October 2025 Margaret’s Notes
As a mother of 3 children with ages ranging from 15 to 23. I must plan for a minor child still at home and two young adults in varying stages of independence. Legally, my two eldest children are adults. This means I cannot help them at the bank anymore or make medical or dental decisions for them. This also means they need their own estate plans. My husband and I cannot make decisions for them anymore. This is often a misunderstood fact by families.
Young adults should have at least a Basic Will Plan that includes Health Care and Financial Power of Attorneys, a Will and Instructions for their personal property and final disposition. While most young adults have not accumulated a lot of property, they do have a car, bank accounts, a job, maybe some life insurance or pension/401k through their job, and perhaps some investments. They also may be on the property ladder and own real property, whether a condo or a house.
All of these things will require legal documents to pass these assets to another, or they will get stuck at death with no one authorized to act on behalf of the assets or receive them. That is what is called an intestate probate, meaning a person died without a Will and the law now decides: 1) who has priority to be appointed as the person who can take possession of the assets, transfer and/or sell them and 2) who is entitled to receive any of the assets – after all the creditors have been paid. This can be particularly sticky when the parents are no longer married, as they have equal priority over an unmarried, young adult.
An arguably more stressful situation is when the young adult is hurt in an accident or gets sick and loses capacity, this is where Powers of Attorney are critical to spell out; who can make decisions for the young adult. Otherwise, a court case must be filed to be appointed Guardian and/or Conservator of the young adult. This takes precious time and costs money.
Due to experiencing this issue ourselves and recent client questions, we are offering a young adult Basic Will Plan to existing clients’ family members only, at a discounted rate. We will be doing this on the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving, (November 26, 2025) in the afternoon in a group planning session, for up to 8 young adults. We have 4 of the spots taken, already. If there is demand, we will schedule another over the winter holidays. You will be hearing more about this in our social media posts, but if this is something you’d be interested in to support your young adult family members, please contact our office on (480) 525.6244 or email us at info@bizestatelaw.com.
