Estate Planning Basics - Durable Power of Attorney Healthcare - Why College Students Should Have One

Estate Planning Basics:  Durable Power of Attorney-Health Care - Why College Students Should Have One

   Last week, I wrote about two types of Durable Powers of Attorney - for Healthcare decisions and for Financial decisions.  Both of these documents are vital components of a comprehensive estate plan.  With a Durable Power of Attorney-Financial, the creator of the document, the principal, can appoint another person, the agent, to control the principal's financial affairs if the principal is unable to do so.  Likewise, with a Durable Power of Attorney-Healthcare, the principal can appoint an agent to make healthcare decisions for the principal if the principal is determined to be mentally incompetent.  

   And while both of these documents are important estate planning tools, there are other practical uses for a Durable Power of Attorney-Healthcare.  If you have a child in college, you should encourage him or her to create a Durable Power of Attorney-Healthcare giving one or both parents, or another agent, the authority to make important healthcare decisions in the unlikely event he or she is unable.  This is necessary for one simple reason - you, as a parent, lose the legal rights to your children's medical information, and the legal rights to make healthcare decisions for your children, once they reach age 18.  

   In regards to college-aged children, parents often don't consider whether they have the authority to control their children's medical treatment - they either assume they retain these rights as long as their children are still dependents, or they don't think about it at all because it is so unlikely to be necessary.  But, in the unlikely event your child is injured or becomes ill and is unable to make his or her own medical-treatment decisions, you as a parent do not have the legal right to access that child's medical records or to make those treatment decisions unless your child signed a Durable Power of Attorney-Healthcare.  

   In conclusion, if you have a child in college who is over the age of 18, and you want to retain the ability to make that child's medical decisions in the unlikely event he or she is unable, you should consider having your child sign a Durable Power of Attorney-Healthcare.  

   To learn more about this topic, or to schedule an appointment with Attorney Mike Toburen, please go to:
http://www.toburenlaw.com/my-blog/