Sandy Springs Estate Planning for Parents of College-Age Children

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Your child just left for Georgia Tech, Emory, or the University of Georgia, and you feel good about it. You packed their bags, paid the tuition, and watched them walk into a new chapter of life. But here is a question most Sandy Springs parents never think to ask: if your college student ends up in the hospital tomorrow, do you have the legal right to speak with their doctor? The answer, under both federal and Georgia law, is almost certainly no. Once a child turns 18, they are a legal adult. That changes everything from a planning standpoint, and it is exactly why estate planning for parents of college-age children matters more than most people realize. At Atlanta estate planning lawyer Slowik Estate Planning, located in Atlanta, Georgia, we work with Sandy Springs families every day to put the right documents in place before a crisis forces the issue.

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The moment your child turns 18, your parental rights to their medical and financial information disappear. This is not a technicality. It is the law. Under HIPAA, the federal health privacy law, a person 18 or older controls their own protected health information. Georgia law reinforces this. Under O.C.G.A. § 31-33-2, authorized requesters of a patient’s medical records include individuals acting with valid legal authority, such as powers of attorney or properly executed patient authorizations. A parent’s love does not qualify as legal authority once the child is an adult.

Think about what that means practically. Your son is a freshman at Georgia State, living in a dorm near downtown Atlanta. He is in a car accident on I-285 and ends up at Northside Hospital. You rush there, identify yourself as his parent, and ask the attending physician for an update. The hospital staff, following the law, may not tell you anything. They cannot share his diagnosis, his treatment plan, or even confirm he is a patient. That is not negligence on the hospital’s part. That is the law working exactly as written.

The same gap applies to financial accounts. If your daughter has a bank account in her name alone and she becomes incapacitated, you have no legal right to access those funds to pay her bills. You would need a court order, which takes time and money, and which could have been avoided entirely with one simple document signed before she left for campus. This legal gap is the starting point for every estate plan we build for parents of college-age children in Sandy Springs.

The Documents Every College Student Needs Before Leaving Home

Four documents form the core of any college student’s estate plan, and none of them are complicated. Getting these signed before your student heads to school, whether that is Agnes Scott College in Decatur or Kennesaw State University, is one of the most responsible things a Sandy Springs parent can do.

The first is a durable financial power of attorney. Under O.C.G.A. § 10-6B-4, a power of attorney created under Georgia’s Uniform Power of Attorney Act is durable unless it expressly states otherwise, meaning it remains valid even if the principal becomes incapacitated. This document allows your student to name you as their agent to handle financial matters if they cannot do so themselves. Without it, you have no legal authority over their bank accounts, student loan paperwork, or lease agreements.

The second is a healthcare power of attorney. This is a separate document that authorizes you to make medical decisions on your child’s behalf if they are unable to do so. Georgia law governs this under O.C.G.A. Title 31, Chapter 32, and it requires the document to be properly signed and witnessed to be valid.

The third is a HIPAA authorization form. Even with a healthcare power of attorney, a separate HIPAA release specifically naming you as someone authorized to receive medical information adds an extra layer of protection. Hospitals and doctors are more comfortable sharing information when they have a clear, signed authorization in the file.

The fourth is a basic will. Most college students own a car, a laptop, savings, and personal property. Without a will, Georgia’s intestacy laws under O.C.G.A. Title 53 determine who gets those assets. For an unmarried adult with no children, that typically means parents, but the process still goes through probate. A simple will avoids that entirely and lets your student express their own wishes. Working with a qualified trust attorney can also help you explore whether a simple revocable trust makes sense for your student’s situation, particularly if they have received gifts, inheritance, or significant savings.

Using Georgia’s Path2College 529 Plan as Part of Your Estate Plan

Many Sandy Springs parents are already saving for college, but fewer understand how a 529 plan fits into a broader estate plan. Georgia’s Path2College 529 Plan is one of the most cost-effective education savings tools available. It has been helping Georgia families save for education for more than 23 years and currently manages more than $6.9 billion in assets across more than 265,000 accounts. Georgia families have already used more than $3.1 billion from the plan to pay for education expenses.

From a tax standpoint, Georgia taxpayers who contribute to a Path2College 529 account can deduct up to $4,000 per beneficiary per year on their state income tax return if they are single filers, or up to $8,000 per beneficiary per year if they are married filing jointly. Contributions grow tax-deferred, and withdrawals for qualified education expenses are tax-free at both the federal and state level. Qualified expenses include tuition, room and board, books, and certain other college-related costs.

From an estate planning perspective, 529 contributions are treated as completed gifts for federal gift tax purposes. Under current IRS rules, a contributor can use five-year gift tax averaging, sometimes called superfunding, to contribute up to five years’ worth of the annual gift tax exclusion in a single year. In 2026, the annual gift tax exclusion is $18,000 per recipient. That means a parent or grandparent can contribute up to $90,000 to a 529 account in one year without triggering gift tax, provided no other gifts are made to that beneficiary during the five-year period.

One more planning angle worth knowing: under the SECURE 2.0 Act, unused 529 funds can now be rolled into a Roth IRA for the beneficiary, subject to certain conditions, including a 15-year account holding requirement. This change makes 529 plans even more attractive as part of a long-term generational wealth transfer strategy. If you want to understand how a Path2College 529 account fits into your overall estate plan, Slowik Estate Planning can walk you through the details.

Protecting Your Own Estate While Paying for College

Paying for college is expensive. The average annual cost of attendance at a four-year institution in Georgia, including tuition, fees, room, and board, runs well into the tens of thousands of dollars. For Sandy Springs families writing large tuition checks to schools like Mercer University or Georgia Institute of Technology, this spending has real implications for their own estate plans.

