Estate Planning

Your 18 Year Old Daughter on Spring Break?

By Jennifer Sawday

A question asked by one attorney to another recently:

I have an 18 year old daughter headed to a Spring Break designation with her best friend and her parents. What documents does she need to bring with her to ensure that if something happens, decisions can be made by her friend's parents?

The answer:

If your child is now age 18, your child is now legally an adult and your ability as his or her parent is restricted to terms of making any decisions without permission.

This means that every 18 year old should have a durable power of attorney and advance health care directive documents in place naming their choice of agents (hopefully that would be Mom and Dad) to make financial and medical decisions for them in the event they are unable to do so.

For the Spring Break soirée, the child could also have  a limited duration power of attorney and advance health care directive naming her friend's parents to make decisions for her in the event something happens.

It's hard to imagine, but at age 18, making decisions now fall upon your children alone and your access as their parent is limited including making medical decisions, access or get info about banking, school loans, financial aid, and grades (to name a few examples) without legal permission. Think of it as a reverse permission slip!

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Estate Planning, Probate and Trusts involve complex areas of law. Individual circumstances must be considered before any advice can be given.  The general information above is not to be construed as legal advice, which can only be given after consideration of the unique facts of each matter. Please seek the advice or counsel of your attorney, financial advisor or CPA as it may be appropriate.

Full post as published by Estate Planning Practice Blog on March 19, 2008 (boomark / email).