Your Child Just Turned 18…What’s Next?
Turning 18 marks a social and legal rebirth. With the newfound ability to get a tattoo, vote, or even buy a goldfish, your child becoming a legal adult is a step toward their independence. However, simply turning 18 does not stop you from worrying about your child’s health, finances, or overall well-being. Though they are financially and legally independent from you, there are still measures to take to ensure your child’s safety and your sanity during this transition period.
As your child begins to make big decisions in life, such as attending post-high school education, getting a job, or moving out, it may be difficult to figure out what to do if something potentially life-changing happens to your child when you are not in their immediate contact. What if they are driving to college and get into a car accident? What happens if your child contracts meningitis or another disease, becoming incapacitated or unable to make medical decisions for themselves? Changes in life come with both the beauty and tragedy of unexpectedness. Being prepared for any scenario is imperative to ensure that both you and your adult child’s wishes are met in any unexpected scenario.
Medical Planning
Once your child turns 18, you will want to get directly notified if something were to happen. If your child is in a car crash, or has to be hospitalized for any reason, without proper planning, you otherwise might not be contacted.
A simple Health Care Power of Attorney and Advanced Medical Directive will address most any serious situation. Through this document your child can designate who will make medical decisions for them should they be incapacitated and unable to make those decisions for themselves. They can name parents or relatives, or even a close friend. With an Advanced Medical Directive, an appointed agent can make crucial medical decisions on behalf of the incapacitated individual. This encompasses authorizing treatment, engaging medical providers, facilitating hospital admission, managing insurance affairs, and making end-of-life decisions in alignment with the individual’s expressed wishes. The Advanced Medical Directive also can be registered on the Virginia registry with everyone’s contact information. Thus, if your adult child is in a car crash or otherwise ends up in the emergency room, the medical providers at that hospital can look on the registry and then contact the designated persons.
The Health Care Power of Attorney and Advanced Medical Directive also typically include a Living Will. In this document, your adult child also can indicate their desires with whether they want to be kept artificially alive or other end of life wishes. A Living Will can outline what they would want to happen in certain medical scenarios, such as if they were pregnant and wanted to stay on life support for the viability of the child. In a Living Will, your child can indicate if they want any of their eyes, organs or other body parts donated to others who need them or to research, and whether they want to be cremated or not. A Living Will guarantee you know your child’s wishes and that those wishes will be honored.
Lastly, if your child has certain wishes for an elaborate celebration of life, or does not, they can create a Burial Designation to spell out their end-of-life plans to you and other loved ones.
Finances and Estate Planning
If your child becomes incapacitated for any reason, it is important that that have a General Power of Attorney in place whereby they can delegate who can pay their bills, deposit their checks, transfer assets, and sign legal documents on their behalf. This document can be important if you child is living on their own or has gone off to college but is in some way incapacitated and unable to handle their own affairs for a period of time.
Although your child might not have many assets that they want to distribute as a young adult, they may have certain items that they want to go to certain individuals such as maybe a favorite pearl necklace should do to a sister or best friend. Never think your child is too young to plan out what they wish to do with their assets. Thus, ensuring that they have a Simple Will can ensure that their desires are spelled out and that their assets got to those they want and do not fall simply by statute. Proper planning with regard to beneficiaries is important. A Revocable Trust into a Pour Over Will can be utilized so as to protect your child’s assets from creditors to the extent possible and ensure a quick, confidential, and penalty-free distribution to beneficiaries. It also can address situations where assets may be going to other minors who need to receive those assets in trust.
Special Scenarios
For children with disabilities or special issues, upon reaching the age of 18, a significant juncture is reached, with the gift of autonomy in decision-making regarding healthcare, residence, and financial matters. However, a child with severe cognitive or physical impairments can face significant hurdles in handling their own affairs. This is where the need for a Guardianship and possibly Conservatorship may be needed.
A guardian for an adult child under a disability shoulders the responsibility of making decisions about the personal affairs of an incapacitated adult, addressing critical aspects such as health, care, safety, and therapeutic needs. Conversely, conservators take charge of the estate and financial affairs of the incapacitated adult. This designation is not triggered by mere poor decision-making; rather, it necessitates a comprehensive evaluation by a licensed professional, such as a healthcare provider, to gauge the extent of the individual’s incapacity.
In these situations, the court appoints a Guardian ad Litem (GAL) to advocate for the interests of the incapacitated adult. It’s crucial to understand that the GAL is distinct from the adult’s attorney, and the individual retains the option to enlist an attorney in addition to having a GAL.
Guardianship often entails the forfeiture of various rights, such as the right to drive, vote, carry a gun, and marry. Conversely, a durable General Power of Attorney sometimes presents a viable alternative to Guardianship or Conservatorship. Through this legal document, an individual can designate an agent to manage their property and financial affairs in the event of incapacitation. Conferring with a qualified lawyer over the pros and cons of a General Power of Attorney coupled with a Health Care Power of Attorney/Advanced Medical Directive over the Guardianship/Conservatorship route is important.
Last Considerations
Still, all of these suggestions are not just for documents that your child should execute, but are documents that you should consider as well. If you have not executed a will, designated a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care or created a Burial Designation, now is the time! Make sure that your family and friends would know your wishes in a time of sadness and stress, making it easier for you now, and them later.