First, tuition payments made directly to an educational institution on behalf of another person are excluded from federal gift tax entirely, under the educational exclusion in Internal Revenue Code Section 2503(e). This is separate from the annual gift tax exclusion. You can pay your child’s tuition directly to the school and also give them $18,000 in 2026 without any gift tax consequences. That is a meaningful planning tool for high-net-worth Sandy Springs parents who want to reduce their taxable estate while supporting their children’s education.

Second, review your own estate plan before writing those tuition checks. Are your beneficiary designations up to date? Does your will or revocable trust reflect your current wishes? Many parents update their documents when a child is born and never revisit them. By the time that child is heading to college, the parents’ financial picture has often changed significantly. Assets may have grown, new property may have been acquired near Buckhead or Dunwoody, and family dynamics may have shifted. An estate tax planning lawyer at Slowik Estate Planning can review your current plan and identify any gaps before they become problems.

Third, consider how your life insurance coverage aligns with your college funding obligations. If you are paying tuition from current income and you pass away unexpectedly, does your estate have enough liquidity to cover the remaining years of your student’s education? A properly funded revocable living trust or an irrevocable life insurance trust can address this directly. These are not theoretical concerns for Sandy Springs parents. They are practical planning questions with real answers.

Planning for the “What Ifs” While Your Student Is Away

College students travel. They study abroad. They take road trips down I-75 to visit friends in Florida. They make decisions that carry risk, as young adults always have. As a parent, you cannot follow them everywhere. But you can make sure the legal framework is in place to handle emergencies without a crisis becoming a catastrophe.

One scenario that comes up more often than parents expect is a student who experiences a serious mental health episode while at school. Georgia’s mental health privacy laws under O.C.G.A. §§ 37-3-166 and 37-4-125 add another layer of protection on top of HIPAA for psychiatric records. Without a properly executed healthcare power of attorney and HIPAA authorization, a parent may be completely shut out of their child’s care, even in a genuine emergency. The documents we discussed earlier are not just for physical injuries. They apply to mental health crises too.

Another scenario involves a student who is studying abroad, perhaps at a program connected to a university in Europe or Asia. If your student becomes incapacitated outside the United States, the financial power of attorney you put in place under Georgia law may still be recognized, depending on the country. Some families also choose to execute a separate international power of attorney for this purpose. It is a detail worth discussing with your attorney before the student boards the plane.

Finally, think about what happens to your own estate if something happens to you while your child is in school. Who manages the money set aside for their education? Who makes decisions about your home near Roswell Road or your investment accounts? A well-drafted revocable living trust with clear successor trustee instructions handles all of this smoothly, without the delays and costs of Georgia probate. Slowik Estate Planning serves families throughout Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Buckhead, and the surrounding Atlanta communities. We welcome you to reach out and schedule a conversation about your family’s specific situation. Every family is different, and the right plan starts with understanding yours.

FAQs About Sandy Springs Estate Planning for Parents of College-Age Children

Does my child need a will if they are only 18 and just starting college?

Yes, and the reason is simpler than most people think. Once your child turns 18, they are a legal adult under Georgia law. Any property in their name, including a car, savings account, or personal belongings, is governed by Georgia’s intestacy laws if they die without a will. A basic will lets them direct where those assets go and avoids any involvement of the probate court for assets that qualify. It also gives them the chance to name an executor they trust. Getting this done before they leave for school is a smart, low-cost step.

Can I access my college student’s bank account in an emergency without a power of attorney?

Not unless you are already a joint account holder. Once your child turns 18, any account in their name alone is legally theirs. If they become incapacitated and have not signed a durable financial power of attorney naming you as their agent under O.C.G.A. Chapter 6B of Title 10, you would need to petition a Georgia court for a conservatorship to manage their finances. That process takes time, costs money, and can be avoided entirely with a properly drafted power of attorney signed before the problem arises.

What is a HIPAA authorization form and why does my college student need one?

A HIPAA authorization form is a signed document in which your student gives specific people, such as you as their parent, permission to receive their protected health information from doctors, hospitals, and other providers. Federal HIPAA law treats adults as the sole controllers of their own medical information. Without a signed authorization naming you, a hospital is legally prohibited from sharing your child’s diagnosis, treatment, or condition with you, even in a serious emergency. This form is separate from a healthcare power of attorney and works alongside it to give you full access when it matters most.

How does Georgia’s Path2College 529 Plan affect my estate plan?

Contributions to a Georgia Path2College 529 account are treated as completed gifts for federal gift tax purposes, which means they remove assets from your taxable estate. Georgia also allows a state income tax deduction of up to $4,000 per beneficiary per year for single filers, or $8,000 for married couples filing jointly. For estate planning purposes, you can also use five-year gift tax averaging to contribute a larger lump sum upfront without triggering gift taxes. Additionally, under the SECURE 2.0 Act, unused 529 funds may be eligible for rollover into a Roth IRA for the beneficiary after 15 years, subject to annual limits. How a 529 fits into your overall plan depends on your assets, goals, and family situation.

When should I update my own estate plan as my children head to college?

The transition to college is one of the best times to review your entire estate plan. Your financial picture has likely changed since you last updated your documents. You may have acquired new property, grown your retirement accounts, or taken on new financial obligations. Your beneficiary designations on life insurance policies and retirement accounts should reflect your current intentions. Your will or revocable trust should account for the possibility that you pass away while your child is still in school. Slowik Estate Planning recommends a comprehensive review any time a major life event occurs, and sending a child to college absolutely qualifies as one.

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