Your Child Is Turning 18 –
What You Need to Know and What You Need to Put in Place
On their eighteenth birthday, a child becomes a legal adult. With this milestone comes privacy laws which govern the access that parents once had to medical and financial decisions, regardless of whether an emergency arises.
Without the proper documentation, if your adult child needs medical attention, you do not have access to their medical records and cannot make medical determinations on their behalf. Similarly, if there is an issue with their finances, such as their bank account that they cannot readily access, you cannot step in to help.
Working with college students to complete their powers of attorney and health care directives!
In the middle of a crisis, the last thing that a parent wants is aggravation and expense of potentially having to go to court instead of focusing their immediate attention on critical decisions.
Through Health Care and Financial Powers of Attorney, parents and caregivers can have peace of mind that they are able to gain access to medical information, medical providers, and finances in critical situations.
Additionally, once your child turns eighteen, a parent’s right to access educational records may be limited without proper authorization.
We work with your now adult child to put essential documents in place.
The Process:
1. Contact us with your adult child’s name, e-mail address, phone number, and address, as well as the contact information for anybody that should be copied on email correspondence.
2. We will send your adult child an electronic questionnaire that they can fill out send back to us through the portal. The information received from the questionnaire will be used to create their documents.
3. We will create a Power of Attorney for Property, Power of Attorney for Health Care, HIPAA Authorization and FERPA Form (permission to access educational records). We customize all documents and add additional powers to those listed in the statutory forms.
4. Your adult child will meet us in our office or online for their appointment. At the appointment we will review all documents, ensure they are all understood, answer any questions, and documents will be notarized, witnessed and signed. Your adult child may attend the appointment by him/herself or if preferred, with a parent or parents.
5. You and your adult child will receive the original, one copy and electronic copies of all signed documents.
CALL US AT 847-955-9000 TO GET STARTED TO PUT ESSENTIAL DOCUMENTS IN PLACE FOR YOUR YOUNG ADULT
PRESENTATIONS FOR YOUR COMMUNITY ARE AVAILABLE:
We present throughout the community with complimentary programs to educate parents about their rights once their children turn eighteen, what they need to know when their children turn eighteen, the importance of putting health care and financial powers in place, ensuring proper authorization is established for access to educational records, and other related common concerns. The presentations are also offered online.
Whether they are living at home, heading to college, traveling to explore the world, moving to their own apartment near or far, starting a job – putting proper documents in place is one of the most important gifts that a parent can provide to protect an adult child. Our presentation outlines what a parent needs to know in a comprehensive easy to follow manner.
