An often overlooked but essential requirement for college-age children is legal preparation. Before your child leaves for school, be sure that you have the legal documents in place to protect them if something happens. It takes only minutes to create the documents they need to protect their health care choices, information, and finances. Without critical documents in place, you could be stuck paying thousands of dollars in legal and court fees; worst of all, you might not be able to access their health information or make decisions in the event of an emergency.
Even though most college students are considered adults by law, they are still your children. You need to make sure they are prepared and protected as they enter the next stage of life. If your child is over 18, they are generally considered old enough to control their own decisions. Their health information is protected – including from you. Creating the documents that allow you, or whomever your child chooses, to help them in an emergency is easy, fast, and affordable.
The Gentreo QUICK ESTATE PLANNING CHECKLIST
Health Care Proxy (also known as a Power of Attorney for Health Care)
Especially in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Health Care Proxy is more important now than ever. A Health Care Proxy is a legal document in which your adult child appoints someone to make medical decisions for them in case they are incapacitated due to COVID or some other health crisis or emergency.
A Gentreo Health Care Proxy includes not only the appointment of a health care agent, but also includes HIPAA authority, which grants you the ability to discuss their medical care with their providers. It also lets them specify the type of care they would want in a particular situation and create a Living Will. Given their age and health, most college-bound students would choose to have all life-sustaining treatments.
If your college-age children do not complete this document, you may be forced to seek court intervention to get the authority to make medical decisions for your child. If so, in addition to having the stress of a child in the hospital, you will have the additional stress of obtaining an attorney and dealing with court and the extensive accompanying financial costs. You can avoid this scenario by having your adult child complete a Health Care Proxy – using Gentreo the process can be done in as quickly as five minutes.
Power of Attorney for Finances (also known simply as a Power of Attorney)
A Power of Attorney is a legal document in which your adult child appoints someone to make financial decisions for them. Your adult child can choose who they want to make financial decisions for them, how long the authority is good for, and what authority should be given. Most college-age students have basic bills and a checking account. However, even these basic financial concerns cannot be dealt with absent a Power of Attorney. Without a Power of Attorney, you will not be able to go to the bank and access your child’s funds without a court order. With Gentreo, a Power of Attorney is easy to complete and can be done in just minutes.
Emergency Card
You can’t predict the future, but we can be prepared. Creating a basic Emergency Card, which includes doctors, medications, allergies, emergency contacts, and more, allows your child to share information with emergency responders in an instant. They can also share that information in their Gentreo Digital Family Vault so you and other loved ones have access to critical and life-saving information in an instant, from anywhere.
Digital Family Vault
Creating these important documents is part one of an estate plan. The next and equally important step is storing the documents in a safe and easily accessible place. To put these important documents within reach, Gentreo offers the Gentreo Digital Family Vault.
Once your child has created and executed their documents, they can store them in their Gentreo Digital Family Vault and share them with you and other loved ones. Hopefully, a crisis never happens, but knowing you and your child are prepared can be a relief.
Don’t Wait - It's Easy, Fast and Affordable
It’s critical to get your child prepared as they go off to college and life. Whether your child completes everything on their own or you help them, Gentreo makes it easy, fast, and affordable to create an estate plan.
It is much easier to take the few minutes now to complete these essential estate planning documents than being caught unprepared in a crisis. We have all learned in the past few months that life can change in an instant. As parents, we can help protect our adult children just as we did when they were younger.
Only Gentreo lets you create all the documents you need, save and then share them so key information is just clicks away. Protect your adult college student today. Give them Gentreo and have them complete the Gentreo Estate Planning Checklist today.
