They're off to college! Millions of teenagers are headed back to college or on their way there for the first time to develop the skills needed to lead productive lives. They're on their own and, in their eyes, grown-up adults. If only.

We've all been teenagers, and some did risky things and survived. Not everyone survived, however. I thought about this after reading a sobering article in The New Yorker as summer drew to a close. It discussed the neuroscience of the unfinished adolescent brain. The bottom line: We're not fully wired in our teen years, making us do things our adult selves would blanch at.

For example, we all have heard the stories about students who live off campus and host a liquor-fueled party where walls are punched in or someone is injured on the premises or in an automobile accident afterwards. The resulting consequence is often a lawsuit. In addition, when the parents are of significant means, such cases may unduly target them, based on the plaintiff attorney's perceptions of their greater wealth and inclination to settle. By the time a case is settled, the full policy limits of all involved parties may be exhausted in the settlement.