Are you Ready? NOW THAT THEY’RE ‘ON THEIR OWN,’ IT’S TIME TO DEVELOP A NEW FINANCIAL AND LEGAL PLAN By Alicia Wanek Getting your teens off to college takes a lot of preparation. Congratulations! You’ve just gotten through helping them take the SAT or ACT and apply to colleges and through all the hoopla that surrounds graduation. Then you spent your summer going to orientation, making sure they have everything for their dorm room, and possibly preparing them for sorority or fraternity rush. Whew! But now that they’re legally adults and not under your roof, there are a few things you may not have considered. Thankfully, under the current national health care laws, making sure they have medical coverage is not a concern. Your children can remain on your job-based medical insurance plan, whether or not they attend college, until the age of 26. Keep an eye on changes to the health care laws to make sure your child remains covered. At age 18 your teen can vote, buy a house or get married. He or she can also go to jail, get sued and gamble away tuition in Vegas. You don’t have legal say-so any longer. You may have already run into a situation where you realize that your child is now an adult and that means their records are only accessible to them. For example, 1If your children get sick while away at school, the doctor can’t discuss their medical condition with you without their consent. You may want to consider a medical power of attorney, which allows you to make health care decisions for your child. “A medical power of attorney will allow you to make medical decisions for an adult child if he or she is unable to do so. A HIPAA release will allow you to get your child’s medical records from their physician. Both of these documents can be invaluable in a crisis situation,” says attorney Colin Smith, founder of Colin Smith Law PLLC and a tenured estate strategist. In addition, recent college graduate, Samantha Murphy, said that it would have helped her for her parents to locate a physician in town where she was attending Texas A&M – Corpus Christi. “I had no idea where to go when I got sick,” she says. Knowing the physician is covered under your insurance plan is important. 2You now have access to financial information for joint accounts with your children, but not to any private accounts they have established. You may only have control over their spending by limiting how much you put in their campus spending account! They’ll probably make some financial mistakes early on as they’re learning to stick to a budget. Do you bail them out? Chuck Cowell, Dallas Market Chairman for Guaranty Bank & Trust says, “Sure, once or twice.  But if they are never forced to feel some pain and think that Mom and Dad are always the deep pockets, then the whole budgeting/planning stuff just becomes ‘stuff.’ Missing a concert/party/trip due to their inability to properly manage ‘their’ budget is a powerful learning tool for future life situations." A statutory durable power of attorney will give the attorney-in- fact (presumably, the parents) power to act on the child’s behalf financially, says Smith. “It gives the attorney-in-fact power over the adult child’s financial affairs but also gives the power to sign tax returns, sell property, collect government benefits, and in some cases, to file a lawsuit on the child’s behalf. If the adult child loses capacity for any reason, this 'catch-all' power of attorney document is essential. Like all legal documents of its nature, especially for a young adult, one would hope that they are never needed.” 3You may be paying tuition, but that does not mean you have access to their grades, and professors can’t discuss their performance with you. All you can do is ensure you’ve established expectations with your students beforehand, and then keep the lines of communication open about how their classes are going. College is an excellent time to slowly let go of the reins. It’s hard, but remember, just because they’re away from home doesn’t mean they don’t miss you and need your advice sometimes. They’re still happy to come home to visit the family—probably with a bag of laundry in tow. - Chuck Cowell, Chairman, Guaranty Bank & Trust “Whenthemoneyisgone…it’s gone. Missingaconcert/party/trip duetotheirinabilitytoproperly manage‘their’budgetisapowerful learningtoolforfuturelife." Sources: Chuck Cowell Dallas Market Chairman for Guaranty Bank & Trust Ccowell@gnty.com "Ifyourchildrengetsickwhileawayat school,thedoctorcan’tdiscusstheir medicalconditionwithyouwithout theirconsent." Colin Smith Colin Smith Law PLLC Colin.smith@colinsmithlaw.com - Colin Smith, Colin Smith Law PLLC