Back-to-school planning should cover more than tuition, housing, transportation, and class schedules. When your student turns 18 or begins attending a postsecondary institution, your legal role changes. You may still pay tuition, provide health insurance, own the vehicle your student uses, or claim your student as a dependent, but those facts do not automatically give you authority to obtain private records or make decisions for your adult child.
A college estate planning checklist can help your family prepare for medical, financial, academic, and travel-related emergencies. Your student can decide who may receive information, who may act, when authority begins, and how broad that authority should be. You can also review your own estate plan to confirm that it still supports a college-age child.
Gibson & Perkins, PC helps families in Media, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, and nearby areas prepare powers of attorney, health care directives, wills, trusts, and related estate planning documents.
Your student remains in control. These documents can give trusted people limited authority to help only when the circumstances require it.
College Student Estate Planning Checklist 
Before move-in, review whether your student needs the following:
- A durable financial power of attorney
- A health care power of attorney
- A HIPAA authorization
- FERPA consent and college-specific access forms
- An organized emergency document file
- Updated beneficiary designations
- Instructions for digital property and online accounts
- A basic will, when appropriate
- Copies of documents for out-of-state study or travel
- Coordination with the parents’ wills, trusts, and education funding plans
Why College Changes Your Legal Role
Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, commonly called FERPA, rights generally transfer to the student when the student turns 18 or attends a postsecondary institution at any age. Your student’s college may use its own consent forms for access to grades, tuition records, disciplinary information, housing records, or other education records.
Health information is governed by different privacy rules. A hospital or other provider may share relevant information with family members in limited circumstances, but you should not assume that a provider will discuss treatment simply because you are the student’s parent. The rules may depend on who maintains the record, where the care is provided, and whether FERPA or HIPAA applies.
A written plan gives your student a direct way to identify trusted people and define what those people may do.
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1. Prepare a Durable Financial Power of Attorney
A durable financial power of attorney allows your student to appoint an agent to handle specified financial and legal matters. In Pennsylvania, a power of attorney is generally presumed to be durable unless the document states otherwise. Durability means that the authority can continue if the principal later becomes disabled or incapacitated.
Your student may authorize an agent to:
- Communicate with banks, insurers, landlords, and government agencies
- Pay tuition, rent, utilities, or other bills
- Address an insurance claim
- Sign vehicle-related documents
- Handle tax filings
- Manage a lease
- Resolve a financial matter during hospitalization or travel
- Access digital financial records when the document provides that authority
Your student chooses the agent and the scope of authority. A parent is a common choice, but your student may select another trusted adult and name a successor agent. The document should match your student’s needs and comply with Pennsylvania execution requirements.
For related information about incapacity planning, visit:
https://www.gibperk.com/what-will-happens-to-your-estate-if-you-become-incapacitated/
2. Consider a Pennsylvania Health Care Power of Attorney
A Pennsylvania health care power of attorney allows your student to name a health care agent and describe the decisions that person may make. Your student may include limits, treatment preferences, and instructions for the agent.
Unless the document states otherwise, a Pennsylvania health care power of attorney generally becomes operative when a copy is provided to the attending physician and the physician determines that the principal is incompetent. It generally becomes inoperative again while the attending physician determines that the principal is competent.
This document may help when your student cannot understand, make, or communicate a health care decision. Your student should choose an agent who can communicate with providers, follow instructions, and remain focused during a medical emergency. A successor agent should also be named.
A health care power of attorney does not remove a capable student’s right to make personal medical decisions. Your student continues to control personal care while capable of doing so.
3. Add a HIPAA Authorization
A HIPAA authorization serves a different purpose from a health care power of attorney. The health care power of attorney addresses decision-making authority. A HIPAA authorization addresses access to protected health information.
Your student can identify:
- Who may receive health information
- Which records may be disclosed
- Which providers may release information
- Whether the authorization covers billing and insurance records
- When the authorization expires
- Whether the student may revoke it
A properly drafted authorization may allow a parent or another trusted person to speak with providers, obtain records, confirm medications, assist with insurance questions, and support follow-up care. Your student, the named agent, and selected providers may each need a copy based on your student’s preferences.
4. Review FERPA Consent and College-Specific Forms
A power of attorney does not guarantee access to every school record, payment portal, or campus system. Many colleges use separate FERPA consent forms, billing permissions, emergency contacts, health service forms, and portal access rules.
Before the semester begins, ask your student to review the college’s procedures for:
- Education record consent
- Tuition and financial account access
- Campus health services
- Emergency notifications
- Housing contacts
- Study-abroad authorization
- Disability and accommodation records
- Student conduct records
- Parent or authorized-user portals
Your student can grant focused access rather than broad access. For example, your student may authorize you to address tuition and billing matters without giving you access to grades or unrelated education records.
