Popularity of baby names and legal matters

Choosing baby’s name can be daunting, but there are some tools that can help you find out the popularity of baby names you are considering. And there are other important legal and financial things to take care of once baby is born. This page provides you some resources to make sure you don’t miss any important things.

Popularity of baby names

Deciding on the newborn’s name can be daunting for parents to be. The Social Security Administration’s statistics website provides a pretty cool tool that lets you browse common names by year. It also lets you look up how common a specific name was each year since 1900, which we found very useful to pick less common names that used to be more popular: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/.

Apply for a birth certificate

If you give birth at a hospital, the “Birth Certificate” department will provide you a birth certificate worksheet and you’ll need to provide baby’s name, the names of mom and dad, an address and (optional) statistical information. After the hospital registers the birth with your state’s birth record agency and the filing has been processed, you can obtain a legal birth certificate from that agency usually a few weeks after birth.

Apply for a Social Security Number

The hospital will usually offer to apply for a Social Security Number for your baby. If you opt to do that, the hospital handles it for you and you should receive your baby’s Social Security card in your mail a few weeks after the birth. If you opt not to, you can also apply for one later with the Social Security Administration, but it might take longer. This brochure has information how to do it: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10023.pdf.

Add baby to your health insurance

Once your baby is born, hospitals and doctors will charge for your newborn for care provided such as pediatric exams provided in the hospital before discharge. You need to add your baby to your health insurance plan to ensure these charges are coverage from birth. You typically only have 30 days after your baby is born to do that, but you should contact your health insurance prior to birth to confirm the process and timing how to add your baby to your plan.

Reevaluate your life insurance

In case you die or your partner dies, the surviving parent will have to raise the child on their own. Apart from the emotional struggle of such a tragedy, the surviving parent could also struggle financially with supporting the family. To mitigate this, you should reevaluate your life insurance coverage. If you already have life insurance, it may be worthwhile to increase it, or in case you don’t have one yet now is the time to start one for you and one for your partner.

Add baby as a beneficiary to all your financial accounts

Once your baby is born, you should go through your financial accounts and add your newborn as a beneficiary to all of them to avoid potential issues with inheritance later. For your 401K and life insurance plans, it is usually best to have your partner as the primary beneficiary and your child as a secondary beneficiary. That way the surviving parent will receive all funds and be able to access them. For bank accounts it is usually best to have accounts jointly owned by both parents so the surviving parent won’t lose access to funds while the inheritance process is ongoing. Also, some states (e.g., Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey and Pennsylvania) have an inheritance tax that could apply to not jointly owned accounts. TurboTax provides some useful information on inheritance tax here: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/estates/what-are-inheritance-taxes/L93IUc3sC.

Be careful with setting up a 529 tuition plan

Some parents want to start saving for college as soon as their baby is born. If you can afford and plan to do that, a 529 plan may allow deducting contributions and shield interest accrued over the years from income tax, but benefits vary by state and having a 529 plan in your child’s name could negatively affect your child’s eligibility to need-based financial aid for college. So, make sure you understand the tax benefits in your state as well as disadvantages and limitations that come with a 529 plan before committing to any. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has more information on 529 plans here: https://www.investor.gov/additional-resources/news-alerts/alerts-bulletins/investor-bulletin-introduction-529-plans.

Write a will to determine a guardian for your baby

You should write a will that determines who will take care of your child (or children) in case something happens to you and your partner. Without a will, a judge would assign a guardian to your child that may not be who you would have chosen. A will gives you the chance to determine the guardian that you want. If you are worried the guardian might spend your inheritance before your child reaches adulthood, you can even appoint a separate custodian for the property that is different from the guardian. When writing a will, it’s important that you and your partner both name the same guardians and custodians in your wills so there is no contradiction. If you already have a will, check that it includes guardians for your newborn. We highly recommend you use the will template from your state when writing your will. That way you are sure you follow the requirements and form required in your state so that your will is valid and recognized. You can write your will yourself, or use an online service to such as https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/state-requirements-for-a-last-will or https://eforms.com/wills/. These sites can help you select the correct forms and guide you through the process.

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