How Estate Planning Changes After Your Children Graduate

HOW ESTATE PLANNING CHANGES AFTER YOUR CHILDREN GRADUATE

Young children in the family offer a powerful motivation for parents to put an estate plan in place. It’s imperative to ensure growing young ones will be taken care of by the desired guardian in the event of a parent’s premature passing, and it’s important that the guardian have access to the funds to “launch” the child in place of the deceased parent.

How you and your spouse structure an estate plan when your children are young will be much different from how you’d like your estate handled when they are grown. By the time they’ve earned their college diploma, it’s time to take another look at how you’d like your assets handled. You now have adult children, and your estate plan should reflect these changed circumstances.

Is Your Adult Child Ready for a Full Inheritance?

Your son or daughter is no longer two years old, but just because they’re 22 doesn’t mean they are ready to accept a full inheritance, no holds barred. Even if they are much more responsible than their peers, or maybe than they were when they were 16 just a few years ago, as their parent, it’s still your responsibility to look out for their best interests. If you bequeath them a large inheritance before they have learned how to manage money and plan for the future, will it do for them what you want?  If they receive a large inheritance in the middle of an ugly divorce, will half go to their departing spouse? If you’re worried about a dependency on substances or a gambling problem, should you appoint another party guardian of the funds? What if your child is simply prone to spending, and you’re wary of imparting your estate fully before they’ve worked to earn their own assets?

On the other hand, post-college, your adult children could be about to enter the phase of their lives when an inheritance could be the most helpful to them- putting a down payment on their first house, paying for graduate school, starting a family...

These questions, and how to approach the various balances you will need to strike, are best asked and answered with the assistance of a lawyer who has experience setting up sensible, tailored estate plans based on estate size, parental concerns and best interests of their children, no matter their age.

Have Your Needs Changed After College is Finished?

For many families, the ability to ensure that their children's education is paid for is a key goal in their planning process.  Once they have graduated, you may be in a position to rethink your goals.  This includes perhaps reducing the amount of life insurance you carry and pay for.  It may also mean that you are ready to place some assets out of your reach, to protect those assets for your children and against the costs of nursing home care.  You also may be rethinking your durable power of attorney or health care proxy, if you think your children are ready to assume those roles for you and your spouse.

For many people, this is the age when they start to consider Medicaid planning- isolating some assets in an irrevocable trust so that if you or your spouse ever needs nursing home care you will not need to spend those assets in order to be eligible for Medicaid assistance with that care.  

It is also a time when many people begin to implement annual family gift strategies to start moving assets out of their estates to avoid or minimize estate tax liability.  If your children are young adults, this is also a way to start introducing themselves to managing money, by transferring up to $15,000 a year to them from your assets.

Who Is Your Personal Representative?

A young parent may have appointed their adult brother or sister as their personal representative, but once their children reach adulthood, they may want to make a switch, especially if their siblings are no longer in the best of health. Adult children are also often appointed power of attorney or health care proxy, given the parental trust that the child will know their wishes and act accordingly.  You also now know your children's strengths and weaknesses, and are in a position to make a good decision about who could most comfortably manage each of these roles- personal representative, power of attorney, and health care proxy.

Is it Time to Rethink Who Gets What Assets?

Just because you have multiple children does not mean you want them all to split your assets equally, or that each get the same percentage of each specific asset. As a parent, you are allowed to allocate your assets however you wish. If one child moves out of state and has no desire to come back, maybe you want to leave the family home to the child who loves living in their hometown, but gift more liquid assets to the other. You may also consider the financial standing of each child. Maybe one has grown a successful company, but the other has less financial security. This is particularly complex if you or your spouse have your own business.  Now that your children have become adults, can you foresee one or all of them playing a role in that business, or should you instead make plans to have your estate cash out of the business so that they can receive the money instead?  Either approach requires careful planning, either to groom one or more of your children to take over the business or to make sure the business is set up so that it can be sold for maximum value when the time comes.  

What About Grandchildren?

