Launching the High School Graduate

It’s a spring ritual. The entrances to many subdivisions will sport graduation banners trumpeting the names of the community’s high school graduates. For parents and grandparents alike, it’s an exercise in wondering how little ones grew up so fast! Grow they did, and grow they will.  As they celebrate their 18^th birthday, we hope and pray that they will advance in wisdom and make good choices in life.

 From a financial planning standpoint, they still depend largely on the Bank of Mom and Dad. Recognize, however, in Georgia and 42 other states the age of majority is 18. In six states the age of majority is 18 or upon graduation from high school; in Alabama, age 19. As an adult, your graduate should have a will, even if he or she owns very little. In the event of a fatal accident or illness, an intestacy proceeding is heartbreaking and irksome.

 Recognize that once they are deemed adults, health care providers may not share health related information with parents, unless a parent has a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care signed by the adult child appointing mom and/or dad as their agent empowered to make health care decisions if they cannot. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), bars doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers from disclosing information about a person’s health or medical condition without express permission. Your relationship to the patient is irrelevant. Unless you have a Power of Attorney with HIPAA provisions, no health information will be shared. Without documentation, with a sick or hurt adult child away at school or traveling on a break, parents could encounter potentially disastrous delays in getting proper care.

 As of October 2012, roughly 66% of high school graduates were enrolled in a college or university, according to government data. On average, only 55.5% of those studying for a Bachelor’s degree, finish—and it may take six years at that! Is your budget for four years, or will your student take longer? Will he or she finish?

Further, school counselors report that 75% of students change their majors after they enter college. Perhaps the extra courses required after a change account for students staying beyond four years. Another factor may be the dizzying number of majors now available. One large state university offers 251 different majors! Can you imagine a restaurant menu with over 200 choices?

 Parents might help their student make better choices and spend education dollars more wisely through some unique diagnostic testing and counseling. There are three parts to the human mind, separate domains for thinking, feeling, and doing. We often strive to measure the thinking part (cognitive), and feeling or personality (affective). Often overlooked is the conative, or “doing” part of the mind. Conative governs the striving instincts that drive one’s natural way of taking action, their modus operandi (MO). Your child has a unique set of innate strengths and talents that have remained unchanged since birth. Understanding one’s unique MO is invaluable in making career choices or selecting the educational path to follow.

 Maria C. Forbes is a Kolbe™ certified consultant in Johns Creek, GA, who uses scientifically proven diagnostics pioneered by Kathy Kolbe to map out an individual’s natural instincts, their unique MO. A Kolbe A assessment identifies how your son or daughter will be most productive. A supplemental report to the Kolbe A Index result, the Career MO+, identifies jobs and careers that fit a person’s MO. The conative part of your student’s brain is a powerful mental resource that with understanding and the exercise of control, gives them the freedom to be their authentic selves, vastly improving success metrics. It also can enhance the prospect that educational dollars will be more wisely spent!

 You may contact Maria Forbes at www.firepowerteams.com. Many parents are committed to financing some or all of a four-year undergraduate education. Six years, and changing majors?  Not so much!

Lewis Walker is President of Walker Capital Management LLC. and Walker Capital Advisory Services, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor (R.I.A.) Securities and certain advisory services offered through The Strategic Financial Alliance, Inc. (SFA).  Lewis Walker is a registered representative of SFA which is otherwise unaffiliated with the Walker Capital Companies. ▪  3930 East Jones Bridge Road ▪ Suite 150 ▪ Peachtree Corners, GA 30092 ▪ 770-441-2603 ▪ lewisw@theinvestmentcoach.com