If your child has reached the teenage years, you may already feel as though you are losing control of his or her life. This is legally true once your child reaches the age of 18 as this is the age the state considers your child to be an adult with the legal right to govern his or her own life.
Up until your child reaches age 18, you are entitled to access your child’s medical records and to make decisions regarding the course of his/her treatment. And, your child’s financial affairs are your financial affairs. This changes once your child turns 18 because your now-adult child is legally entitled to his privacy and you no longer have the same level of access to or authority over his financial, educational or medical information. As long as all is well, this can be fine. However, it’s important to plan for the unexpected and for your child to set up an estate plan that at least includes the following three crucial components:
1. Health Care Proxy with HIPAA Release
Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, once your child turns 18, the child's health records are between the child and his or her health care provider. The HIPAA laws prevent you from even getting medical updates in the event your child is unable to communicate his or her wishes to have you involved. Without a HIPAA release, you may have many obstacles before receiving critically needed information, including whether your adult child has even been admitted to a particular medical facility.
Should your child suffer a medical crisis resulting in the child's inability to communicate, doctors and other medical professionals may refuse to speak with you or allow you to make medical decisions for your child. You may be forced to hire an attorney to petition to have you appointed as your child’s legal guardian by a court. At this time of crisis, your primary concern is to ensure your child is taken care of and you do not need the additional burden of court proceedings and associated legal costs. A health care proxy with a HIPAA release would enable your child to designate you or another trusted person to make medical decisions in the event your child is unable to convey his or her wishes.
2. Durable Power of Attorney
Like medical information, your 18-year-old child’s finances are also private. If your child becomes incapacitated, without a durable power of attorney you cannot access the child's bank accounts or credit cards to make sure bills are being paid. If you needed to access financial accounts in order to manage or resolve any problem, you may be forced to seek the court’s appointment as conservator of your child.
Absent a crisis, a power of attorney can also be helpful in issues that may arise when your child is away at college or traveling. For example, if your son is traveling and an issue comes up where he cannot access his accounts, a durable power of attorney would give you or another trusted person the authority to manage the issue. An alternative may be to encourage your child to consider a joint account with you. However, this is rarely recommended because of the unintended consequences for taxes, financial aid applications, creditor issues, etc.
3. Will
Your child owns any funds given to him or her as a minor or that he or she may have earned. In the catastrophic event that your child predeceases you, these assets may have to be probated and will pass to your child’s heirs at law, which in most states would be the parents. If you have created an estate plan that reduces your estate for estate tax or asset protections purposes, the receipt of those assets could frustrate your estate planning goals. In addition, your child may wish to leave some tangible property and financial assets to other family members or to charity.
While a will may be less important than the health care proxy, HIPAA release or durable power of attorney, ensuring that your child has all three components of an estate plan can prevent you, as a parent, from having to go to court to obtain legal authority to make time-sensitive medical or financial decisions for your child.
If you have a child (or grandchild) who is approaching adulthood, talk to your elder law attorney about having the child execute these three crucial documents.