Back when you formed an estate plan when your children were young, grandchildren might have seemed like a distant prospect. Now that your children are older, you can’t wait for it to become a reality! Your new graduate may be a long way away from thinking about starting their own family, but that doesn't mean you can't think about it as part of your estate planning.  While you work on a current estate plan, ask your lawyer about whether your plan is set up to account for grandchildren, or if there is something you can do now to plan for a growing family.​  

Your Estate Planning as Part of Your Adult Child's Financial Education

As your child enters the world of "adulting," he or she is no doubt taking the first steps toward budgeting and financial planning.  Conversations you have about these issues are a great opener for some education about how you are planning your legacy for them, which in turn can help open their eyes about the idea of saving, managing and protecting assets, and thinking about the long term.

It’s not enough to just create a general estate plan. You need an estate plan customized to your family – your life, even as your needs change over the years Set up a consultation with slnlaw today and let’s get started.

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About slnlaw

We are a Massachusetts law firm focused on business law, employment law, and estate planning. Our team includes attorneys with large law firm experience, public service experience, experience working with small businesses on a wide variety of matters, an attorney with an advanced degree (LLM), and a former clerk to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.  Attorney and founder Emily Smith-Lee has been named to the Massachusetts Super Lawyers list every year since 2013, and was recently named a 2018 Lawyer of the Year by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.  Our lead estate planning attorney Jenna Ordway has been recognized as a top estate planning attorney, and has published a book about estate planning in Massachusetts.
 
What We Do

• Employment Law: We advise both businesses and individuals about Massachusetts and federal employment laws, and represent them as needed in litigation if a lawsuit cannot be avoided. 
• Business Law: In addition to providing advice on employment matters and defense of employee lawsuits, we can help you set up your new business, review your agreements with vendors and customers, resolve or litigate business disputes, and much more. 
• Estate Planning: We provide customized plans for individuals and families to help minimize your estate tax liability, protect and preserve your assets, and ensure that the people in your life are taken care of the way that you want.  We can help you with wills and trusts, planning for a child with special needs, planning for the cost of long term care, and more.

​We also have an extensive network of other professionals, some lawyers in other practice areas and others who are non-lawyer professionals who offer services that our clients frequently need.  If the problem you need solved is not one that we handle, we are happy to provide a referral to someone we know you can trust.

Testimonials

"Emily, a chief partner, and the two other lawyers who worked on my case were extremely competent and approachable. They were responsive to inquiries and they thoughtfully explained, as needed, complex legal terms. I was very well represented at each stage of a protracted legal case against a major national firm."  Brian R

"It was a pleasure working with Emily Smith-Lee on a business matter. She willingly shares her expertise and always listens to her clients' concerns. Emily's caring demeanor puts people at ease immediately. The outcome of my experience was quite favorable. I would highly recommend them."  Camille B.

​"Emily is an incredible resource of knowledge on employment law. She helped guide us on how to structure our employee classifications and made adjustments to our consulting agreements so our business is better protected and positioned. She's both law-savvy and business minded - great asset to have when launching/growing a business."  Diana B.

"SLN represented me in a complicated employment-related dispute. What could have been a prolonged nightmare for me was handled swiftly and skillfully, and with fairness and dignity."  Smita N.

​"Previously, I spoke with a couple other lawyers and I did not feel comfortable with their approach prior to calling Emily. Jenna did an excellent job in assessing what I wanted to accomplish and completed my will, trust and other documents in a very short time. I am so happy I made the right choice in choosing slnlaw as my estate team."  Evelyn W.

"Long overdue public words of gratitude for Emily and her associates' work on my behalf.  They were so very respectful of me during an emotionally and financially ridden time- and that mattered more than the positive result.  May all clients have such advocates on their sides!"  Donna B.

"Emily helped our LLC in crafting an international sales agency agreement. She took the time to listen and learn about our business as well as ask about our short and long terms goals. She has a deep understanding of business contract law and was able to explain things to us clearly without being overly legalese. We would recommend SLN Law without hesitation!" Michael M.

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