Answers to Your Questions

Many parents are starting to ask this question, and it's a good one. A young adult power of attorney is an essential legal document that all young people need when they reach 18 years of age. Most parents assume that they have automatic authority to handle decisions for their adult children if they encounter an unexpected illness or accident that leaves them incapacitated.

However, once a child turns 18, parents no longer have the authority to make medical or financial decisions for their children. Power of attorney forms authorize parents to help their adult children manage financial, legal and health care decisions as needed.

Without a power of attorney in place, parents are hamstrung as to how to help their children and hindered in their efforts to advocate for their best interests. If your child becomes incapacitated and has not signed powers of attorney, family may be required to ask a court to appoint a guardian or conservator to handle decisions. This can be a complex and expensive process overseen by a court. Power of attorney forms eliminate this concern.

Yes, in most states your child must be at least 18 to validly sign powers of attorney. In Nebraska and Alabama your child must reach age 19.

The easiest clue to answering this question is to look at your child's driver's license. The state listed is very likely your child's home state when you are completing your young adult power of attorney paperwork. Your child's home state is the place where he or she lives permanently, and does things such as pay taxes, vote, receive mail and obtain a driver's license.

If your child attends school in another state, his or her home state is still likely the state in which he or she was living before going away for college.

If you live in one state and your child attends college in another, your home state's form is usually sufficient. This is because a power of attorney validly executed under the laws in the state in which it is signed will generally be honored in other states.


However, since most states are more comfortable seeing their own version of these documents, it can be expedient to have two state-specific forms on hand. Mama Bear allows you to easily create a second state-specific version for your child for free. After creating documents for your home state, click the "My Documents" button on the top right side of the web page. Next to your child's document click the blue "Select" button, and on the next page click the "Add Free POA for 2nd state" button. You will be prompted to select the second state, then a set of documents for the second state will automatically appear in your account. Many states have very similar laws so don't be surprised if both sets look similar.

It is important for students who are studying, working, or traveling abroad to appoint an agent to manage their personal, business, and financial affairs while they are out of the country. Most university study abroad programs recommend that all students have powers of attorney in place.

If your adult child experiences a serious illness or accident and becomes incapacitated while studying abroad, a health care power of attorney gives the authority to get information and make medical decisions on their behalf. A financial power of attorney authorizes the agent to deal with financial aid, credit cards, banking, insurance, taxes, and rental agreements.

Your child’s university can provide you with any legal requirements of their host country to make sure your powers of attorney are recognized abroad.

Our young adult POA form asks you to select a health care agent and an agent for financial decisions. Many people ask who they should name for this important position.

The easy answer is that for most young adults, the agents are most often the person's parents. The only legal requirement is that the named agent be an adult. In most states, that is someone who is at least 18 years of age. The agents should know you well, be competent to make decisions for you, and ideally, share your values, at least in so far as it relates to decision-making.

An agent should be someone you have total faith in to carry out your wishes. That is the most important qualification.

When you create a young adult POA through Mama Bear Legal Forms, step three asks you to designate two health care agents; step five asks you to select two agents for financial decisions.

We are often asked why our form prompts you to designate a primary and backup agent. The reason is simple: because anything could happen, you need a backup. It is a sound practice to have more than one trusted individual named as an agent on your child's power of attorney form. Legally, you may name as many agents as you like. We set the number at two because more than that tends to become unwieldly to manage.

The more agents you have, the more potential for conflict there is. Every time you add an agent, the potential for agents to disagree on decisions increases. Similar to flying a plane, a captain needs a co-pilot, but you would never expect to have seven people in the cockpit.

Doing so would endanger the flight. The same is true for the agents named on your child's POA – one is not enough and three can be too many.

If a designated agent resides in another country, you can leave this portion of the questionnaire blank. The site will place blank spaces in the address portion of the documents so that you can handwrite the appropriate address in the space provided prior to signing.

When you complete your young adult POA through Mama Bear Legal Forms, you will be asked to set up your two agents as either "shared" or "alternate". Here's what each term means.

Shared means that either of the two agents can make decisions. In other words, they "share" responsibility. They are not co-agents, but rather two separate people who each have the authority to act. Shared agents should talk together, confer with one another and agree on decisions being made, yet maintain the ability to act independently.

When you name the second agent as "alternate" you create a situation where the first agent is the only one who can act for your child. The second agent would only have the power to act if the first agent is incapacitated, deceased or unavailable and cannot serve.

The health care power of attorney created on Mama Bear Legal Forms includes an Advance Health Care Directive. This portion of the document includes special authority and instructions for the agent regarding the withholding or withdrawal of certain life support equipment or medical procedures in an end-of-life situation.

The document never forces an agent to take away life support. It simply gives the agent the authority needed to control end-of-life care. You can customize this section in the document itself. There is space to handwrite any special instructions or wishes and you can also exclude any power that you don't want the agent to exercise over life support decisions.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA, was passed by Congress in 1996 to protect the privacy of our health information. The act prohibits health care providers from sharing health care information unless presented with written consent in the form of a HIPAA Release, signed by the patient.

Mama Bear provides you with a HIPAA Release form, so that health care providers can share medical information with the agents.

The agent's power under a health care power of attorney kicks in when your attending physician determines that you are incapable of making your own health care decisions.

Typically, the agent's power under a financial power of attorney takes effect immediately upon signing of the document. Your agent can act whenever they are needed without a doctor determining that you are incapacitated. This can come in handy. If a child is not experienced in a financial matter or is traveling out of the country, the agent can deal with an issue. However, if your child is reluctant to grant the agent broad powers immediately, you can choose to have the agent's authority spring into effect only when your child's physician determines that your child is incapacitated.

Making changes to a power of attorney is easy. You can amend or revoke a power of attorney at any time by signing an updated version, then notifying your agents of the amendment or revocation. In the case of a health care power of attorney, just notify your agent, or attending physician or other health care provider of any changes.

Powers of attorney prepared at Mama Bear Legal Forms don't have an expiration date. The documents only come to an end if the signor of the document revokes the power of attorney or passes away.

The rules vary from state to state regarding who needs to sign a power of attorney so we include detailed, state-specific instructions at the beginning of your documents.

Generally, for a health care power of attorney, the young adult will sign the document along with two unrelated witnesses and a notary public. For a financial power of attorney, usually only a notary public is required along with the young adult's signature. Parents and agents usually do not sign and don't need to be present.

If you are not certain where your child will be signing the documents, you can leave the signing details portion of the Mama Bear Legal Forms questionnaire blank. The notary public can then handwrite the county and state of signing in the notary block portion of the document.

If you are not sure where your child will sign the documents, you can leave this portion of the questionnaire blank. The site will place blank spaces in the notary block of the documents so that the notary public can handwrite in the appropriate county and state at the time of signing.

After creating and having your young adult sign the POA forms, keep the originals in a safe place at home with your other important documents. It is a great idea to use Mama Bear's free app to scan and save them so that you have them readily available to share with a health care provider or financial institution in an emergency. The key is to keep the documents accessible so that you can prove that you have the authority to act on your child's behalf.

Yes, if you are dealing with a health care provider or financial institution, giving them a copy will work just as well as the original signed document.