By Rick Waechter, Founder

Here’s another “eat your spinach” post. But – good news – it’s not you that has to eat the spinach. It’s your young adult child. (Admittedly, I like spinach, but only when it’s sauteed with plenty of garlic and EVOO).

Once someone turns 18, they really need basic estate planning documents. If you have adult children, please make sure they have done this work. There are plenty of online sites where you can create basic documents in 30 minutes at little or no cost.

Here’s what they need:

• Advance health care directive. The document appoints one or more agents – often parents, a sibling or another loved one – to make health care decisions for the young adult in the event they are incapacitated. It allows medical providers to speak with the agent(s) about the patient. It includes health care instructions in the very unlikely event the young adult is near death. These are all powers a parent had until their child turned 18.
• Durable financial power of attorney. This document appoints one or more agents to make financial decisions for someone who is incapacitated.
• Last will. This document has instructions triggered by the author’s death, including naming recipients of assets, appointing someone to settle debts, and describing how to handle a burial. Crucially, if the young adult has children, the last will appoints a guardian if there is not a surviving parent.

With a few minutes of googling, you can find templates for all these documents. AARP has a site where you can find free health care directive templates by state, here. Many state government websites and state bar associations offer basic forms for financial powers of attorney. For last wills, there are many free forms only. The provider will try to upsell you. If your situation is straightforward, an online form is great. That is almost surely the situation for a young adult whose last name is not Murdoch, Bezos, Musk or Trump. As your life gets more complex, you need an experienced estate planning attorney.

I know, I know. The likelihood of needing these documents is low. But it is possible. What is even more possible: your young adult child never gets around to doing this, and before you know it, they are 30 or 35 and still don’t have any documents. Every year, getting this done matters more.

Bring on the spinach.