College Bound? Or Not! Don’t Forget Critical Documents

The dog days of summer turn the focus of many to the process of students returning to school in the fall.  We prepare this commentary this time every year for all who may know college age children/grandchildren.

Whether or not the college students you know will be home, commuting, on campus or taking classes virtually, one thing that has not changed is the need for basic estate planning documents for all adults 18 years or older (Financial Power of Attorney, Health Power of Attorney/Proxy and HIPAA Release forms).

This topic does not get a lot of coverage relative to headline grabbing admissions and financial aid issues and yet remains critically important. Click here – College Bound – for more information on why it’s important for young adults and click here – 3 Health-Related Legal Documents Everyone Needs – for what you should have yourself.

Going to college or not does not change the fact that someone is 18 years or older.  Age is just a given.

You should take the time to get these documents prepared, and if necessary, take the time to do it yourself too.  Or better yet, do it together. The effort could be a productive family activity and perhaps open up the conversation to other financial topics that your children likely need to be educated about.

I went through this process with both my children as they were college bound freshman, which elicited not only a lot of questions and discussion on the decisions he needed to make within the documents he was signing, but also about whether to add some of their summer earnings to a Roth IRA, how to invest the same, what’s going on in the economy and leading stock market indices, as well as how to deal with health insurance under our family plan if they have any issues while they are away at school.

These issues are all easy to overlook within the myriad of other enrollment, orientation and packing/move-in-date processes that are involved with initial transition to college.

If you have any questions or if you are curious about how prepared you are from an estate planning perspective, reach out to your ACM Wealth Advisor.

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