Your child just turned 18. Whether they are heading out of state for college or staying close to home to pursue other adventures, they need to sign several legal documents to protect themselves as an adult.

HEALTH CARE PROXY

Even though your child is still covered under your health insurance, you are not authorized to discuss treatment plans or make urgent decisions regarding their care if they are unable to.  When your child designates you as their Health Care Proxy, you can still be involved in these important medical decisions.

HIPAA FORM

This form will allow health care providers to release medical information about your child to you. If your child attends college out of state, fill out the HIPAA forms relevant to both the home state and school state to avoid any challenges. If the school has its own form, sign that one also. The school medical staff will be able to proceed quickly when they see the completed standardized forms.

LIVING WILL

Your child’s Living Will state’s what their wishes for life-extending medical treatment are, in addition to addressing other intentions, such as organ donations.

POWER OF ATTORNEY

As your child’s Power of Attorney, you will be able to sign documents on their behalf and give you access to their financial accounts. You can either execute a durable general power of attorney, or you can sign the financial firm’s access authorization form that holds each of the child’s accounts. Either way, having one will give you the legal authorization to assist your child.

DON’T FORGET

As you are working through the process of getting these forms completed talk with your child about their privacy and under what scenarios these documents would be used. Once completed, the forms need to be scanned and uploaded to a secure location to allow access via phone from any location during times of emergency.

WHERE TO START

As part of our Planning Services at Kuderer Financial, we verify that our clients have all needed legal documents completed and stored correctly. Contact us today to ensure your young adult children are protected.