The Launch Plan
They're 18 Now. Legally, You're a Stranger.
The day your child turns 18, something invisible happens: you lose the automatic legal right to make medical decisions for them, talk to their doctors, or access their financial accounts, even if they're on your health insurance, even if you're paying their tuition, even if they still text you to ask how the washing machine works.
If your college freshman lands in an ER three states away, the hospital can legally decline to tell you anything. If they're incapacitated, you may need a court order just to help.
Four documents fix this. We can prepare them in a single afternoon.
The Launch Plan
A complete legal essentials package for 18-to-25-year-olds, designed for students heading to college, launching into the workforce or military, and young adults still supported by their parents:
Financial Power of Attorney
Names a trusted agent (usually a parent) to handle financial and legal matters if your young adult can't, or simply needs backup while they're away at school or abroad. Includes digital asset authorization, so their agent can also access online accounts, from banking apps to photo libraries, when it matters.
We also share how to set up legacy contacts for your Apple and Android/Google based accounts.
Advance Health Care Directive
Names a health care agent to make medical decisions if they're ever unable to, and records their wishes, including thoughtful mental health care provisions and reproductive health provisions. Our directive includes enhanced protections requiring additional incapacity determinations by psychiatric professionals before any decision about institutionalization can be made on their behalf.
For trans, nonbinary and gender non-conforming young adults, the directive can also require that providers use their name and pronouns and continue gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy, without interruption.
HIPAA Authorization
Allows doctors and hospitals to share medical information with the people your young adult chooses: parents, a partner, a sibling, chosen family. Their list, their call, and easy to update as life changes.
This is the document that gets a trusted person past "I'm sorry, we can't share that information."
FERPA Release
HIPAA covers medical records; it does not cover education records. Without a FERPA release, the college won't discuss grades, academic standing, or even enrollment with parents, including the parents paying the tuition bill. We prepare the release and give your student a checklist for filing their school's own version, so nothing falls through the cracks.
Not sure what FERPA is or why it matters? Check out this parent guide prepared by the Department of Education in 2021 about FERPA.
Done in one afternoon.
One appointment, a short and painless questionnaire beforehand, and same-day signing. They walk out a legally protected adult; you walk out able to actually help them like one.
Add-Ons
Extended Planning Session
A private one-hour session (remote or in person) with the student to walk through their plan in depth, talk through scenarios, and answer every question. Their plan, their questions, no parents required.
Remote Online Notarization*
Sign from anywhere: the dorm, study abroad, or a summer internship through our remote online notary partner. Fully accepted in California and other states in the US.
Simple Will
For young adults with savings, a car, digital accounts, or who simply want a say: a straightforward will naming their beneficiaries and executor.
Sibling & Family Rate
More than one young adult to protect? Each additional Launch Plan for a sibling is $600.
*Final documents are emailed to you to print and take to a local notary. If you'd like the convenience of not having to go anywhere, we make sure your documents get to the notary and everything is signed correctly from the comfort of your home (or wherever you are!).
Who this is for
- High school seniors and college-bound students (the summer before freshman year is the perfect window)
- Current college students, including those studying abroad
- Young adults 18–25 still on a parent's insurance or receiving financial support
- Gap-year travelers, military enlistees, and young adults entering the workforce
Not sure whether your family needs this yet? Our article on estate planning for college-bound 18-year-olds walks through exactly what changes at 18, what can go wrong without these documents, and how the one-afternoon process works.
You can pay for the plan. The choices are theirs.
You can pay for the plan and be named in the documents, but your young adult is our client. The choices are theirs, the conversations with us are confidential, and the documents reflect what they decide. In our experience, that's precisely what makes them take it seriously. (It's also their first real experience hiring a professional, not a bad life skill to launch with.)
And when they graduate? We check in. Life at 24 looks different than life at 18.
One afternoon. Four documents. Fully launched.
Schedule your free discovery call and we'll walk you through how the Launch Plan works for your family.
Book a Strategy Session