Estate Planning
Estate Planning for your College Bound Student
Congratulations high-school graduates and congratulations to you too, parents! Now that your child has completed one of the first life milestones it is time to make sure they are properly set up to live through and achieve the rest of the fantastic breakthroughs that lie ahead. As a parent, it can be tough seeing your kids grow out of teenage-hood and into young adulthood. It is natural for you to want to know how you can best assist your child during this time; helping create the first set of documents in their estate plan is a great way to remain hands-on while allowing them to flourish as young adults.
What do college-bound students need in their Estate Plan?
Everyone needs an Estate Plan but only 1 in 3 Americans have one. That is because, in part, many believe that only the wealthy need to secure their assets and property, or that it's too early to start. Neither is true, and at GoodTrust, we believe in spreading the word and making estate planning easy and affordable for all. Here are 3 documents your young adult child needs:
These documents may feel daunting at first but with a little guidance from us they can become easy to understand and, most importantly, easy to create. At the age of 18, one can drive, vote, and even start setting up their estate plan.
Financial Power of Attorney
A Power of Attorney is a document that allows the grantor (of power) to appoint someone to manage their financial affairs in the event that they become incapacitated in any way. Once 18, your child can create a Power of Attorney and make sure their current and future finances are secured. Being your child’s appointed financial power attorney holder can allow you to get peace of mind knowing that even though they are of age, you can still help them make the right adult decisions. Peace of mind has no price, especially for parents.
Health Care Directive
None of us want to think about the worst-case scenarios but it is important to plan ahead to make sure that if anything happens, your family is prepared to handle it as needed. A healthcare directive allows someone to designate a healthcare proxy to make decisions on their behalf. Being your child's appointed health care proxy is the best way to ensure your legal rights should anything happen to them and to be able to make the decisions no one but you could properly make.
A Living Will
Starting young is the fundamental way to ensure proper estate planning care, moving forward. Helping your child create their first living will at a young age can help educate them about the importance of estate planning. If many adult and senior Americans don’t believe in having a will, how can you convince your child they need one? Lean on the emotional. Remind them of that family heirloom they want and how the only way to ensure they get it is for you to include it in your will. Talk to them about their prized possessions, electronics, jewelry, that very rare book or vintage jacket, and ask them, “if anything were to happen to you, who would you want to leave these to.” Having a living will young isn’t all about having everything set in stone forever, it’s about developing the responsible reflexes now to remain safe and sound later.
Help your child start their estate planning now and set them up for success for the rest of their lives by getting started at GoodTrust today!