College Students and Young Adults (Part 1 - Who Needs an Estate Plan Series)

This is part one of a series of posts on why everyone needs an estate plan. For this post, I'll discuss college students and young adults.

Every person who is eighteen years of age should have a basic will and health care directives. Without that, the state law dictates who will get whatever he or she has, including personal property, bank accounts, vehicles, etc. The other major issue is health care directives. Once your child turns 18, no health care professional has to speak to his/her parents in the event of an emergency. Hospitals and doctor’s offices legally are not to speak to anyone who has not been authorized by the patient. Even if the parents carry his/her insurance, it does not matter, there must be something in writing by the young adult giving that authority to his/her parents. Further, if there were an accident and someone needs to be able to make health care decisions on behalf of that young adult, there needs to be written documentation to that effect.