Blog Article

Why Can’t I Make Medical Decisions for My 18-Year-Old Child?

By Geoff Curran, Wealth Advisor CPA/ABV, CFA®, CFP®
Published On 07/01/2016

Your son has just turned age 18. The difference between ages 17 and 18 is that if your son has a medical emergency and is incapacitated, you can’t make a medical decision on his behalf or even speak to his doctors about his condition. Even if your son still lives with you and is a dependent, you don’t have the authority to call the shots since he’s now considered an adult. You’ll need to seek court approval to act or even be informed about your son’s medical condition.

To remedy this situation, children between the ages 18 to 25 can sign a medical power of attorney (POA) authorizing parents to act as their agent or proxy in medical decisions. This allows you to step in if they are disabled or incapacitated. This is even more important for kids leaving for college or taking a gap year to travel abroad.

Medical power of attorney documents can be created relatively inexpensively by estate planning attorneys. In most cases, an attorney can draft a medical POA à la carte, and you won’t have to revisit your entire estate plan. When drafting this document, it’s important to name an alternate medical POA in case you can’t be reached. This could be a relative in your son’s new college town or a close friend who is traveling abroad with him. What’s important is that someone with your son’s best interests at heart can act if your son were to become incapacitated.

If your child subsequently gets married, the medical POA should be updated. You don’t want a situation where the spouse has one desire but the parents, who have medical POA, have a different perspective.

P.S. Don't LET YOUR FRIENDS MISS OUT. Share this article:

By Geoff Curran, Wealth Advisor CPA/ABV, CFA®, CFP®

Geoff has always enjoyed talking with people about finance, learning about their investments, financial strategy, and business sense. His interest only deepened with time, and what began as a hobby has now become a life-long passion, with an unparalleled passion for continuing education that makes him an expert in many subjects from traditional taxes and investments to business succession planning and executive compensation negotiations.

Articles Straight to Your Inbox

Subscribe to Merriman's Envision Newsletter to receive in-depth articles and expert commentary, delivered monthly to your inbox:

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By submitting your information, you consent to subscribe to Merriman's email list so that we may send you relevant content from time to time. Please see our Privacy Policy.