Mississippi: your 18-year-old’s paperwork

1. What you’ll sign

• Health care form (Mississippi advance health care directive): names who can make medical choices if your child can’t.
• Financial form (Mississippi financial power of attorney (fill-in guide)): names who can handle money, bills and accounts.
• HIPAA release: lets doctors talk to the people your child names. It shares information. It doesn’t give anyone decisions.
• FERPA consent: lets the college share records, like grades or bills, with the people your child names.

2. Step-by-step checklist

Health care form

• Choose one: two adult witnesses OR a Mississippi notary.
• Witnesses can't be health care workers or the person named. At least one witness can't be a relative or someone who would inherit.

Financial form

• Mississippi sets no signing rule. We suggest a notary.
• The form needs words saying it keeps working if your child becomes too sick to act.

HIPAA and FERPA forms

• Your child signs and dates each one.
• No witnesses or notary needed.
• Many colleges and doctors want their own form. Ask first.

Signing online

• Plan on signing in person. We're confirming whether online options work for these forms.

What to bring

• ☐ Your child's current photo ID.
• ☐ The forms, printed and not signed yet.
• ☐ Everyone who needs to be there: your child, the witnesses, and the notary if needed.
• ☐ Names, addresses and phone numbers for the people being named and their backups.
• ☐ A black pen. Ask the notary about the fee before you go.

3. Watch out

Watch out: Age: adulthood in Mississippi is 21 for most things. Check with a Mississippi lawyer before signing the financial form at 18.

Watch out: In-state notary: use a Mississippi notary for the health care form.

4. After you sign

Make copies

• ☐ Make paper copies of every signed form.
• ☐ Scan each form to a PDF, or take clear phone photos of every page.
• ☐ Keep the originals together in a safe, easy-to-find place, like a folder at home. Don't lock them where no one can reach them in an emergency.

Who gets a copy

• ☐ Your child.
• ☐ Each parent or person named as an agent, plus any backups.
• ☐ Your child's main doctor.
• ☐ The campus health center.
• ☐ Your child's bank, for the financial form.

Turn in the school and doctor forms

• ☐ FERPA: give it to the college registrar's office. Ask if they want their own form or a setting in the student portal instead.
• ☐ HIPAA: give it to your child's doctors and the campus health center. Ask them to put it in your child's file.
• ☐ Ask each office to confirm they got it.

Keep them handy

• ☐ Save the PDFs to your phone and a cloud folder the named people can open.
• ☐ Put a wallet card in your child's wallet. List who to call and where the papers are.
• ☐ Add the named people as emergency contacts in your child's phone.

When to review or redo

• ☐ Your child moves to a new state or starts a new school.
• ☐ Your child wants to change who is named.
• ☐ The HIPAA release hits its end date. Set a reminder.
• ☐ Every few years, even if nothing changes. A once-a-year look is a good habit.

How to cancel or replace them

• ☐ Your child can cancel a form at any time while they can still decide for themselves.
• ☐ Tell everyone who has a copy, in writing, that the old form is canceled.
• ☐ Get the old copies back or destroy them.
• ☐ Sign a new form the same way as the first one, with the same witnesses or notary rules.

Some Mississippi details are still being checked. Where you see “we’re confirming this,” ask the notary, the state, or a lawyer before you rely on it.

Sources

• [PRIMARY: Mississippi Legislature enrolled act] cross-checked with Miss. Code §41-41-209 (Form for Advance Health-Care Directive: "The following form may be used"), text as enacted by Laws 2005, ch. 472, §5 (S.B. 2420, sent-to-Governor version on the Mississippi Legislature bill site) — https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2005/pdf/SB/2400-2499/SB2420SG.pdf (Section 5 of S.B. 2420, 2005 Regular Session = Laws 2005, ch. 472)
• Miss. Code §41-41-205 (execution, witnesses, notary) — https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-41/chapter-41/uniform-health-care-decisions-act/section-41-41-205/
• Miss. Code §41-41-203 (definitions: adult = 18+) — https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-41/chapter-41/uniform-health-care-decisions-act/section-41-41-203/
• S.B. 2420 (2005) bill status (Laws 2005 ch. 472) — https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2005/pdf/history/SB/SB2420.htm
• Miss. Code §87-3-105 (durable power of attorney wording) — https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-87/chapter-3/uniform-durable-power-of-attorney-act/section-87-3-105/
• Miss. Code §1-3-27 (minor; contract carve-out at 18), as amended by S.B. 2073 (2023) — https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2023/html/SB/2001-2099/SB2073PS.htm
• Federal: 45 CFR 164.508 (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/section-164.508); 34 CFR 99.30 (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-34/section-99.30).

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