Medical Power of Attorney for Healthcare and Medical Decisions and Records
Students at school need access to their medical records at times and need to make medical decisions. When mom, dad, or another trusted individual is an appointed agent with power of attorney rights to access information and make decisions, it can be an important matter of life and death. Despite all our best efforts, things happen, and we need trusted family and friends to be a support network. Sometimes that support network needs the legal right to assist when kids are away at school.
Durable Power of Attorney for Business and Financial Transactions
Mom and dad can and will get involved in all kinds of interesting life lessons and financial transactions. In situations where our son and daughter made a questionable decision or a bigger life choice, there are moments parents need to be able to step in and help. With issues involving finance, housing, and transportation, having Durable Illinois Power of Attorney documents makes life so much easier for parents when they need to get involved.
Advanced Directives for Healthcare Instructions and Lifesaving Medical Treatment
If something happens that we never expect as parents, we need to be able to react quickly and be able to help our children. When preparing for kids to go off to school and having these important discussions about all the things that can happen away at school, have the difficult discussions in advance, so kids and parents are on the same page about helping and accepting help. Parents need their student children to trust them with healthcare instructions and lifesaving medical treatments. Even though nobody expects a problem, anything can happen, and accidents happen close to home, whether that be at home or school.
Obtaining Illinois Power of Attorney Documents Through the Favia Law Firm in Chicago and Rolling Meadows
Chicago healthcare and general practice attorney, Michael V. Favia, can help you and any students in your family ensure that if the situation should arise, parents and any directed agents or representatives are in place to assist as named and described in a power of attorney document. For an Illinois power of attorney document, contact the Favia Law Firm for an appointment in Chicago or Rolling Meadows.
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Whether in a high school academy or college or university out of town, or even nearby, parents, family, or friends can be appointed as agents with Power of Attorney rights to act if it becomes necessary.
Illinois Power of Attorney Documents are customized for specific needs and situations. Chose exactly what duties, responsibilities, and rights take effect. Specify what types of situations will activate the Power of Attorney, and for what duration. Get exactly the reassurance you want and need to rest easy while your son or daughter is away at school.
Seven Common Reasons Students Need Illinois Power of Attorney Documents:
1. Getting Injured and Needing Medical Attention at a Hospital
If your son or daughter is injured while at school, even though they are still a child, they are legally adults and as a parent, you have no legal rights to direct their treatment or care without proper legal authority. Even if your son or daughter is a dependent child on your health insurance policy, it is still necessary to have Power of Attorney documents in place to communicate with hospital staff and medical professionals for care and treatment. Especially when children are away at school, their primary care physician at home is not there to treat them, and while we hope all their electronic medical records are comprehensive, having parental input and oversight is important because there are all kinds of things that preoccupied college students could miss, such as allergies and medications that could affect patient care and service in different situations.
2. Undergoing Elective Surgeries and Medical Procedures
College-aged students may see doctors for different elective surgeries and medical procedures they can schedule and plan around activities for proper recovery time. Whether a cosmetic surgical procedure, a dermatological issue, or a reproductive health concern, college students often want parents to be aware and involved. Even though mom or dad might be paying out of pocket for a medical visit on a non-emergency basis, a Medical Power of Attorney document gives mom or dad the express authority to talk to the doctors, access medical records and information, and if, given the right, they may be authorized to make medical decisions on their son or daughter’s behalf.
3. Renting an Apartment or Leasing a House
After living in college dormitories, most students find roommates to share an apartment or house on or off campus. Being a parent watching children mature and learn to make their own decisions means allowing them to make mistakes as well. While learning who they are as individuals, our children learn from other people and their input. These relationships affect student housing as they find roommates to share space and the cost of living. Everything works out great until it doesn’t.
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When your son or daughter’s roommate gets a new significant other and ends up more in love with an infatuation than their classes, the roommate could be cone in a semester or two and a parent ends up with a situation. When mom or dad needs to intervene and transact business with the landlord, a Durable Power of Attorney Document makes it so that mom, dad, and student, can make legally enforceable decisions about housing, whether buying or leasing space.
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Depending on the real estate market where your child is going to school, purchasing property can be a good investment, and one might keep that rental home to lease to other students after yours is done and gone on their way.
4. Buying or Selling a Vehicle or Updating Insurance Policies
Despite our wishes that our student children sit at their desks and study all day, they are mobile and increasingly able to pick up extra side jobs doing delivery driving, for example. A college-student mobile may be the old family SUV or grandma’s old “go to church” car until something happens and a vehicle sale or purchase needs to happen, including the proper insurance, permits, and everything else that goes along with kids and cars.
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Most students maintain their permanent address at mom and dad’s house during school and as parents, we can handle all the transactions easier when we hold a Durable Power of Attorney document to sign forms and take care of business at our local government offices, so our kid away at school can focus on studying and saving gas.
5. Studying Abroad for a Semester or Longer
The opportunity to study at another University campus for a semester or longer is one to seize. When again is your son or daughter going to be able to attend another school overseas, for example, for a semester or two, and then return to their primary university? There are some considerations for parents of study-abroad students, and the Power of Attorney documents become even more important. The legal question becomes whether an Illinois Power of Attorney is recognized in a foreign country, and what happens if your child needs help and is admitted to a hospital in Spain, for example. When talking to your Chicago Estate Planning attorney, like Michael V. Favia at the Favia Law Firm, be prepared to discuss questions about international travel and study, determining if extra considerations need to be made.
6. Conducting Business Back Home When Students Are Away at School
Financial accounts, tax preparation, and similar routine transactions are easy to do when your son or daughter is at home from college and available to sign. But when away at school and unable to directly participate in certain dealings, mom and dad need to be able to take care of business. Again, the Durable Power of Attorney can be drafted to include or exclude just about anything the law provides so that the family can operate easily. Instead of waiting for your kid to come home for summer break or a holiday, be able to take care of transactions involving your son or daughter without interrupting their studies or social time when they come home from school and need to catch up with old friends and compare notes on their experiences.
7. Spring Break and Other College Vacations and Impromptu Adventures
What parent wants to answer the phone or get a text from their college student, “Guess where I am?” Kids with cars and a little money in their account can get into some wild adventures. Sometimes parents never hear of the little trips here and there and that can be for the best. Other times the surprise “Guess where I am” is followed by a “Please don’t be mad.” Now you get to put money in their account to cover the cost of new tires or something else that happened along the way. Or, your son or daughter could be on spring break somewhere and their friend with questionable judgment gets them into hot water and you need to deal with it. You never know what could happen and when you will be relieved that at least you had the legal authority to help save the day because you thought ahead and obtained Illinois Power of Attorney Documents because you never know when you need to step in and save the day.
