Home > Journals > WMLR > Vol. 68 (2026-2027) > Iss. 1 (2026)
William & Mary Law Review
Abstract
“Happy 18th birthday! Now sign this power of attorney.” Parents of college-bound children are increasingly being coached to say this to their newly adult children, urged on by influencers and affiliate marketers in Facebook groups for parents whose children are heading off to college. Companies market document packages— including a FERPA waiver, a HIPAA authorization, and healthcare and financial powers of attorney—warning that without these documents, parents will be legally shut out of their child’s life the moment the child turns eighteen. The document package is relatively inexpensive and designed to be executed without a lawyer. Parents are urged to download the forms online and present them to their children to sign with little discussion and no attorney involvement.
What these young adults are signing, however, has significant legal ramifications. The document package effectively reverses the legal effect of reaching the age of majority, giving parents access to educational and medical records, authority to make healthcare decisions, and even the power to incur debt that the young adult will be responsible to repay. Most eighteen-year-olds who sign have little idea what they are agreeing to. They sign because their parents ask them to, often alongside the FAFSA and other forms that college requires.
The use of private agreements to extend adolescent dependency into legal adulthood is self-contradictory. The documents are enforceable precisely because the law recognizes the young adult as capable of making legally binding decisions, but the implicit (and sometimes explicit) message is “just sign—your parents know best.” This Article proposes three reforms to address this contradiction: first, mandatory plain-language disclosures that enable young adults to exercise genuine informed consent; second, automatic expiration by age twenty-six, if not revoked sooner; and third, limiting the financial power of attorney to prohibit parents from unilaterally incurring debt that their child would be obligated to repay. These measures cannot substitute for individualized legal advice, but they can help ensure that young adults who sign away the legal incidents of adulthood understand what they are giving up.