Once kids turn 18, they are legally adults.  They may still act like teenagers, but in the eyes of the government, they are no longer under the legal control of their parents.  This means that like all adults (including you, Savvy Aunties!) they need to have legal documents in place in case they are in an accident or something scary happens.

Every adult, regardless of the size of their bank account, should have in place an Advance Health Care Directive and a Financial Durable Power of Attorney.

If you don’t have these legal documents in place and something scary does happen, it will make life a whole lot more difficult for the people you love.

Advance Health Care Directive

An Advance Health Care Directive names the person you want making health care decisions for you if you cannot make them for yourself and lets that person know how you want them to be made.  The important thing in this document is that the person you’ve named also be given authority under the new (within the past three years) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (aka HIPAA).  

If your health care agent (the person named in your Advance Health Care Directive) is not designated as your agent under HIPAA, they will not be able to look at your medical records, which makes it mighty hard for them to make health care decisions for you.

This comes up for parents when they send little Janie off to college and then call the school nurse to discuss their child’s illness.  If mom and dad are not given authority as an agent under HIPAA, the school nurse can’t have a conversation with mom and dad about Janie at all.  

We get frantic calls in our office at least once or twice each fall from parents looking for legal documents for their college-age kid for just this reason.

Durable Power of Attorney

The second legal document is a Durable Power of Attorney. This document names someone to make financial and legal decisions for you if you can’t make them for yourself.

It’s important for kids going off to college to have this in place because if they are in an accident mom and dad are going to need to take over paying the bills and get access to bank accounts and make legal decisions.  But, they will have to go through a long and expensive court process if Janie didn’t sign a Durable Power of Attorney.

It’s the same for you too, you know.  If you are in an accident, and you don’t have a Durable Power of Attorney in place, it will be difficult for your family to deal with things on your behalf.  

Make sure your nieces and nephews are legally buttoned up before leaving the house for college.  And while you’re at it, make sure you’ve got your legal ducks in a row too!