Estate Planning is for Children Too

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Do you know that when your children reach 18 years old, you will no longer be allowed to make medical decisions for them?  Actually, your right to see their medical records or speak to their doctor is no longer compulsory enforced.

Any parent has a fear of hearing that their child was involved in a medical emergency - whether it’s a physical catastrophe or a car accident, they would usually be notified or rushed into action.  However, under the law, your own 18-year old and above children need to name you as a health-care proxy first before you can have anything to say about their medical treatment.

Health-care proxies are documents allowing you to assign another person to make medical decisions for you if you’re unable to do it yourself.  Another document, called the living will, is a statement of medical wishes if you become ill.

Therefore, estate planning is not only for seniors.  Adult children should also have durable power of attorney as well as a health-care proxy too.  Since these are complicated documents, it’s best to speak to your family attorney.  If you don’t have one, just seek advice from any qualified estate planning attorney in your state.

Tags: adult, attorney, children, documents, Estate Planning, health-care proxy, law, living will, medical, parent, seniors, will
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