It's a proud moment.

It's also a legal turning point that many families don't fully appreciate.

When your child turns 18, they become a legal adult. While that birthday may not feel much different than the day before, the law sees it very differently. As a parent, you generally no longer have automatic authority to access your child's medical information, communicate with their college about certain records, or manage financial matters on their behalf.

Most parents don't discover this until they're faced with an emergency.

That's why one of the most important conversations you can have before your child leaves for college has nothing to do with class schedules, meal plans, or dorm essentials. It has to do with making sure a few key legal documents are in place before they're needed.

AN ADVANCE HEALTH CARE DIRECTIVE GIVES SOMEONE A VOICE IN AN EMERGENCY

Imagine receiving a phone call that your child has been seriously injured in an accident hundreds of miles from home.

While many families focus on education savings accounts, scholarships, and student loans, there is another option that is often overlooked: a Section 127 Educational Assistance Plan.

When properly structured, a Section 127 Educational Assistance Plan may allow a business to provide up to $5,250 per year in tax-free educational assistance to eligible employees. For some business owners, that employee may include an adult child who works in the family business.

Here's what you need to know.

WHAT IS A SECTION 127 EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE PLAN?

Section 127 of the Internal Revenue Code allows employers to establish educational assistance programs for employees.

Under current federal law, employers may provide up to $5,250 per employee, per year in qualified educational assistance that is generally excluded from the employee's taxable income while remaining deductible to the business as an ordinary business expense.

What would happen to my business if I couldn't come back?

Not "what happens if I'm offline for a week," because you have an out-of-office for that. But what if something actually happened? A car accident on a mountain road. A medical emergency. Something that kept you genuinely, unexpectedly unavailable: not for a few days, but for weeks. Months. Longer.

Most business owners push that thought away and turn up the music. But if you are reading this, you might be ready to actually answer it.

BEING OFFLINE AND BEING UNAVAILABLE ARE NOT THE SAME THING

An out-of-office message is a plan for inconvenience. It says: I am temporarily unreachable. Here is who to contact. I will be back on Monday.

A business continuity plan is a plan for a real emergency. It says: if something happens to me, here is who has legal authority to act on behalf of this business, here is how they access the accounts, here is what decisions need to be made, and by whom.

What that means is that they would have to go to court to get access to your financial accounts, be able to pay your bills, and make financial decisions when you can’t. 

We've seen this happen far too often. We've gotten calls from clients' adult children who are standing at a bank counter, valid POA in hand, being told the document is "too old" or that the bank has its own form. By the time anyone calls me, they're in crisis mode, and the options are much more limited than they would have been six months earlier.

Our job is to make sure that never happens to your family.

WHAT WE SEE WHEN THE PLAN ISN'T COMPLETE

Here's the scenario we hear most often. A parent has a stroke. The adult child, named as an agent on a durable POA for years, goes to the bank to pay bills, cover care expenses, and keep the household running.

Mid-May is a natural pause point. Q2 is not over yet. Summer has not fully taken hold. You still have time to catch and fix the things that are easier to address now than in December.

Here are five things worth reviewing before summer arrives.

1. YOUR ESTIMATED TAX PAYMENT: THE JUNE 15 DEADLINE MOST OWNERS MISS

If you are self-employed, an S-Corp owner, or running a partnership, you may be responsible for paying estimated taxes on a quarterly basis. The Q2 payment covers income earned April 1 through May 31, and it is due June 15, 2026.

Many business owners underpay, or miss it entirely, and discover the consequences when they file in April. Choosing not to pay quarterlies may be a wise cash flow management strategy, but it’s one you should choose with your eyes wide open, not because you didn’t think about it or overlooked making the payment. 

In all events, this is the moment to review your Q2 earnings, compare against what you paid in Q1, and confirm you are on track to hit your financial goals. If the numbers have shifted, talk to your accountant now, and bring your legal advisor in if they point to the need for a structural change.

What they rarely picture is what happens in the days and weeks before anyone can act: while the courts sort it out, while the family waits, while everything that was carefully built sits in limbo.

Tony Hsieh spent his career building things that worked. He turned a struggling online shoe company into a billion-dollar brand and wrote a bestselling book about it: Delivering Happiness. He spent his career publicly, vocally devoted to the idea that joy was something you could design, build, and give to people. And then he left the people he loved with one of the most painful, chaotic estate situations in recent memory.

He never built a plan for what would happen when he was gone.

When Tony died on November 27, 2020, at 46, in a house fire in New London, Connecticut, he left behind an estate estimated in the hundreds of millions. He also left behind no will, no trust, and no instructions for the people who loved him.

What his family inherited instead was a legal crisis that would play out in courtrooms and headlines for years. And the hardest part? None of it had to happen. Not a single day of it.

An estate plan ensures any medical decisions needed while away from home  will be handled according to your wishes, and with as much ease as possible, no matter what the rules are where something happens. If you fall ill or become injured and can’t make medical decisions for yourself, your estate plan will ensure that decisions will be made by the person you choose, and with your indicated desires for your care at the forefront.

Without an estate plan in place, your family or friends could have a heavy lift to get you back home, locate your assets, keep your bills paid, and even ensure your children get taken care of by the right people in the right way.

Lastly, an estate plan ensures that any debts or liabilities are taken care of properly in case something happens while on vacation. This can help prevent creditors from trying to collect from surviving family members after the fact — something no one wants to deal with during such a difficult time.

Most business owners do what you’re about to do: file it, pay it, move on. But before you do, there’s a second look worth taking. Because what your numbers are telling you right now is exactly what you need to act on, and the window to act is shorter than most people realize.

WHAT YOUR RETURN IS REALLY TELLING YOU (MOST OWNERS NEVER ASK)

Before you close out the tax year and shift your attention forward, look at your return not as a compliance document but as a business diagnostic.

A few questions worth sitting with right now:

• Did your profit look the way you expected? If not, where did the gap come from?
• Did you pay more in self-employment or payroll taxes than you expected? That number is a direct indicator of whether your entity structure is right for your revenue level.
• Were there expenses you couldn’t fully deduct because they weren’t structured or documented correctly?
• Did you have income you weren’t financially prepared for or losses that caught you off guard?

And a story that's been playing out in the courts since 2022 shows exactly what that looks like up close.

When actress Anne Heche died following a car accident in August 2022, she left behind an estate with about $110,000 in assets and more than $6 million in creditor claims, incomplete financial records, and a son in his early twenties who suddenly found himself appointed by a court to sort it all out. As of early 2026, that estate is still not closed. Nearly four years later, the family is still in the middle of it.

That's what happens without a plan. And the good news is, it doesn't have to happen to yours. Here's what this story reveals about poor recordkeeping, the burden placed on young adults, what creditors can do to an unprotected estate, and why the right planning makes all the difference.

IS YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE A MYSTERY, EVEN TO YOU?

One of the most quietly devastating details in the Heche story is this: her son Homer couldn't account for all of her assets and income because the records simply weren't there.

One option you might be considering for protecting your assets from these events is a prenuptial agreement.

However, even bringing up a prenup can be a romance killer that creates friction and distrust before the marriage even begins. And if it’s not properly created and executed, a divorce court can invalidate the asset protections offered by a prenup, so such agreements don’t exactly provide airtight protection.

Plus, a prenup would do nothing to keep your family out of court and out of conflict should you become incapacitated or when you die, which is something everyone who gets married needs to consider.

That said, prenups aren’t your only option. With proactive estate planning, for example, you can structure your assets in such a way that not only protects them from being lost to divorce, but also provides for both your future spouse and any children you may have from a previous marriage in the event of your death or incapacity.