The Perfect Gift For The New Adult In Your Family

What are you planning to give your teenager when they legally become an adult? A car? A deposit for an apartment? A trip to Europe?

Those are all fine gifts, depending on how much you can afford to spend. But here’s one you may not have thought of: their very own estate plan.

Call our Woodbury office at 651-315-8856, or send us an email to arrange a consultation.

Actually, it’s a gift for both of you because once your child reaches legal age, you will no longer be able to make medical and legal decisions for them without the appropriate legal documents authorizing you to do so.

If your son becomes ill or injured and cannot handle his own financial affairs, you will not be able to step in for him and conduct business (sign checks, sell assets, etc.) unless he has named you as his attorney-in-fact. If he hasn’t, you’ll have to go through the courts to obtain a conservatorship, and that will take time, cost money, and restrict you in ways you cannot imagine.

If your daughter cannot make her own medical decisions, it will be much easier for you to make them if she has a health care directive that names you as her agent. And what if she should be so ill or injured that she is placed on life support before you get to the hospital? Unless she has made her wishes known through a legal document, you may not be able to have the equipment removed without court approval.

HIPAA authorizations are needed so that the doctors will have permission to discuss your young adult’s medical situation with family members and other loved ones.

Finally, if your adult child should die without a will, the court will distribute their assets according to the laws of the state in which they live, regardless of what they would have wanted.

Make sure your new adult understands that all of these documents will need to be changed as life changes (e.g., with marriages, births, deaths, the accumulation of wealth).

Helping your child get started with this adult responsibility is no different than teaching them how to balance a checkbook, or how to handle a credit card, or buy insurance.

Chances are, it will be a long time before any of these documents will be needed. But you’ll be sending your child out of the nest with a full layer of protection, just in case.