3 KEY DOCUMENTS
It’s summertime! People are enjoying the warm weather, thinking about vacation, summer camp for the kids, and soon newly minted high school graduates will be off to college. Life has so many goals and pursuits. The last thing that anybody has on their mind is doing Estate Planning.
Estate Planning should actually be a top priority for both you and your children. As children turn 18, they become legal adults, and many areas of their life that were once under your control will become entirely their responsibility–whether you like it or not. To this end, if your children do not have the proper legal documents in place, you could face a costly and traumatic ordeal should something ever happen to them.
If your child were to get into a serious car accident or suffer an injury while playing sports and require hospitalization–you would no longer have the automatic authority to make the appropriate decisions about his or her medical treatment or the ability to manage their financial affairs. Without appropriate legal documentation, you would not even be able to access your child’s medical records or bank accounts without a court order.
To ensure that your family never gets stuck in an expensive and unnecessary court proceeding, you must have the forethought and conversation about Estate Planning, and make sure that they sign the following documents: a Medical Power of Attorney, a Living Will, and a Durable Power of Attorney. Why must they do this?!?
Your child needs a Medical Power of Attorney that should be in your child’s medical file, with your child’s treating physician, and accessible by any insurance you may now have to cover that child. A Medical Power of Attorney is an advance healthcare directive that allows your child to grant to you (or someone else) the immediate legal authority to make healthcare decisions on their behalf if they become incapacitated or are unable to make these decisions themselves.
For example, a Medical Power of Attorney would allow you to make decisions about your child’s medical treatment if he or she is incapacitated in a car accident, falls from a mountain while hiking or climbing, or suddenly falls into a coma due to a debilitating illness like COVID-19. Without a Medical Power of Attorney in place, should your child suffer a severe accident or illness that requires hospitalization and you need access to their medical records to make decisions about their treatment, you would have to petition the court to become their legal guardian. While a parent is typically the court’s first choice for a guardian, the guardianship process can be slow and expensive—and in emergency
medical matters, time is always of the essence.
Due to HIPAA laws, once your child becomes 18, no one, but no one, can legally access their medical records without prior written permission. However, a properly drafted Medical Power of Attorney will include a signed HIPAA authorization, so you can immediately access your child’s medical records to make informed decisions about his or her treatment and well-being.
While a Medical Power of Attorney allows you to make healthcare decisions on your child’s behalf while they are incapacitated, a Living Will is an advance directive that provides specific guidance about these decisions, particularly those at the end of life.
By way of example, a Living Will allows your child to advise if and when they want life support removed should they ever require it–a very difficult decision to make at a young age–nonetheless should be made by them. In addition to documenting how your child wants their medical care managed, a Living Will can also include instructions about who should visit them in the hospital and even the kind of food they would want to be provided.
If your loved one is a vegan, vegetarian, orYou can rely on Dobkin Law’s experienced attorneys to help you understand and prepare these important documents. Please visit our website for more information! takes specific supplements, these things should be considered and documented in their Living Will, as well as any influences of their religious/spiritual affiliation preferences.
Although you may find a variety of medical powers of attorney, Living Wills, and other advance directive documents online, your child has unique needs and wishes that can’t be anticipated by these forms, and they may not even necessarily be Florida-specific.
Our office recommends that you and your child create and safeguard their advance directives, and have them placed in the appropriate hands accessible by computer or within immediate reach.
Should your child become incapacitated, you will also need the ability to access and manage their finances and legal affairs and will need all usernames and passwords associated with these, and it requires your child to grant you these powers in their durable power of attorney.
A Durable Power of Attorney gives you the authority to manage their financial and legal matters, such as paying their tuition, applying for student loans, paying their rent, negotiating (or renegotiating) a lease, managing their bank accounts and online investments, and the collection of any applicable government benefits. Without this document, once again, you will have to petition the court for this authority. Again, keep in mind that courts do not move as swiftly as you would like them to and come with an inherent expensive price to utilize the system.
In conclusion, before your children leave your home for summer camp or college, discuss the value of Estate Planning, and keep in mind that the proper legal documents should all be in place. Doing so will help you avoid an emotional and financial nightmare, and give you peace of mind from the very first step.
