school is a significant accomplishment. However, it comes with serious responsibilities that your child probably isn’t thinking much about right now. Yet once your child turns 18, they become a legal adult, and areas of their lives that were once under your control and supervision will be solely their responsibility, regardless of how prepared they are to handle it.

As such, it is important to support your child to step into adulthood with legal documents that will give them the gift of continued assistance from you , in particular in the event of an emergency.

For instance, should your child get into a severe car accident and require hospitalization, you would no longer have the automatic authority to make decisions about his or her medical treatment or handle their financial matters during this time. In fact, without legal documentation, you wouldn’t even be able to access his or her medical records or bank accounts.

To minimize the risk that your family is put in this untenable position, it is critical that you have a conversation about estate planning and have them sign the following three documents immediately upon their 18^th birthday:

01 | MEDICAL POWER OF ATTORNEY

The first document your child needs is a medical power of attorney, also known as a health care surrogate. A medical power of attorney is a legal document that allows your child to grant you the immediate legal authority to make healthcare decisions on their behalf if they become incapacitated and are unable to make decisions for themselves. It also gives you the legal right to accompany them to medical appointments to provide additional support in the early years of adulthood.

Due to the Privacy Act (HIPAA) laws, once your child becomes 18, no one—not even parents—is legally authorized to access his or her medical records without prior written permission. Even if you are notified that your child is in the hospital, if they are unconscious, you could not legally be given any information regarding their condition upon which to make any medical decisions. A carefully drafted medical power of attorney will include a signed HIPAA authorization so you can immediately access their medical records and then be able to make informed decisions about their treatment.

Without this Health Care Surrogate, and in particular in the event that their condition is prolonged, the only other alternative for parents would be to apply for guardianship, a slow and expensive process.

02 | DURABLE FINANCIAL POWER OF ATTORNEY

The second document your child needs is a financial power of attorney, also known as a durable power of attorney. This is a legal document that gives you the authority to make financial decisions on your child’s behalf should your child become incapacitated, or need additional support in the early years of adulthood.

A financial power of attorney gives you the authority to manage their financial and legal matters, such as paying their tuition, applying for student loans and financial aid, paying their rent, negotiating (or re-negotiating) a lease, managing their bank accounts, and collecting government benefits if necessary. As is the case with a medical power of attorney, without this document, you would have to petition the court for such authority in the event of incapacitation.

START ADULTHOOD THE RIGHT WAY

Before your kids head out into the world, it’s critical to make sure have the proper planning in place. By doing so, you are modeling good financial stewardship and setting them up right from the start. Financial and legal illiteracy is an epidemic that you can quickly address, starting with yourself and your own family.

As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we not only help you create these vital documents, but we can also facilitate a family meeting to discuss the importance of this planning. We will begin what we hope will be a life-long relationship with your children as they take this crucial first step into adulthood. Contact us today to ensure that if your child ever does need your help, you’ll have the legal authority to provide it.

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This article is a service of The Carmona Law Firm, P.A., a Personal Family Lawyer® Firm. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a comprehensive IDLegacy Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule an IDLegacy Planning Session™