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Adulthood by Choice
Don't Leave Your Child's Future to Chance
By Sue Marquette Poremba
Legal documents are especially important if the parents are divorced or if one parent is estranged from the teenager, says Truly. In these situations, she explains, if divorced parents don't agree over the care, there will be a battle over which parent has the right to make the decision. An estranged parent could conceivably show up and block decisions made by the other parent. For minor children, custody agreements settle these arguments. For adult children, custody agreements are generally null and void.
What legal documents should a new adult have? According to Robert Dunn, co-author of Wills – The Big Myth (Rainbow Books, 2005), adults ages 18 to 21 should have a living will and a health care power of attorney. "After the Terri Schiavo case, every adult should have those two documents," he says. The documents should be kept where family members will be able to find them easily in an emergency, he adds.