5. Create a College Emergency File
Legal documents help only when the right people can locate them. Your student should keep a secure paper file and a protected electronic file containing the records that may be needed during an emergency.
The file may include:
- Signed financial and health care powers of attorney
- HIPAA authorization and FERPA consent
- Health insurance information
- Physician and pharmacy information
- Medication and allergy details
- Emergency and campus contacts
- Vehicle and renters insurance information
- Passport and identification copies
- Travel itinerary and study-abroad contacts
- Instructions for locating original legal documents
Do not place passwords, security codes, Social Security numbers, or complete account numbers in an ordinary folder. A reputable password manager with an emergency-access feature may be a better option. Your student should tell each named agent where the documents are stored and how to obtain them.
6. Decide Whether Your Student Needs a Will
Many college students do not need a complex estate plan, but some may benefit from a basic will. Your student may own savings, investments, a vehicle, valuable personal property, cryptocurrency, intellectual property, a business interest, or life insurance.
A will can:
- Direct property that passes through the estate
- Name an executor
- Provide instructions for personal items
- Address property without a beneficiary designation
- Support a plan for digital property when coordinated with account terms and applicable law
A will does not control every asset. Jointly owned property, retirement accounts, life insurance, transfer-on-death accounts, and other assets with valid beneficiary designations may pass outside the will.
Review beneficiary designations at the same time. The proper tool depends on what your student owns, how the asset is titled, and whom your student wants to receive it.
7. Review Digital Accounts and Online Property
College students often maintain financial, academic, social media, cloud storage, subscription, and cryptocurrency accounts. Your student should create a private inventory that identifies the accounts and explains how a trusted person can locate access instructions when legally permitted.
The plan may address:
- Email and cloud storage
- School portals
- Online banking and payment services
- Social media accounts
- Digital photographs and creative work
- Cryptocurrency wallets
- Domain names or online businesses
- Subscription services
- Devices protected by passcodes
Account terms and applicable law may affect what an agent or executor can access. Do not rely only on a list of passwords. The estate planning documents should include appropriate authority for digital property, and the student should use each platform’s legacy or emergency-access settings when available.
8. Review Your Own Estate Plan
Back-to-school season is also a useful time to review whether your estate plan still supports your college-age child. A will or trust prepared years ago may contain outdated ages, trustees, guardianship provisions, education terms, or distribution instructions.
Review:
- Who will manage funds for your student
- Whether tuition and education expenses are addressed
- Whether a trust should continue after graduation
- Who is named as executor, trustee, and agent
- Life insurance and retirement account beneficiaries
- Ownership and successor control of a 529 plan
- Plans for a family business or real estate
- Special needs or disability planning
- Instructions if your student receives an inheritance while unable to manage it
Compare beneficiary forms with your will and trust. A will does not generally override a valid beneficiary designation. Confirm that each designation supports the rest of your plan.
Families with real estate can review the firm’s guidance about transferring property to heirs:
9. Plan for Out-of-State Study and Travel
A student attending school outside Pennsylvania may encounter different state laws, provider procedures, and institutional forms. Before move-in, study abroad, an internship, or extended travel, confirm whether additional documents are recommended where your student will live.
Your student should:
- Carry accessible copies of signed documents
- Know how to contact each named agent
- Confirm that health insurance applies in the college location
- Review network and referral rules
- Add campus police, residence life, and health center contacts
- Review passport and travel-document expiration dates
- Ask whether the college requires its own forms
- Obtain advice in the other state when local law may affect the plan
Do not wait for an emergency to determine whether a provider, bank, landlord, or college office has a separate authorization process.
10. Discuss the Plan Without Undermining Independence
The conversation should begin with your student’s choices. Ask whom your student trusts to receive information, make health care decisions, or handle a financial problem if your student cannot act.
Signing is voluntary. Your student can limit authority, choose different people for different roles, name successor agents, and revoke documents while legally capable. Your student should understand:
- Who is being appointed
- What each person may do
- When authority begins
- Where copies will be stored
- How the document may be changed or revoked
- Which college or provider forms remain separate
This approach treats estate planning as part of adult readiness rather than a transfer of control.
Speak With a Media Estate Planning Attorney Before Move-In
A planning meeting can help you and your student identify which documents are appropriate, which college forms remain separate, and how the student’s plan should coordinate with the parents’ estate plan.
Gibson & Perkins, PC advises families in Media, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, and nearby areas about powers of attorney, health care directives, wills, trusts, tax matters, real estate, and related estate planning concerns.
Review the firm’s estate planning services:
https://www.gibperk.com/estate-planning-attorneys-media-pa/
Learn about Edward L. Perkins:
https://www.gibperk.com/media-pa-attorney-edward-l-perkins/
Request an appointment:
https://www.gibperk.com/contact/
Call (610) 557-1977
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every situation is different. Consult an attorney about your specific circumstances.