IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION
The following presentation by New England Capital Financial Advisors, LLC (“NECFA”) is intended for general information purposes only. No portion of the presentation serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from NECFA or any other investment professional of your choosing. Please see additional important disclosure at the end of this penetration. A copy of NECFA’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request or at www.newenglandcapital.com.
Protect Your Kids and Yourselves With These Documents
It’s mid-September 2023, which means the seasons are changing and I don’t just mean from baseball to football season. Well, as far as baseball is concerned, we can forget any pennant races in the New England/New York area this year. This is the traditional transition from summer to fall, but it also means kids are back in school. Maybe this is the year when your son or daughter started college. We know that’s a big deal; we’ve been helping you plan and prepare for this event. Along with paying for that first semester of tuition, books and meal plans, please don’t forget some very important documents to make the home to school transition complete.
These forms and documents include:
- FERPA - Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. This is a federal law that gives you access to your kid’s school records. If your son or daughter is 18 or older, they need to sign the FERPA waiver for you to have access to things like their student account, grades, financial aid, etc. This can typically be found on the college’s website. By the way, it doesn’t matter that you’re paying the bills, it needs to be signed by the student/young adult.
- Health insurance - Colleges typically have health insurance plans which students can enroll in. Or if they stay under your plan, which they can do up to age 26, they need to sign a waiver declining the school’s plan.
- Durable power of attorney - This document allows a person, in this case, the parent, to figuratively step into the shoes of the young adult to handle or help with financial affairs. Maybe it’s dealing with credit card disputes or rental and leasing agreements. Maybe you need to step in and handle some financial issues due to an unforeseen mental or physical illness.
- Universal HIPAA release form and healthcare proxy - Which brings me to mental illness and physical issues which could arise quite unexpectedly. The Universal HIPPA release form allows medical information to be shared with another person, like an 18-year-old with a parent. Remember an 18-year-old is a young adult and you as a parent generally lose access to the medical records of doctors and hospitals. The healthcare proxy or medical power of attorney allows the parent to make medical decisions for the young adult, if they are unable to do so for themselves.
I hope you and your child/student/young adult complete these forms as soon as possible. And I hope you never have to use them. But let me tell you a personal story about our youngest son, Mike, when he was a freshman at High Point University in North Carolina. He was in his second semester, and we got a phone call. He wasn’t feeling well. Headaches, total body aches, flu like symptoms. His roommate took him to a walk-in facility on campus. Next phone call. We were told of worsening conditions and an ER trip. Abby and I were on the next flight to Charlotte. The diagnosis was meningitis. We were by his side for over a week in the hospital. He never lost consciousness and gave full permission for us to consult with his doctors and other healthcare providers. But without his verbal and written permission, we as parents would not have been able to do so.
The end of the story is thankfully, a happy one. After the many long days and nights at the hospital, many tests, and many prayers, Mike fully recovered from viral meningitis. When he was able to travel, we brought him home.
Our story ended well but learn from our experience. Please get these forms executed. See an attorney, or most of these forms I listed can be found online.
And if your kids have graduated, congratulations! Get these forms filled out anyways. Are your kids like mine and live hours away in another state? Or maybe they’re still in your basement. You still want to protect them.
If they have a significant other or get married, they can revoke these documents and replace you with their spouse on new documents. Please do this for you and for them. And again, I hope you never need to use them.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION
Please remember that past performance is no guarantee of future results. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that the future performance of any specific investment, investment strategy, or product (including the investments and/or investment strategies recommended or undertaken by New England Capital Financial Advisors, LLC [“NECFA”]), or any non-investment related content, made reference to directly or indirectly in this blog will be profitable, equal any corresponding indicated historical performance level(s), be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Due to various factors, including changing market conditions and/or applicable laws, the content may no longer be reflective of current opinions or positions. Moreover, you should not assume that any discussion or information contained in this blog serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from NECFA. To the extent that a reader has any questions regarding the applicability of any specific issue discussed above to his/her individual situation, he/she is encouraged to consult with the professional advisor of his/her choosing. NECFA is neither a law firm nor a certified public accounting firm and no portion of the blog content should be construed as legal or accounting advice. A copy of the NECFA’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available for review upon request or at www.newenglandcapital.com. Please Note: NECFA does not make any representations or warranties as to the accuracy, timeliness, suitability, completeness, or relevance of any information prepared by any unaffiliated third party, whether linked to NECFA’s web site or blog or incorporated herein, and takes no responsibility for any such content. All such information is provided solely for convenience purposes only and all users thereof should be guided accordingly. Please Remember: If you are a NECFA client, please contact NECFA, in writing, if there are any changes in your personal/financial situation or investment objectives for the purpose of reviewing/evaluating/revising our previous recommendations and/or services, or if you would like to impose, add, or to modify any reasonable restrictions to our investment advisory services. Unless, and until, you notify us, in writing, to the contrary, we shall continue to provide services as we do currently. Please Also Remember to advise us if you have not been receiving account statements (at least quarterly) from the account custodian.