Jerry Taylor warns that at 18, children legally become adults and parents lose access to medical, school, and banking information. Scammers target newly-legal young adults with credit card and loan offers, exploiting their pristine credit. Parents should prepare legal documents before the 18th birthday to maintain authority in emergencies.
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When your child turns 18, it's really like flipping a switch. Doctors, schools, banks, they can all shut you out. At 18, in almost every state, your child becomes a legal adult. They start getting credit card offers flooding into their mailbox along with student loan applications. Every bank in town wants their business, and your child begins building their own credit. They're making financial decisions on their own, and this makes them a perfect target for scammers. Identity theft is a big one because scammers know that they're inexperienced and their credit is wide open. Somebody opens a credit card in their name and then their credit is destroyed before they even begin building it. And then on top of that, you discover that you can't do anything legally to help them out. Banks won't talk to you because you have no legal standing to intervene and your child has no idea what to do, so it can quickly become worse. But if you act before they turn 18, you can put documents in place that would allow you to help them in those situations. In the Life Event Kit, there's a section that explains exactly what a parent needs to do. Before your child turns 18 and becomes a legal adult. Comment the word free, I'll send it to you. Go to the link in my bio and you can get it.
