As your special needs child turns 18, you need to name advocates to act as her voice on financial, legal, and health care matters. See my post on the need for a guardianship or a Durable Power of Attorney and Health Care Proxy.
The big question is who to name to act as the agent under these different documents. While your first impulse will of course be to name yourself – after all, you’ve been acting in this role since she was born – you may want to give this more thought.
Some parents – and adult children – prefer to give authority over finances and legal affairs to someone other than the parents, perhaps an aunt, uncle, cousin, or even a lawyer. Sometimes letting someone else handle the money – having another person say “no” to requests – takes the pressure out of the family relationship and lets parents and kids just enjoy each other. Many families do, however, prefer to keep health care decisions within the family unit.